From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom16 Nov 2026
Neftchi book their European place
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Neftchi may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Nov 2026
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Neftchi have had the benefit of it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ratinho 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.
Squad16 Nov 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Neftchi
Koffi Kouao and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Zoran Marušić signs something — a contract at Neftchi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rustambek Fomin is on it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Neftchi that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Squad9 Nov 2026
He goes off to be somebody else’s player for a fortnight. Neftchi lose him for the window and would like him returned in the condition he left.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match2 Nov 2026
Neftchi up to position 2
24 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
The Neftchi board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 142% of everything Neftchi earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout2 Nov 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Neftchi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Izzatillo Po'latov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Alisher Odilov named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Alisher Odilov is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market2 Nov 2026
Neftchi have made Xurshid G'iyosov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Asilbek Jumayev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Neftchi will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market2 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
59 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad26 Oct 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.
The dugout26 Oct 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Daler Tuxsanov is on it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Xurshid G'iyosov has written the date down.
Market26 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Stipe Perica’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Alisher Odilov in the team of the week — 6.94
6.94 across the ninety minutes, and a place in the division’s best eleven for it. Nobody who saw the match will argue.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
6 starts and a season average of 6.74. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Oct 2026
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Vladimir Jovović takes the afternoon — 8.86
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vladimir Jovović provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.10 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match17 Oct 2026
A 3‑2 win over Bunyodkor, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad19 Oct 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 ratings19 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.25 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad19 Oct 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.
Market19 Oct 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Muhsinjon Ubaydullayev has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Neftchi.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Eldorbek Suyunov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Neftchi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Neftchi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Izzatillo Po'latov 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Neftchi
Muminhon Bahodirxonov 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.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Bunyodkor next, and one man in the Neftchi dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market12 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Zoran Marušić signs something — a contract at Neftchi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
9 appearances at Kokand 1912 and the goals keep coming. Neftchi are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Neftchi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Oct 2026
Neftchi up to position 3
21 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad5 Oct 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
1‑2 to Pakhtakor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 186% of the Neftchi income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Neftchi
Akbar To'rayev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
10 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Timur Ismailov to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Neftchi
Ratinho 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match26 Sep 2026
Sogdiana made Neftchi work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 8.03. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Neftchi.
The dugout28 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Neftchi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bojan Ciger 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Timur Ismailov kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Jovan Đokić 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 Neftchi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Neftchi
Koffi Kouao 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout21 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Neftchi told Vladimir Jovović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Izzatillo Po'latov 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Sep 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.56, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market14 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Neftchi — 7.57
1 for Ratinho, marked 7.57, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Eldor Shomurodov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Timur Ismailov kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
Neftchi say no — this time
The offer from Astana for Xurshid G'iyosov 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.
Market7 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 Neftchi can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 13 in, 9 out at Neftchi
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Neftchi
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout7 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Aleksandar Simić had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market31 Aug 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Zoran Marušić among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Zoran Marušić on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Neftchi and Mashal.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 4‑2 win over Mashal, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Xurshid G'iyosov 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Alisher Odilov at his very best
Marked 8.33. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Neftchi.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 8.08 — 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 4‑2, Timur Ismailov could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Aug 2026
The small margins put Neftchi out
Out, 0‑1 to Navbahor, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match22 Aug 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
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
Neftchi say no — this time
The offer from Skonto for Aleksandar Simić 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
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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Xurshid G'iyosov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Jamshid Iskanderov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Timur Ismailov on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Aug 2026
Cup progress for Neftchi
A 2‑1 win over Kokand 1912, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match15 Aug 2026
Obod will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Neftchi were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 7.77 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match15 Aug 2026
Neftchi make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Neftchi have 4 straight wins of it.
Market17 Aug 2026
Metallurg come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Neftchi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.97, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Match15 Aug 2026
Zoran Marušić among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Zoran Marušić on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Neftchi and Obod.
Squad17 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market10 Aug 2026
Neftchi say no — this time
The offer from Shakhter for Asilbek Jumayev 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Neftchi
Vladimir Jovović 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Jamshid Iskanderov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Neftchi.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Eldor Nematov 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. Sardor Tukhtasinov 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Farhod Ganiev 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 8.00 — 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.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Ratinho gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Asilbek Jumayev at 21 — 8.12
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Asilbek Jumayev did not need any: 8.12, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Abrorbek Ismoilov 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.
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
Koffi Kouao 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 Neftchi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Abrorbek Ismoilov again, and this time the name on the line is Taraz. Neftchi are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match1 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Zoran Marušić. 2‑0 against Bukhara, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.