Marked for Eldor Urunov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces21 Aug 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market21 Aug 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Tempers go at Obod
Dostonbek Ahmedov 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Odil 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.
Match19 Aug 2028
A bad afternoon for Obod against AGMK
1‑2 to AGMK, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Aug 2028
“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 ratings21 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market21 Aug 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rustam Tukhtasinov signs something — a contract at Obod or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
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.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Odil 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.
Match5 Aug 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Rustam Tukhtasinov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Obod.
Loan watch7 Aug 2028
“I did not go to Metallurg to sit and watch. I want to come back to Obod and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Tempers go at Obod
Ulug'bek Xoliqov 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.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Marked 8.84 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Marked 8.56. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Obod.
Squad7 Aug 2028
A season average of 7.21 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Jul 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Tempers go at Obod
Dostonbek Ahmedov 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.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Odil 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.
Match8 Jul 2028
Mashal made Obod work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.97, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad10 Jul 2028
“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.
Market10 Jul 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dostonbek Ahmedov signs something — a contract at Obod or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad10 Jul 2028
The plan did not have a place for Farhod Akhmedov
Nobody at Obod is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Jun 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Tempers go at Obod
Dostonbek Ahmedov 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.
Match10 Jun 2028
Obod come up short against Bukhara
Bukhara left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Obod training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Islom Akhmedov 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Farhod Akhmedov, and the manager let it.
Market12 Jun 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Vlatko Stojanovski’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Feb 2028
118 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Obod lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Feb 2028
A fracture rules Ulugbek Suyunov out for 26 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.
Market21 Feb 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Jan 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Tempers go at Obod
Dostonbek Ahmedov 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 Jan 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ulug'bek Xoliqov and Obod agree another 3 years.
In brief
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Squad
Odil Ahmedov falls out with a teammate over standards
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Squad
8 new faces, and Obod are still learning each other
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Market
The shop window has Eldor Urunov in it
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market27 Dec 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.
Market27 Dec 2027
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad27 Dec 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
Shohruh Shomurodov damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Match15 Feb 2027
Obod sink to position 16
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Dec 2026
Obod sink to position 16
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Eldor Urunov: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Market21 Dec 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.