From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Oct 2027
The knee: Igor Golban out for 45 days
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sogdiana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Sogdiana
Ljupce Doriev 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Sogdiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Suhrob Izzatov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market18 Oct 2027
Igor Golban told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Igor Golban has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Sogdiana.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 2027
The knee: Igor Golban out for 52 days
52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sogdiana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad11 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sogdiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Sogdiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Suhrob Izzatov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
“I watch every Sogdiana game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Navbahor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Ljupce Doriev gets picked when it counts
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 Ljupce Doriev is on it.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Filip Ivanović knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filip Ivanović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market11 Oct 2027
The name of Zoir Jo'raboyev keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sogdiana say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad11 Oct 2027
He goes off to be somebody else’s player for a fortnight. Sogdiana lose him for the window and would like him returned in the condition he left.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Oct 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samandarjon Mavlonqulov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogdiana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nikola Mirković and Sogdiana agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Sogdiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Ivanović 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 dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Otabek Ahadov
“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 dugout4 Oct 2027
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 Otabek Jo'raqo'ziyev is on it.
Market4 Oct 2027
The name of Ljupce Doriev keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sogdiana say nothing, which says plenty.
Match4 Oct 2027
Continental football is in reach for Sogdiana
52 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
Rian Islomov 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 Sogdiana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sogdiana. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Sep 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Ljupce Doriev
27 goals and a season average of 7.68 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match27 Sep 2027
Full time on the season at Sogdiana
Position 6 on 52 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Transfer targets27 Sep 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: MSK Zilina keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match25 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for Sogdiana
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The terraces27 Sep 2027
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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Sogdiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Ivanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Samandarjon Mavlonqulov 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 ratings27 Sep 2027
Marked 7.77 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Sogdiana had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
A promise honoured at Sogdiana
Something was said to Mirjamol Qosimov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match18 Sep 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Sogdiana
Ljupce Doriev 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.
Match18 Sep 2027
0‑2 to Bunyodkor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Suhrob Izzatov 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Nikola Mirković's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Islomjon Qobilov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match11 Sep 2027
Whatever happens, Sogdiana do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Sogdiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Ivanović 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 ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
18 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Javohir Qahramonov 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.
Loan watch13 Sep 2027
“I watch every Sogdiana game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Navbahor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sogdiana told Otabek Jo'raqo'ziyev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
Ljupce Doriev gets picked when it counts
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 Ljupce Doriev is on it.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match4 Sep 2027
Sogdiana march on in the cup
Pakhtakor are out and Sogdiana go through, 1‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match1 Sep 2027
Cup progress for Sogdiana
A 2‑0 win over Pakhtakor, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market6 Sep 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samandarjon Mavlonqulov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogdiana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Sogdiana close the window on a squad of their own making
9 in and 9 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Luka Đorđević is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.40 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
The deal with MSK Zilina 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.
Match4 Sep 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Sogdiana did not have in the autumn.
Squad6 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sogdiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
$150.0K was the most the club would pay and Andijon were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Aug 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Ljupce Doriev
27 goals and a season average of 7.73 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at MSK Zilina is saying, and nobody at Sogdiana is enjoying the guessing.
Match28 Aug 2027
Sogdiana 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Ljupce Doriev 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.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
The offer went to Andijon this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ulug'bek Sunnatov has just signed for Sogdiana, and for once the answer mattered.
Match28 Aug 2027
It finished 3‑2, and it was Otabek Jo'raqo'ziyev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sogdiana.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Aug 2027
Ljupce Doriev is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.70 with 26 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match21 Aug 2027
Metallurg will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Sogdiana were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
A brace, and Luka Đorđević takes the afternoon — 9.61
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luka Đorđević provided it, and the 9.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
No thanks: Noah Fenyő rejects the move
Sogdiana had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ujpest, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market23 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Sogdiana have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.42, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Filip Ivanović 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 ratings23 Aug 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sogdiana can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Otabek Ahadov: 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.” Sogdiana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Akron have kept their man, and Sogdiana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces16 Aug 2027
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match14 Aug 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Aleksandar Boljević’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sogdiana.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
A performance of 8.43 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Filip Ivanović 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 dugout16 Aug 2027
“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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Ujpest have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Aug 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Ljupce Doriev
25 goals and a season average of 7.70 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market9 Aug 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
A brace, and Ljupce Doriev takes the afternoon — 9.24
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ljupce Doriev provided it, and the 9.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market9 Aug 2027
Sogdiana say no — this time
The offer from Obod for Samandarjon Mavlonqulov 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.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sogdiana may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
No thanks: Matei Popa rejects the move
Sogdiana had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at FCSB, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luka Đorđević and Sogdiana agree another 2 years.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Moscow have kept their man, and Sogdiana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Sogdiana
Filip Ivanović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 Jul 2027
Obod will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Sogdiana were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Ljupce Doriev is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.65 with 23 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.74, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.49, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market2 Aug 2027
The name of Ljupce Doriev has come up in conversations Sogdiana were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Everything agreed with Pakhtakor, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Shakhtar is saying, and nobody at Sogdiana is enjoying the guessing.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luka Đorđević and Sogdiana agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match31 Jul 2027
6 goals as Sogdiana and Obod go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Sogdiana and Obod, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Jul 2027
Nowhere to hide for Sogdiana
0‑3 against Navbahor, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market26 Jul 2027
“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 Sogdiana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market26 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samandarjon Mavlonqulov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogdiana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dinamo Moscow is saying, and nobody at Sogdiana is enjoying the guessing.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Luka Đorđević
12 goals and a season average of 7.36 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Sogdiana asked and Dynamo Kyiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sogdiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Sogdiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Ivanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 Jul 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Bukhara, and it could have been more.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Ljupce Doriev is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.64 with 21 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market19 Jul 2027
“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 ratings19 Jul 2027
Luka Đorđević, 33, rolls back the years — 8.02
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Sogdiana
Ljupce Doriev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
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 terraces19 Jul 2027
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Marked 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sogdiana.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Jul 2027
“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.
Market12 Jul 2027
Sogdiana say no — this time
The offer from Bukhara for Samandarjon Mavlonqulov 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The deal with Dynamo Kyiv 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sogdiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Luka Đorđević is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.36 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Sogdiana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Sogdiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Ivanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match10 Jul 2027
Sogdiana rescue it on 96 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 96. Andijon had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Chances created: 13. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jul 2027
19 goals and a season average of 7.61. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Market5 Jul 2027
Igor Golban hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sogdiana can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Luka Đorđević, 33, rolls back the years — 7.94
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.94 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match3 Jul 2027
Qizilqum left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mladost Lucani have kept their man, and Sogdiana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.64, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Filip Ivanović 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 dugout5 Jul 2027
“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.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Nazar Domchak is in the works
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Boardroom
Intake day at the Sogdiana academy
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
18 goals and a season average of 7.57. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Market28 Jun 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sogdiana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
No thanks: Mahmudu Bajo rejects the move
Sogdiana had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Crvena Zvezda, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Filip Ivanović 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.
Match26 Jun 2027
Kokand 1912 made Sogdiana work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.91, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mirjamol Qosimov
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sogdiana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match16 Jun 2027
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Islom Ganiev obliged against AGMK. 3‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Sogdiana.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
A brace, and Islom Ganiev takes the afternoon — 8.73
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Islom Ganiev provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market21 Jun 2027
The fee is $210.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Bukhara drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mashal have kept their man, and Sogdiana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Muhriddin Fazliddinov 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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aleksandar Boljević, and the manager let it.
Match19 Jun 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Filip Ivanović 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mirjamol Qosimov
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sogdiana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market14 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ararat waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sogdiana is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad14 Jun 2027
17 goals and a season average of 7.58. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad14 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sogdiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Panathinaikos have kept their man, and Sogdiana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match12 Jun 2027
Ljupce Doriev scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to AGMK, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Loan watch14 Jun 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sogdiana, and 7 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
A performance of 8.26 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Jun 2027
Mirjamol Qosimov damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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 ratings7 Jun 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.35, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market7 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sogdiana people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match7 Jun 2027
Sogdiana refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 29 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market7 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad7 Jun 2027
16 goals and a season average of 7.56. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Sogdiana
Filip Ivanović 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.
Match5 Jun 2027
A 2‑0 win over Bunyodkor, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 May 2027
Mirjamol Qosimov damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words exchanged at Sogdiana
Ljupce Doriev 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Filip Ivanović 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 dugout31 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Otabek Ahadov, and the manager let it.
The dugout31 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Sherzod Tukhtasinov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout31 May 2027
The plan did not have a place for Filip Ivanović
Nobody at Sogdiana is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Match29 May 2027
Point won or two lost for Sogdiana?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Neftchi? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The dugout31 May 2027
Nobody at Sogdiana 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.
Looking ahead31 May 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bunyodkor in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 May 2027
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sogdiana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad24 May 2027
A falling-out at Sogdiana
Ljupce Doriev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
Filip Ivanović 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.
Match22 May 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad24 May 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Luka Đorđević
8 goals and a season average of 7.30 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout24 May 2027
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 Sherzod Tukhtasinov to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout24 May 2027
Igor Golban 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.
The dugout24 May 2027
Nikola Mirković has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sogdiana 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.
Market24 May 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Akbar To'rayev has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Sogdiana.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 May 2027
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sogdiana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad17 May 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout17 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sogdiana may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad17 May 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad17 May 2027
Ljupce Doriev is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.52 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match15 May 2027
Nasaf left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout17 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikola Mirković, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead17 May 2027
The big one: Pakhtakor come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Sogdiana will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad10 May 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match8 May 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Metallurg, and it could have been more.
Squad10 May 2027
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match8 May 2027
Sogdiana make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Sogdiana have 4 straight wins of it.
The dugout10 May 2027
“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.
Market10 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sogdiana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 May 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Ljupce Doriev
12 goals and a season average of 7.44 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad10 May 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zoir Jo'raboyev and Sogdiana agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 May 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sogdiana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match3 May 2027
Sogdiana refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 22 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match1 May 2027
Nobody wants to play Sogdiana 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.
Squad3 May 2027
A row about effort at Sogdiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Ivanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match1 May 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Sogdiana. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Match1 May 2027
A 1‑0 win over Mashal, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings3 May 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.06, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad3 May 2027
Words exchanged at Sogdiana
Samandarjon Mavlonqulov 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Apr 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sogdiana will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match24 Apr 2027
5‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.93 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.77, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Sogdiana
Ljupce Doriev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Ljupce Doriev is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.41 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match24 Apr 2027
Luka Đorđević among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Luka Đorđević on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Sogdiana and Shortan.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Marked 8.48 — 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Sogdiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Suhrob Izzatov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Apr 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match17 Apr 2027
5‑0, and Ljupce Doriev took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Sogdiana tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.41 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Javohir Qahramonov 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.
The terraces19 Apr 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Xondamir Mustafoqulov 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.
Match17 Apr 2027
Sogdiana settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Obod spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Mirjamol Qosimov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.42. 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.
In brief
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Squad
Filip Ivanović falls out with a teammate over standards
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Squad
Ljupce Doriev is in the form of his life
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Apr 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sogdiana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market12 Apr 2027
“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 Sogdiana, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sogdiana may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market12 Apr 2027
Only the photograph left for Sahob Rashidov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sahob Rashidov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogdiana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Sogdiana
Ljupce Doriev 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Otabek Ahadov and Sogdiana agree another 4 years.
Match10 Apr 2027
Navbahor left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Nikola Mirković
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Filip Ivanović 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad5 Apr 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match31 Mar 2027
Sogdiana march on in the cup
Andijon are out and Sogdiana go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Islom Ganiev could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.82
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.82, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sogdiana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match3 Apr 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Sogdiana did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
23 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Mar 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sogdiana will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match27 Mar 2027
A 2-goal lead gone for Sogdiana
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Andijon kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Sogdiana will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Sogdiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Ivanović 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 ratings29 Mar 2027
A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match27 Mar 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“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 dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ljupce Doriev's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Match27 Mar 2027
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Mar 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sogdiana will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
A brace, and Ljupce Doriev takes the afternoon — 9.55
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ljupce Doriev provided it, and the 9.55 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sogdiana may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match20 Mar 2027
Sogdiana cannot stop winning
4 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ljupce Doriev. 3‑2 against Qizilqum, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces22 Mar 2027
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Filip Ivanović 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 ratings22 Mar 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market15 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sogdiana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match13 Mar 2027
Sogdiana make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Sogdiana have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad15 Mar 2027
100 goals in the shirt for Ljupce Doriev
100 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Match13 Mar 2027
A 3‑1 win over Kokand 1912, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Filip Ivanović 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 ratings15 Mar 2027
A performance of 8.88 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Ninety minutes of Ljupce Doriev at his very best
Marked 8.87. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sogdiana.
The terraces15 Mar 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Xondamir Mustafoqulov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sogdiana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match6 Mar 2027
4‑0, and Ljupce Doriev took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Sogdiana tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad8 Mar 2027
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nikola Mirković and Sogdiana agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Ninety minutes of Ljupce Doriev at his very best
Marked 9.83. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sogdiana.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
Graduation day at Sogdiana
1 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Timur Tukhtasinov 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.
Match6 Mar 2027
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Lokomotiv tried to reorganise, Sogdiana did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
In brief
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Player ratings
Aleksandar Boljević was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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Player ratings
A masterclass from Luka Đorđević
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sogdiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Sogdiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Ivanović 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.
Looking ahead1 Mar 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Islomjon Qobilov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sogdiana needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Luka Đorđević 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 Sogdiana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sogdiana. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market1 Mar 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sogdiana, another week without a signature from Muhriddin Fazliddinov.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sogdiana may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Sogdiana
Ljupce Doriev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Sogdiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Suhrob Izzatov 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Sogdiana are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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 Ljupce Doriev has written the date down.
Market22 Feb 2027
The name of Zoir Jo'raboyev keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sogdiana say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Feb 2027
Only the photograph left for Sahob Rashidov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sahob Rashidov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogdiana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Sogdiana
Ljupce Doriev 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Sogdiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Ivanović 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
34 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sogdiana, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Market15 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ljupce Doriev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Feb 2027
Islomjon Qobilov damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Sogdiana will try again when the window opens; Bunyodkor may not be selling by then.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Sogdiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Suhrob Izzatov 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Voices raised on the Sogdiana training ground
Two players, one bad tackle and a session that had to be stopped. It was over in a minute; it was outside the gates in an hour.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“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
Squad1 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Islomjon Qobilov
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sogdiana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market1 Feb 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sogdiana have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Sogdiana and Bunyodkor have settled on $420.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Sogdiana until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al Shabab keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Umid Sultonov in trouble away from the ground
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Sogdiana
Filip Ivanović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Sogdiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Suhrob Izzatov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Islomjon Qobilov
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sogdiana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Al Shabab, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Sogdiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Ivanović 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Sogdiana
Samandarjon Mavlonqulov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Sogdiana are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Market25 Jan 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Sogdiana will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sogdiana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sogdiana have done the hard part with AGMK, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Sogdiana
Ljupce Doriev 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 targets18 Jan 2027
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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Sogdiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Suhrob Izzatov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luka Đorđević, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Alanyaspor have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Al Shabab have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sogdiana. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Islomjon Qobilov
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sogdiana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market11 Jan 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sogdiana people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market11 Jan 2027
Andijon paid $170.0K and Sogdiana took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Sogdiana asked and Andijon said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Sogdiana
Filip Ivanović 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Sogdiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Suhrob Izzatov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Kokand 1912: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to AGMK: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market11 Jan 2027
Sahob Rashidov is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sogdiana has been clear about where Sahob Rashidov stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Islomjon Qobilov
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sogdiana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad4 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sogdiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market4 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Sogdiana have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Sogdiana asked and Mashal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Sogdiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Ivanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
AGMK have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Sogdiana have made the call to Andijon. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Sogdiana will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
Islomjon Qobilov damages knee ligaments — 65 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Sogdiana
Ljupce Doriev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Sogdiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Ivanović 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
96% of the income goes out in wages at Sogdiana
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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sogdiana. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market28 Dec 2026
The name of Zoir Jo'raboyev keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sogdiana say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
Islomjon Qobilov damages knee ligaments — 72 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
Market21 Dec 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sogdiana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Sogdiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Suhrob Izzatov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdulazizxon Abdurashidov, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 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.
The terraces21 Dec 2026
The Ljupce Doriev rumours reach the terraces
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Sogdiana would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
Islomjon Qobilov damages knee ligaments — 80 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 80 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.
The dugout14 Dec 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Amir Ismailov 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Islom Akhmedov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Sogdiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Ivanović 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sogdiana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Islomjon Qobilov
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sogdiana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Sogdiana
Filip Ivanović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Suhrob Izzatov 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Samandarjon Mavlonqulov and Sogdiana agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout7 Dec 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 Dec 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 Nodirjon Soyibov is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Luka Đorđević: 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.” Sogdiana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market30 Nov 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tohirbek To'xtasinov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogdiana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Sogdiana
Ljupce Doriev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Sogdiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Suhrob Izzatov 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
106% of the income goes out in wages at Sogdiana
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.
Market30 Nov 2026
Sogdiana have made Sahob Rashidov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes Ljupce Doriev a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sogdiana. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market30 Nov 2026
The name of Zoir Jo'raboyev keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sogdiana say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout30 Nov 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 Sogdiana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sogdiana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market23 Nov 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sogdiana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Sogdiana
Ljupce Doriev 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Sogdiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Golban was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Luka Đorđević knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luka Đorđević trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout23 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sogdiana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ljupce Doriev 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 Sogdiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Suhrob Izzatov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sogdiana, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Market16 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sogdiana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout16 Nov 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 Islomjon Qobilov has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sogdiana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Nov 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 Sogdiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market9 Nov 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dostonbek Mirzaev 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Suhrob Izzatov 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 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 Nodirjon Soyibov is on it.
The dugout9 Nov 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 Ljupce Doriev has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sogdiana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Odil Ismailov: 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.” Sogdiana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market2 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sogdiana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Nov 2026
39 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 106% of the Sogdiana 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
$900.4K on the table at Sogdiana
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes Igor Golban a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sogdiana. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sogdiana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Market26 Oct 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sogdiana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
59 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sogdiana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sogdiana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Sogdiana
Filip Ivanović 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Sogdiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Golban was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I watch every Sogdiana game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Irtysh runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market19 Oct 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sogdiana has been clear about where Azizbek Abdumajidov stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Otabek Ahadov 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 Sogdiana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market19 Oct 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sogdiana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout19 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 Ljupce Doriev has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Javohir Qahramonov damages knee ligaments — 66 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 66 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.
Squad12 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 Sogdiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luka Đorđević commits to Sogdiana for another 2 years.
Market12 Oct 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bobur Masharipov 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luka Đorđević, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Sogdiana are still strangers to each other
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sogdiana told Xudoyshukur Sattorov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout12 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 Nodirjon Soyibov is on it.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Aleksandar Boljević’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Javohir Qahramonov damages knee ligaments — 73 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sogdiana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Sogdiana
Ljupce Doriev 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
141% of the income goes out in wages at Sogdiana
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
Igor Golban 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 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
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Luka Đorđević knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luka Đorđević trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sogdiana. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sogdiana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samandar Sindarov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogdiana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad28 Sep 2026
18 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Sogdiana
Ljupce Doriev 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Sogdiana get the job done against AGMK
A 2‑0 win over AGMK, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.42, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.31, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Sogdiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Golban was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Sherzod Tukhtasinov, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sogdiana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Sogdiana
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Sogdiana are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ljupce Doriev 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
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Sherzod Tukhtasinov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Islom Ganiev commits to Sogdiana for another 3 years.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against AGMK in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market21 Sep 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sogdiana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The plan did not have a place for Igor Golban
Nobody at Sogdiana is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
94 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sogdiana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market14 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Aleksandar Boljević to BATE has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Sogdiana with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Flamengo have kept their man, and Sogdiana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Sogdiana
Filip Ivanović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jasur Mirzaev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Igor Golban 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Sogdiana 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Sherzod Tukhtasinov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Sogdiana dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sogdiana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 Sogdiana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Sep 2026
The phone has started ringing about Aleksandar Boljević again, and this time the name on the line is BATE. Sogdiana are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Sogdiana close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 2 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sogdiana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Tohirbek To'xtasinov has agreed terms with Nasaf for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Match5 Sep 2026
Pakhtakor left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Transfer targets7 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
Javohir Qahramonov damages knee ligaments — 110 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 110 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Qizilqum waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sogdiana is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market31 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samandar Sindarov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogdiana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom31 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Andijon have kept their man, and Sogdiana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Filip Ivanović 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad24 Aug 2026
Javohir Qahramonov damages knee ligaments — 118 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 118 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Aleksandar Boljević wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Aleksandar Boljević found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Metallurg went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
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
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sogdiana can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ljupce Doriev 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.
Transfer targets24 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Three points for Sogdiana, 1‑0 the final word against Metallurg in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 8.37 — 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Sogdiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Golban was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Aug 2026
Javohir Qahramonov damages knee ligaments — 126 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 126 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.
Match12 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Sogdiana
0‑1 against Andijon, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
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 Sogdiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Lokomotiv wanted more than $390.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Samandarjon Mavlonqulov has come up in conversations Sogdiana were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
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.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Mashal, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.26, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad10 Aug 2026
133 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sogdiana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Sogdiana
Ljupce Doriev 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.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Muhriddin Fazliddinov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Sogdiana have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Match8 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Ljupce Doriev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sogdiana.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Aziz Ismailov 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. Dostonbek Masharipov 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. Odil Shomurodov 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
Match1 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑1 against Obod, and it could have been more.
Squad3 Aug 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market3 Aug 2026
Sogdiana say no — this time
The offer from Taraz for Samandarjon Mavlonqulov 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.68 for the rest of it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aleksandar Boljević and Sogdiana agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Sogdiana
Ljupce Doriev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match1 Aug 2026
6 goals as Sogdiana and Obod go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Sogdiana and Obod, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Umid Sultonov in trouble away from the ground
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
The terraces3 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.