Marked for Maxim Suprun
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Redvan Osmanov
131 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sevastopol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Amet Dugu in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevastopol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Yury Maximov at his very best
Marked 9.17. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sevastopol.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A performance of 9.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ivan Alferov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match21 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yury Maximov. 2‑0 against Nart, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Maxim Suprun
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad23 Nov 2026
6 goals and a season average of 7.40. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
Serafim Abzalilov damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 5 of the 21 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Artem Stepanovich was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match24 Oct 2026
Dinamo Stavropol left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Maxim Suprun
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
Serafim Abzalilov damages knee ligaments — 65 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 65 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match21 Sep 2026
Sevastopol refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 17 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 5 of the 21 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevastopol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxim Suprun, and the manager let it.
Match19 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Sochi 2, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Sevastopol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bekkhan Aliev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market21 Sep 2026
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Nikolay Kostadinov is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad10 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Serafim Abzalilov
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sevastopol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Redvan Osmanov yet — 8.01
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
24 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Artem Stepanovich was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match8 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Redvan Osmanov. 1‑0 against Legion, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Artem Stepanovich at his very best
Marked 8.31. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sevastopol.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sevastopol, another week without a signature from Maxim Suprun.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
5‑1, and Bekkhan Aliev took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Sevastopol tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Bekkhan Aliev takes the afternoon — 8.81
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bekkhan Aliev provided it, and the 8.81 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market3 Aug 2026
Boris Bely hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sevastopol can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Redvan Osmanov commits to Sevastopol for another 2 years.
Match1 Aug 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Sevastopol and Kuban Holding in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Vladislav Kucheiko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Artem Stepanovich falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 8.80 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Yury Yakunin again, and this time the name on the line is Strogino. Sevastopol are listening politely and promising nothing.