AZAL PFK

AZAL PFK

Full name	AZAL Peşəkar Futbol Klubu
Nickname(s)	Təyyarəçilər (The Pilots)
Founded	2005
Ground	AZAL Arena
Capacity	3,500
President	Zaur Akhundov
Manager	Tarlan Ahmadov
League	Azerbaijan Premier League
2014–15	6th
Home colours Away colours

AZAL PFK (Azerbaijani: AZAL Peşəkar Futbol Klubu) is an Azerbaijani football club based in Şüvəlan, Baku. The club competes in the Azerbaijan Premier League.

The club was renamed three times in its short history becoming Olimpik Baku, Olimpik-Shuvalan Baku and AZAL. UEFA is still recognizing the club as Olimpik-Shuvalan at European competitions.^[1]

The club is also a member of the European Club Association, an organization that replaced the previous G-14 which consists of major football clubs in Europe.

History

Early years (1996–2006)

The club were established in 1996 as a futsal club under the name of AMMK. It participated in national futsal league from the season 1996–97 till 2003–04.^[2][3] AMMK also represented Azerbaijan in UEFA Futsal Cup 2003/04 season.

AMMK became professional football team in 2004 and joined the Azerbaijan First Division. The first Azerbaijan Premier League season was not much successful for Olimpik Baku. Croatian manager Stjepan Čordaš worked just for a couple of month and was sacked after poor results. His place was taken by Serbian Petar Kurčubić, but he was also unable to achieve good results, and Olimpik Baku finished 12th. At that time, Olimpik was called 'The Club from Balkans', as there were a lot of players from Balkan countries such as Marko Mitrović, Srdjan Baljak, Rašo Babić, Saša Kovačević, Tomislav Višević and others.^[4]

Abdullayev years (2006–2009)

In June 2006, Asgar Abdullayev was appointed as a new head coach of Olimpik. He still remains as the most successful manager in clubs' history. Led by Abdullayev, Olimpik improved its results, ranked 6th in 2007 and 2nd in 2008. Olimpik came very closed to win 2007–08 league title, but the team was beaten by Qarabağ at last round game, although they only had to play a draw.^[5]

Olimpik's debut in European competitions was also not successful as they were eliminated in the 1st qualifying round of 2008–09 UEFA Cup by Serbian side Vojvodina. Roman Akhalkatsi became the first goalscorer of Olimpik in the European club tournaments.^[6]

Recent years (2009–present)

In 2009, the club moved from center to Shuvalan settlement and was renamed into Olimpik-Shuvalan PFC.^[7][8] In November 2009, Asgar Abdullayev completed his mission and he was changed by former Azerbaijani football star Nazim Suleymanov.^[9] At his debut season Suleymanov took the team over the Azerbaijan Cup quarter-final for a first time in its history. The club once again was renamed in 2010, this time to AZAL PFC due to sponsorship reasons from airline company Azerbaijan Airlines.^[10][11] In September 2010, the club management announced the construction of new AZAL Arena in Shuvalan.

The 2010-11 Azerbaijan Premier League season was a great for AZAL. The team finished 4th and entered UEFA Europa League 2011-12 season. Although the club was renamed into AZAL in 2010, it represented as Olimpik-Shuvalan in UEFA Europa League competitions due to UEFA's sponsorship regulations.^[1] Before the home game against Minsk, Suleymanov said that he would resign in case of defeat.^[12] AZAL lost to Minsk 2–3 in aggregate, and Suleymanov announced his resignation after second match in Minsk.^[13]

In July, club president Vaqif Gasymov invited Elkhan Abdullayev to AZAL and he signed a one-year contract. He started with a brilliance victory over Simurq (3:0), but resigned after 11 games, when AZAL came down to 11th position.^[14] The club sponsors made a decision to replace him by Rafig Mirzayev, Abdullayev's former assistant. Mirzayev started as a caretaker, winning 3 games consecutively and taking the team up to 7th place. In December 2011, Mirzayev signed a half-year contract with AZAL.^[15] In April, after the unsuccessful run, Mirzayev was sacked, and Azerbaijan national football team former manager Vagif Sadygov was appointed as a new head coach.^[16]

It was an ambiguous season for AZAL and its manager. The team won 16 games, scored 57 goals renewing own records, but for the second time consecutively did not enter Championship Group after Preliminary Round. The management recognized the season as unsuccessful despite the fact that the team has won 9 of the 10 matches in the relegation group.^[17] Brazilian striker Nildo scored 21 goals showing the best individual record in AZAL's history for the scorers in a single season and became one of the topscorers of the 2012–13 Azerbaijan Premier League.

The summer of 2013, saw more budget cuts and several big names as Nildo, Zouhir Benouahi, Usim Nduka, etc. leaving the club, but this time the main concern for fans was the very future of the club.^[18]

Domestic league and cup history

John Oluremi was AZAL's top goalscorer during the 2013–14 season.

Season	Div.	Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Domestic Cup	Top scorer	Goals	Manager
2004–05	2nd	1	14	10	3	1	25	9	33	1/16 Finals			Garibov
2005–06	1st	12	26	5	8	13	15	27	23	1/8 Finals	Baljak	3	Čordaš / Kurčubić
2006–07	1st	6	24	11	8	5	28	17	41	1/8 Finals	Mammadov	13	A.Abdullayev
2007–08	1st	2	26	17	7	2	29	7	58	Quarterfinals	Junivan	11	A.Abdullayev
2008–09	1st	6	26	12	8	6	32	18	44	Quarterfinals	Gomes	10	A.Abdullayev
2009–10	1st	7	42	16	13	13	47	29	61	Semi-finals	Doroş	12	A.Abdullayev / Suleymanov
2010–11	1st	4	32	13	10	9	36	28	49	Semi-finals	Juška	10	Suleymanov
2011–12	1st	7	32	12	8	12	44	44	44	Quarterfinals	Benouahi	10	E.Abdullayev / Mirzayev / Sadygov
2012–13	1st	7	32	16	9	7	57	32	57	1/8 Finals	Nildo	21	Sadygov
2013–14	1st	8	36	6	13	17	29	49	31	Second Round	Oluremi	8	Sadygov / Ahmadov
2014–15	1st	6	32	10	9	13	37	42	39	Quarter Final	Mombongo-Dues	13	Ahmadov
2015–16	1st									Second round

European history

As of 10 February 2013.

Season	Competition	Round	Country	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2008–09	UEFA Cup	Q1		Vojvodina	1–1	0–1	1–2
2011–12	UEFA Europa League	Q1		Minsk	1–1	1–2	2–3

• Q = Qualifying

Stadium

AZAL Arena

UEFA
Location	Shuvalan, Baku, Azerbaijan
Owner	AZAL PFK
Capacity	3,500
Surface	Artificial
Construction
Broke ground	2009
Opened	10 April 2011
Tenants
AZAL PFK

AZAL Arena is a football stadium in Shuvalan settlement of Baku, Azerbaijan. It is currently used as club's home stadium and holds 3,500 people. The club plans to construct another tribune by increasing stadiums' capacity to 6000 in the upcoming years.

During 2005–2011 years AZAL played its home games at Shafa Stadium.

Crest and colours

• 

  1996–04

• 

  2005–09

• 

  2009–10

AZAL changed the crest four times during its short history. Between 1996–2004 years the crest was the same of AMMK's organisation logo. In 2005, as soon as AMMK was renamed into Olimpik Baku the logo was also modified. New logo was the form of circular blue shield with the Olympic flame in the middle.

In 2009, it was designed a new version of the crest with a white and blue stripes, and remained for a next season, however the club became AZAL PFK. Current logo seems like the older logo, but in the center of traditional blue circular shield is drawn an airliner^[19]

Shirt sponsors and kit manufacturers

Since its foundation AZAL's traditional home kit is completely blue. For the guest games the team usually wears an all white kit, except 2007–08 season, when Olimpic Baku has worn red-black striped jersey, black shorts and red socks. For the last three years the club's kits are manufactured by Umbro and sponsored by Silk Way Airlines.

Players

Azerbaijani teams are limited to nine players without Azerbaijani citizenship. The squad list includes only the principal nationality of each player; several non-European players on the squad have dual citizenship with an EU country.

Current squad

As of 29 January 2016

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Amil Agajanov 2 DF Rail Malikov (vice-captain) 3 DF Tural Hümbatov 4 DF Gvanzav Magomedov 5 DF Kamil Huseynov 6 MF Tagim Novruzov 7 MF Tarlan Khalilov 8 MF Seymur Asadov (captain) 9 FW Aydin Gasimov 10 MF Nugzar Kvirtia 11 FW Ruslan Nasirli 12 FW Ziyabil Mammadov 14 MF Ilgar Alakbarov 15 FW Rufat Musayev

No. Position Player 18 DF Eltun Huseynov 16 GK Stanislav Namașco 17 FW Elmin Chobanov 19 FW Mahammad Badalbayli 20 MF Ismayil Ibrahimli 21 MF Murad Sattarli 22 MF Kamal Mirzayev 23 MF Haji Ahmadov 24 DF Emin Jafarguliyev 27 MF Aleksandre Guruli 56 MF Rustam Rustamli 77 MF Adan Coronado 88 MF Mirzaga Huseynpur 95 GK Polad Mirzazade

For recent transfers, see summer 2015 transfers and winter 2016 transfers.

Coaching staff

Position	Staff
Manager	Tarlan Ahmadov
Assistant first team coach	Tofig Mustafayev
Assistant first team coach	Vadar Nuriyev
Goalkeeper coach	Rauf Salamov

Records

Club

• Best position in Azerbaijan Premier League: 2nd (2007–08 season)^[20]
• Worst position in Azerbaijan Premier League: 12th(2005–06 season)^[21]
• First competitive match in Azerbaijan competition: v. Adliyya Baku, Azerbaijan First Division 2004–05 season, 9 October 2004 (draw 0–0).
• First competitive match in European competition: v. FK Vojvodina, UEFA Cup 2008–09 season, 17 July 2008 (lost 0–1).

Individual

Lists of the players with the most caps and top goalscorers for AZAL.(players in bold signifies current AZAL player):

Top goalscorers

As of Match played 13 February 2016

Khagani Mammadov scored 14 goals for Olimpik Baku during his only season with the club.

	Name	Years	League	Azerbaijan Cup	Europe	Total
1	Zouhir Benouahi	2010–2013	24 (76)	01 0(7)	00 0(2)	25 (85)
2	Victor Igbekoi	2009–2015	23 (156)	00 0(15)	01 0(2)	24 (173)
3	Nlido	2012–2013	21 (32)	00 0(1)	00 0(0)	21 (33)
4	Junivan	2007–2009, 2010	17 (55)	00 0(?)	00 0(0)	17 (?)
5	Khagani Mammadov	2006–2007	13 (23)	01 0(?)	00 0(0)	14 (?)
5	Freddy Mombongo-Dues	2014–2015	13 (28)	01 0(3)	00 0(0)	14 (31)
5	Anatolie Doroș	2008–2009	12 (28)	02 0(?)	00 0(0)	14 (?)
8	Jon Oluremi	2012–2014	12 (41)	00 0(1)	00 0(0)	12 (42)
9	Gvidas Juška	2010–2011	10 (31)	01 0(4)	00 0(0)	11 (35)
9	Nugzar Kvirtia	2009–2012, 2015-Present	9 (109)	02 0(13)	00 0(2)	11 (124)

Most appearances

Agil Nabiyev appeared over 129 times during his six-year stint at AZAL.

As of Match played 13 February 2016

	Name	Years	League	Azerbaijan Cup	Europe	Total
1	Nduka Usim	2004–2013	208 (5)	0? (0)	04 (0)	212+ (5)
2	Victor Igbekoi	2009–2015	156 (23)	015 (0)	02 (1)	173 (24)
3	Agil Nabiyev	2006–2012	125 (0)	0? (1)	04 (0)	129+ (1)
4	Nugzar Kvirtia	2009–2012, 2015-Present	109 (9)	013 (2)	02 (0)	124 (11)
5	Dragan Mandic	2007–2011	107 (1)	0? (0)	00 (0)	107+ (1)
6	Jahangir Hasanzade	2009–2014	89 (0)	09 0(0)	02 0(0)	100 (0)
7	Branislav Arsenijević	2011–2014	88 (6)	05 0(0)	00 0(0)	93 (6)
8	Oskars Kļava	2012–2015	86 (3)	05 0(0)	00 0(0)	91 (3)
9	Zouhir Benouahi	2010–2013	75 (24)	07 0(1)	02 0(0)	85 (25)
10	Tarlan Ahmadov	2006–2009	72 (1)	0? 0(0)	02 0(0)	74+ (1)

Notable managers

Information correct as of match played 20 July 2014. Only competitive matches are counted.

Name	Nat.	From	To	P	W	D	L	GS	GA	%W	Honours	Notes
Shakir Garibov	Azerbaijan	June 2004	May 2005	16	10	3	3	0	0	62.50
Stjepan Čordaš	Croatia	June 2005	Aug 2005	4	1	1	2	0	0	25.00
Jamaladdin Aliyev (Interim)	Azerbaijan	June 2004	May 2005	1	0	1	0	0	0	00.00
Petar Kurčubić	Serbia	Aug 2005	May 2006	26	7	7	12	0	0	26.92
Asgar Abdullayev	Azerbaijan	June 2006	Nov 2009	105	52	30	23	0	0	49.52
Nazim Suleymanov	Azerbaijan	Nov 23, 2009	July 7, 2011	64	24	22	18	0	0	37.50		[22]
Elkhan Abdullayev (Interim)	Azerbaijan	June 2011	Oct 2011	11	2	4	5	0	0	18.18
Rafig Mirzayev	Azerbaijan	Nov 2011	April 2012	18	9	1	8	0	0	50.00
Vagif Sadygov	Azerbaijan	April 6, 2012	March 15, 2014	63	23	19	21	0	0	36.51		[23]
Shakir Garibov	Azerbaijan	March 16, 2014	March 17, 2014	1	0	0	1	0	0	00.00
Tarlan Ahmadov	Azerbaijan	March 18, 2014	Present	10	0	5	5	4	11	00.00		[24]

• Notes:

P – Total of played matches W – Won matches D – Drawn matches L – Lost matches GS – Goal scored GA – Goals against
%W – Percentage of matches won

Nationality is indicated by the corresponding FIFA country code(s).

Presidential history

AZAL was founded by former futsal player, currently FIFA licensed Football agent Kamil Mammadov. In 2005, he sold the club to Silk Way Airlines. Since the AZAL PFC has had just two presidents: former general officer Rasul Rasulov and the club's former vice-president Vaqif Gasymov. At the end of 2011, after Gasymov's resign Silk Way Airlines company chairman Zaur Akhundov became the AZAL PFC new president.

Name Years Kamil Mammadov 1996–06 Rasul Rasulov 2006–09 Vaqif Gasymov 2009–12 Zaur Akhundov 2012–

References

1. "АЗАЛ заявит на Лигу Европы игрока сборной Албании". Retrieved 29 June 2011.
2. Futsalplanet
3. Futsalplanet
4. "Marko Mitroviç: "Çox şadam ki, Azərbaycanda futbol oynamışam"". Rekord.az. Retrieved 2012-11-17.
5. Главный тренер футбольного клуба «Олимпик»: «До сих пор не могу понять, как мы упустили чемпионство» (Russian)
6. Азербайджанский "Олимпик" уступил "Войводине" (Russian)
7. “Olimpik” club to be renamed Archived 25 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
8. ФК "Олимпик" переименован (Russian) Archived 7 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
9. "Nazim Süleymanov "Olimpik-Şüvəlan" futbol klubunun baş məşqçisi oldu". Azeroo.com. Retrieved 2012-11-17.
10. "Olimpik-Şüvəlan" adını dəyişib, AZAL oldu (Azerbaijani)
11. АЗАЛ в премьер-лиге (Russian)
12. "Nazim Süleymanov: "AZAL "Minsk"i keçə bilməsə, istefaya getməyə hazıram"". Retrieved 29 June 2011.
13. "Nazim Suleymanov AZAL-ın baş məşqçiliyindən istefa verdi". Retrieved 8 July 2011.
14. "Elxan Abdullyev: "AZAL-da bəzi "viruslar" var"". Retrieved 2 November 2011.
15. "AZAL-a yeni baş məşqçi təyin edildi". Retrieved 29 December 2011.
16. "AZAL-ın yeni baş məşqçisi Vaqif Sadıqov oldu". Retrieved 6 April 2012.
17. "AZAL PFK". Soccerway.
18. Вагиф САДЫХОВ: Бюджет АЗАЛ урезан на 2,5 раза, но цели не изменятся. Day.az (in Russian). Retrieved 21 June 2013.
19. AZAL-ın yeni loqosu hazırlandı (Azerbaijani)
20. "Azerbaijan 2007–08".
21. "Azerbaijan 2005–06".
22. "Sadiqlik nümunəsi: Usim Nduka". Retrieved 19 July 2011.
23. Amiraslanov, Telman. Вагиф Садыхов: «Справедливым исходом матча был бы ничейный результат». 1news.az (in Russian). Retrieved 4 February 2014.
24. "Tərlan Əhmədov rəsmən AZAL-da". 1news.az (in Azerbaijani). Retrieved 18 March 2014.

External links

• Official website
• AZAL PFC at PFL.AZ