Marked for Eldor Ismailov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Obod, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match29 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for Obod
6 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Akmal Komilov, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match29 Aug 2026
Obod leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Dostonbek Tursunov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Obod have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Eldor Ismailov 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Lokomotiv left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Umid Komilov 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Umid Komilov
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Aug 2026
A hiding for Obod
Beaten 0‑5 by Neftchi, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market10 Aug 2026
Akmal Komilov 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Pakhtakor come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Obod did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sherzod Tukhtasinov and Obod agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Obod
Sherzod Tukhtasinov 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Eldor Ismailov 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eldor Ismailov, and the manager let it.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Obod dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Obod deserved better, and so did he.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Aug 2026
Nowhere to hide for Obod
0‑6 against Sogdiana, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market3 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 Obod can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Aug 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 terraces3 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
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 Obod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Aug 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Obod and Sogdiana in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jaloliddin Ganiev and Obod agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Nodir Nematov 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Akmal Masharipov again, and this time the name on the line is Metallurg. Obod are listening politely and promising nothing.