Marked for Eddy Mammadov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Oct 2026
Khazar refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 15 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.50 for the rest of it.
Squad19 Oct 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 Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Beka Dartsmelia 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 ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tamkin Amirguliyev, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Khazar
Agil Ismayilov 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Beka Dartsmelia 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Gabala left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Khazar heard it as anything else.
Market14 Sep 2026
The name of Javid Dadashov has come up in conversations Khazar were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match12 Sep 2026
Three points for Khazar, 3‑2 the final word against Ravan in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tamkin Amirguliyev 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.40 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.29 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Gabala to sit and watch. I want to come back to Khazar and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
In brief
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Player ratings
Agil Ismayilov runs at them all day
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Squad
The division's best last weekend was a Khazar man
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Market
The window shut and Maksim Sadygov is still in the building
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Agil Ismayilov takes the afternoon — 9.29
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Agil Ismayilov provided it, and the 9.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market31 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Khazar can pretend not to have heard.
Match29 Aug 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Khazar and Inter in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match29 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Agil Ismayilov. 4‑2 against Inter, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Beka Dartsmelia 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Rufat Khalilzade 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
Khazar say no — this time
The offer from Maccabi Tel Aviv for Agil Ismayilov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market24 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Khazar
Beka Dartsmelia 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tamkin Amirguliyev 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Agil Ismayilov
“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
Triumph
Match15 Aug 2026
4‑1, and Agil Ismayilov took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Khazar tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Agil Ismayilov takes the afternoon — 8.82
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Agil Ismayilov provided it, and the 8.82 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market17 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Khazar have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Rufat Abdullayev, 33, rolls back the years — 7.80
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Khazar
Eddy Medvedev 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
3 academy players handed senior numbers at Khazar
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Beka Dartsmelia 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Khazar say no — this time
The offer from AE Kition for Kamran Mammadov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad3 Aug 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 Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.