Marked for Odil Fayzullaev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Nov 2028
Rustam Ganiev damages knee ligaments — 73 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdulla Suyunov is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Everybody at Obod saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 33 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Obod training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilhomjon Kenjayev 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.
Market13 Nov 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Aziz Mirzaev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
Odil Fayzullaev asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Oct 2028
The season ends: position 16 for Obod
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 14 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Obod have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Filip Jović and Obod agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Oct 2028
A falling-out at Obod
Doniyor Ismailov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Oct 2028
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
This is not rotation. Timur Nematov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Obod is pretending otherwise.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Home is on Igor's mind
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Obod are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match7 Oct 2028
A goal on 93 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Market9 Oct 2028
Igor told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Igor has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Obod.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Jun 2028
It had gone 26 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
$1.0M settles it between the clubs for Islom Kenjaboyev
Qizilqum have accepted the money. What Obod do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market26 Jun 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Obod, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
The deal with Andijon is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
The offer went to Nasaf this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Tempers go at Obod
Doniyor Ismailov 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.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Nasaf wanted more than $130.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
The terraces26 Jun 2028
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match24 Jun 2028
Three points for Obod, 1‑0 the final word against Navbahor in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Jun 2028
The wait goes on for Obod
25 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The terraces12 Jun 2028
Anger at Obod spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market12 Jun 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Obod can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
The offer went to Qizilqum this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
Everything agreed with Lokomotiv, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Doniyor Ismailov commits to Obod for another 3 years.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
$170.0K on the table at Lokomotiv. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings12 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces4 Oct 2027
The mood at Obod has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad4 Oct 2027
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Obod lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A fracture rules Bobur Hasanov out for 127 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Obod will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match2 Oct 2027
The wait goes on for Obod
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Dušan Puletić commits to Obod for another 2 years.
Match2 Oct 2027
Obod come up short against Andijon
Andijon left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Obod
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilhomjon Kenjayev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Abdulla Komilov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces19 Apr 2027
The mood at Obod has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match17 Apr 2027
The wait goes on for Obod
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market19 Apr 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Obod, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match17 Apr 2027
5 matches without a goal for Obod
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Obod
Abdulla Suyunov 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.
Match17 Apr 2027
A bad afternoon for Obod against Nasaf
0‑1 to Nasaf, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad19 Apr 2027
The medical room confirms 39 days on the sidelines for Sardor Shomurodov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Abdulla Komilov left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Odil Fayzullaev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces22 Mar 2027
The mood at Obod has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Obod have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match20 Mar 2027
The wait goes on for Obod
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match20 Mar 2027
A bad afternoon for Obod against Shortan
0‑1 to Shortan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Abdulla Komilov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad22 Mar 2027
At 39 he has taken a place rather than been given one, and somebody else has to find something to say about it. Obod have a decision that made itself.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Azizbek Odilov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.