The AZAL Courier
Squad17 Aug 2026
Bahlul Ismayilov damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Kapaz come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AZAL did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
AZAL sell a favourite for $330.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Eddy Ozobic was one of the reasons people came, and $330.0K does not replace that by itself.
Market17 Aug 2026
Maksim Sadygov attracts admirers
The name of Maksim Sadygov has come up in conversations AZAL were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Javid Abdullayev 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 AZAL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
Business is business: Eddy Ozobic goes
Neftchi paid $330.0K and AZAL took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Graduation day at AZAL
2 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at AZAL training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taneli Hämäläinen 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Shahriyar Ismayilov out for 46 days
The medical room confirms 46 days on the sidelines for Shahriyar Ismayilov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
In brief
- Market One of our own: Mahir Nazarov joins the AZAL first team
- Match AZAL and Khazar take a point apiece
- Boardroom No investment in the facilities at AZAL