Marked for Shahriyar Amirguliyev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Ravan's wait for a win
16 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ravan has to find a result from somewhere.
Market23 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Ravan
Badhuga 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Luka Badžim 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Zira take the points off Ravan
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Badhuga knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Badhuga trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market23 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ravan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 8. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Ravan's wait for a win
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ravan has to find a result from somewhere.
Market9 Nov 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 The request is on a desk at Ravan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Ravan
Vugar Ismayilov 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Luka Badžim 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Luka Badžim knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ravan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Ravan's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ravan has to find a result from somewhere.
Match24 Oct 2026
Chastening afternoon for Ravan
A 1‑5 beating by Neftchi was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad26 Oct 2026
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.
Market26 Oct 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Luka Badžim 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 Ravan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Oct 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Ravan and Neftchi in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Namig Mammadov
“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.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
Doors closed at Ravan
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Ravan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Renat Abdullayev 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
There were 9 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.
Match9 Sep 2026
The cup run ends for Ravan
0‑1 against Kapaz, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Ravan
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.
Market14 Sep 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 Ravan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Sep 2026
29 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Luka Badžim 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Owen Pereira 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 Ravan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ravan and Khazar take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ravan taken apart
0‑9 to Qarabag, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Ravan
Vugar Ismayilov 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
9 goals as Ravan and Qarabag go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Ravan and Qarabag, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
3 academy players handed senior numbers at Ravan
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Luka Badžim 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Agil Ozobic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.