The Zira Herald
Market17 Aug 2026
Qarabag come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zira did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Zira
Issa Djibrilla 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 ratings17 Aug 2026
Martins Júnior runs at them all day
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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Graduation day at Zira
4 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market17 Aug 2026
One of our own: Eddy Garayev joins the Zira first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Eddy Garayev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market17 Aug 2026
Zira promote Shahriyar Nazarov from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Shahriyar Nazarov 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Zira promote Shahriyar Medvedev from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Shahriyar Medvedev 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Zira against Neftchi
0‑1 to Neftchi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Stéphane Acka 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.
In brief
- Squad Zira pick somebody else ahead of Ismayil Ibrahimli
- Squad Eldar Kuliev gets it from the manager
- Boardroom Zira turn down the training-ground plan