From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 50. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Zoran Marušić
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Neftchi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match12 Sep 2026
Neftchi cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market14 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Akbar To'rayev reports back to Neftchi with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Neftchi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladimir Jovović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match12 Sep 2026
Sogdiana made Neftchi work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Stipe Perica at his very best
Marked 8.53. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Neftchi.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.46 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad14 Sep 2026
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Zoran Marušić
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Neftchi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market7 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lokomotiv waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Neftchi is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market7 Sep 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Neftchi close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 8 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Neftchi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladimir Jovović 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Neftchi get the job done against Nasaf
A 1‑0 win over Nasaf, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.29, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
No hiding place for Ratinho
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ratinho, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Neftchi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Pakhtakor had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Match29 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Metallurg, and it could have been more.
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 Neftchi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 8.56 — 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
50 goals for the club, every one of them filed away in the memory of a supporter somewhere.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.47 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 8.35 — 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Aug 2026
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Neftchi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market24 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 Neftchi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Neftchi will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Neftchi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladimir Jovović 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Ikromjon Aliboev at his very best
Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Neftchi.
Match22 Aug 2026
Neftchi caught on 90 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Mashal scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Match22 Aug 2026
It needed Ikromjon Aliboev to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Mashal, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Zoran Marušić
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Neftchi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match15 Aug 2026
5‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Match12 Aug 2026
Neftchi bow out of the cup
Kokand 1912 go through and Neftchi go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market17 Aug 2026
Neftchi say no — this time
The offer from Dinamo Minsk for Botirali Ergashev 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
A cup hiding at Kokand 1912 leaves Neftchi explaining themselves
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Boardroom17 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Abrorbek Ismoilov has left for Pakhtakor in a $720.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 9.54 — 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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Neftchi training over how hard people work
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Squad
Stipe Perica in a row with a teammate
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Player ratings
Stipe Perica was on a different afternoon to everybody else
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match8 Aug 2026
3‑0, and Zoran Marušić took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Neftchi tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Zoran Marušić, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.64, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Pakhtakor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abrorbek Ismoilov. The answer from Neftchi has not changed — yet.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Hamzaxon Xo'jayev arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Hamzaxon Xo'jayev has, at Neftchi, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Neftchi
Stipe Perica and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Abdulla Abdullaev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rustam Abdullaev has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Farhod Hasanov 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.97, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Koffi Kouao and Neftchi agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Neftchi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jamshid Iskanderov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 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 Neftchi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Zoran Marušić’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Neftchi.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market3 Aug 2026
24 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and Neftchi are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.