Marked for Islom Urunov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Nov 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Dostonbek Ahmedov 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.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Obod, another week without a signature from Rustam Ismailov.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Sep 2026
Mirzo Ganiev 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 Obod can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Sep 2026
52 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match5 Sep 2026
Jasur Ismailov among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Jasur Ismailov on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Obod and Kokand 1912.
Match5 Sep 2026
Kokand 1912 left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Obod training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mirzo Ganiev 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Islom Urunov gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Doniyor Hasanov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.43. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad7 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 Obod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2026
A hiding for Obod
Beaten 1‑6 by Bunyodkor, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match12 Aug 2026
The small margins put Obod out
Out, 2‑5 to Pakhtakor, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
A cup hiding at Pakhtakor leaves Obod explaining themselves
2-5, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Market17 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A first appearance Sherzod Suyunov will want to forget — 5.76
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.76, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Match15 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for Obod
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Obod are no longer polite ones.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mirzo Ganiev 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 Obod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
Jasur Ismailov among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Jasur Ismailov on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Obod and Bunyodkor.