From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Emin Məcidzadə: 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.” Shafa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Nahid Əliyev at 21 — 8.01
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nahid Əliyev did not need any: 8.01, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match31 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Shafa right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad2 Nov 2026
46 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Home is on Édgo's mind
“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; Shafa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Novruz Məmmədov 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 353% of the Shafa 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Oct 2026
Shafa up to position 3
17 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Shafa
Novruz Məmmədov 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Shafa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Amir Ebrahimzadeh has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match24 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Amir Ebrahimzadeh’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Shafa.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Cavad Hacıyev 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 ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Match26 Oct 2026
Halfway: Shafa sit in position 3
17 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Shafa
Novruz Məmmədov 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over MOIK Baku, 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 Shafa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Édgo 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Shafa
17 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 7.72 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Shafa had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Eddy Garayev could afford to be generous.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Looking ahead19 Oct 2026
Shahdag Qusar next, and one man in the Shafa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Shafa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Léo Bahia wants one last season at home
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Shafa know now that the thought has arrived.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Shafa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Novruz Məmmədov 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 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is İbrahim Novruzov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Shafa needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market12 Oct 2026
The Édgo question follows Shafa around
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Édgo’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shafa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Shafa
Novruz Məmmədov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Belts tighten at Shafa
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
433% of the income goes out in wages at Shafa
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Cavad Hacıyev 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
One of those days for Édgo
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.05, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Lucas Zanatelli
“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 ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
Shafa and Léo Bahia are talking past each other
“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.
In brief
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Match
Édgo rescues a point for Shafa
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Squad
Édgo finally opens his account
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shafa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Shafa
Novruz Məmmədov 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
A row about effort at Shafa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Léo Bahia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match26 Sep 2026
A bad afternoon for Shafa against Zagatala
0‑2 to Zagatala, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tapdıq Əhmədov, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Sep 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Eddy Garayev to a room that had heard them before.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
Shafa take on the side everybody is chasing
Sabail arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
Market28 Sep 2026
Rəvan Kazımov is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Shafa has been clear about where Rəvan Kazımov stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
Samir Huseynov damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and İsmayıl Zülfüqarlı delivers — 7.87
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. İsmayıl Zülfüqarlı scored, was marked 7.87, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Léo Bahia 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was İsmayıl Zülfüqarlı’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Shafa.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Shafa
Amir Ebrahimzadeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. 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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cavad Hacıyev, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Zagatala in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Sep 2026
Cup progress for Shafa
A 2‑1 win over Kapaz, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.14, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
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 Shafa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Shafa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cavad Hacıyev 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 dugout14 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: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Sep 2026
17 new faces, and Shafa 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Édgo has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Shafa know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 30 in, 19 out at Shafa
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 30 arrived, 19 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Shafa
Novruz Məmmədov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Édgo stays put
“The easiest signature of my career.” Édgo and Shafa agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Shafa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Édgo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market7 Sep 2026
The ambition of Édgo outgrows Shafa early
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Emin Məcidzadə, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ayyoub Allach has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Shafa know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Shafa counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Shafa now.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Jabrayil next, and one man in the Shafa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Shafa did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The deal with Gabala is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Shafa asked and Mingachevir said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Shafa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Novruz Məmmədov 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Shafa
İbrahim Məmmədov 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Ayyoub Allach’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Shafa.
The dugout31 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.81 on the card, and the Shafa support went home talking about one name.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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 Shafa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Shafa have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Shafa
Novruz Məmmədov 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
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lucas Zanatelli commits to Shafa for another 3 years.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Shafa asked and Gabala said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match22 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Novruz Məmmədov, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Shafa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cavad Hacıyev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Aug 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Eddy Garayev to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market17 Aug 2026
Gabala come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Shafa did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Shafa
Amir Ebrahimzadeh 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.
Transfer targets17 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 terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Amir Ebrahimzadeh has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match15 Aug 2026
Three points for Shafa, 2‑0 the final word against Shimal in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Market17 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A mark of 7.79, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad17 Aug 2026
14 new faces, and Shafa 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan move for Həbib Hüşənov is in the works
Shafa have made the call to Gabala. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Shafa have done the hard part with Gabala, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Léo Bahia commits to Shafa for another 1 years.
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 Shafa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Shafa asked and Qarabag said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Shafa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Novruz Məmmədov 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Dimitrij Ozobic 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
One of our own: Kamran Ozobic joins the Shafa first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kamran Ozobic 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
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Orkhan Abdullayev 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
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Eddy Amirguliyev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nihad Quliyev commits to Shafa for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Shafa
Amir Ebrahimzadeh 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
Words at Shafa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Novruz Məmmədov 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Shafa will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Shafa, another week without a signature from Nahid Əliyev.