Marked for Namig Mammadov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Dec 2027
The wait goes on for AZAL
38 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.
Match13 Dec 2027
AZAL are in real trouble now
Position 10, 2 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market13 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 The request is on a desk at AZAL, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 Dec 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AZAL may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad13 Dec 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Richard Ismayilov commits to AZAL for another 3 years.
Match11 Dec 2027
AZAL leaking at the back
5 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.
Squad13 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 AZAL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Namig Mammadov pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Match11 Dec 2027
Gabala take the points off AZAL
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Oct 2027
The wait goes on for AZAL
32 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.
Match30 Oct 2027
AZAL taken apart
0‑5 to Neftchi, 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market1 Nov 2027
Masoud Fahed 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 AZAL can pretend not to have heard.
Match30 Oct 2027
The goals have deserted AZAL
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AZAL can tell you which week it ends in.
Match30 Oct 2027
AZAL leaking at the back
5 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.
Squad1 Nov 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 AZAL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Rahid Ramazanov
“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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
“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; AZAL are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Oct 2027
The wait goes on for AZAL
30 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match18 Oct 2027
Every point is an argument now for AZAL
Position 10 and 1 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market18 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad18 Oct 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 AZAL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match16 Oct 2027
The goals have deserted AZAL
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AZAL can tell you which week it ends in.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match16 Oct 2027
Khazar take the points off AZAL
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for AZAL
27 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.
Boardroom27 Sep 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at AZAL
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad27 Sep 2027
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Tempers go at AZAL
Richard Ramazanov 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Serhii Shvets
“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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.88 on the card, and the AZAL support went home talking about one name.
Match25 Sep 2027
AZAL and Ravan 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Market27 Sep 2027
The name of Dimitrij Nadirov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AZAL say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Sep 2027
No end in sight to AZAL's wait for a win
26 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AZAL has to find a result from somewhere.
Match18 Sep 2027
A hiding for AZAL
Beaten 0‑4 by Qarabag, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match20 Sep 2027
AZAL are in real trouble now
Position 10, 0 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match15 Sep 2027
The cup run ends for AZAL
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.
Market20 Sep 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 AZAL, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match18 Sep 2027
The goals have deserted AZAL
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AZAL can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad20 Sep 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 AZAL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Namig Mammadov, and the manager let it.
Boardroom20 Sep 2027
Doors closed at AZAL
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Sep 2027
24 matches without a win for AZAL
The run now stands at 24, and the questions being asked around AZAL are no longer polite ones.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces13 Sep 2027
Anger at AZAL 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Tempers go at AZAL
Shahriyar Guseynov 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
A bad afternoon for AZAL against Inter
0‑1 to Inter, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market13 Sep 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Rahid Jafarov has his answer from AZAL; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rahid Jafarov, and the manager let it.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Qara Medvedev dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match8 Mar 2027
AZAL are in real trouble now
Position 10, 5 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market8 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Namig Mammadov commits to AZAL for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jerry Orozco breaks a bone — 88 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match19 Sep 2026
A hiding for AZAL
Beaten 0‑7 by Qarabag, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad21 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.
Match21 Sep 2026
AZAL are in real trouble now
Position 10, 1 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match19 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for AZAL
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at AZAL
Shahriyar Guseynov 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about AZAL and Qarabag in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Namig Mammadov, and the manager let it.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the AZAL 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.