From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Sep 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Sep 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Sep 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.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I watch every Navbahor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kairat runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Navro'zbek Iminjonov 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market28 Sep 2026
The clock does Jaloliddin Sodiqov’s negotiating for him
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Navbahor could ask drops and the wages Jaloliddin Sodiqov can ask rise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Sep 2026
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Zabihillo O'rinboyev scored in the 87th minute, Bukhara had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Navbahor took the lot.
Market21 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jaloliddin Sodiqov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
O'tkir Yusupov 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
Navbahor keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Three points for Navbahor, 1‑0 the final word against Bukhara in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I watch every Navbahor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Aktobe runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
7.43, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Navbahor had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Sep 2026
Moussa Maréga had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Andijon were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Moussa Maréga takes the afternoon — 8.59
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Moussa Maréga provided it, and the 8.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market14 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Islombek Mamatkazin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Islombek Mamatkazin has agreed terms with Lokomotiv for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad14 Sep 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Husain Norchayev 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“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 ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 3‑3 draw with Andijon leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 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 Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
O'tkir Yusupov 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Husain Norchayev 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 Sep 2026
Three points for Navbahor, 1‑0 the final word against Qizilqum in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.51, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Market7 Sep 2026
A conversation is coming this week. Navbahor will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for O'tkir Yusupov
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. O'tkir Yusupov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Navbahor have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad7 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Aug 2026
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Ruslanbek Jiyanov will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Navbahor escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Aug 2026
Navbahor say no — this time
The offer from Nasaf for Navro'zbek Iminjonov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Javohir Abdujabborov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad31 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Zabihillo O'rinboyev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.91. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Shukron Yo'ldoshev has come up in conversations Navbahor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
The small margins put Navbahor out
Out, 0‑2 to AGMK, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market24 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Market24 Aug 2026
Navbahor say no — this time
The offer from Metallurg for Sherzod G'ulomjonov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad24 Aug 2026
O'tkir Yusupov 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 Aug 2026
Husain Norchayev 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.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Lokomotiv made Navbahor work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 45. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Aug 2026
Cup progress for Navbahor
A 3‑2 win over Bukhara, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match12 Aug 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Navbahor scored in the 98th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market17 Aug 2026
Nasaf come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Navbahor did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Moussa Maréga yet — 7.83
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Joyce Katulondi has agreed terms with Pakhtakor for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad17 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Saidu Lawan would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Saidu Lawan is living that version at Navbahor, and it tends to show in the first month.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
Nasaf come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Navbahor did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Javohir Abdujabborov has agreed terms with Metallurg for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad10 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Bunyodkor made Navbahor work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Muhammadali Usmonov has come up in conversations Navbahor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad10 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Moussa Maréga
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Navbahor will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
7.48, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Navbahor had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” O'tkir Yusupov and Navbahor agree another 2 years.
Market3 Aug 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 Aug 2026
O'tkir Yusupov 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Husain Norchayev 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Navbahor have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Vanja Ilić
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.