2020–21 Azerbaijan Premier League

Azerbaijan Premier League
Season	2020–21
Dates	21 August 2020 – 19 May 2021
Champions	Neftçi Baku
Relegated	None
Champions League	Neftçi Baku
Matches played	112
Goals scored	266 (2.38 per match)
Top goalscorer	Namik Alaskarov (19 goals)
Biggest home win	Qarabağ 6–1 Keşla (1 November 2020) Qarabağ 6–1 Sumgayit (21 November 2020)
Biggest away win	Neftçi Baku 0–6 Qarabağ (8 November 2020)
Highest scoring	Qarabağ 6–1 Keşla (1 November 2020) Qarabağ 6–1 Sumgayit (21 November 2020)
Longest winning run	5 matches Neftçi Baku
Longest unbeaten run	11 matches Qarabağ
Longest winless run	14 matches Keşla
Longest losing run	6 matches Sabah
← 2019–20 2021–22 → All statistics correct as of 4 May 2021.

The 2020–21 Azerbaijan Premier League was the 29th season of the Azerbaijan Premier League, the highest tier football league of Azerbaijan. The season began on 21 August 2020 and ended on 19 May 2021.^[1]

Neftçi Baku were the champions, winning the league for the 9th time in their history and ending Qarabağ FK’s 7 year winning streak. They qualified for the first qualifying round of the 2021–22 Champions League. Qarabağ and Sumgayit earned places in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa Conference League.

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Teams

Keşla
Neftçi Baku
Sabah

Qarabağ

Locations of the 2020–21 Azerbaijan Premier League teams.
Team in italics is from a zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and is playing its home games in Baku.

Stadia and locations

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.

Team	Year Established	Location	Venue	Capacity^[2]
Gabala	1995^[3]^[4]	Qabala	Gabala City Stadium	4,500
Keşla	1997^[5]	Keshla	ASK Arena	5,800
Neftchi Baku	1906/1937	Baku	Bakcell Arena	10,200
Qarabağ	1951/1987	Aghdam	Azersun Arena	5,200
Sabah	2017	Absheron	Bank Respublika Arena	13,000
Sabail	2016	Səbail	Bayil Arena	3,200
Sumgayit	2010	Sumqayit	Kapital Bank Arena	1,400
Zira	2014	Zira	Zira Olympic Sport Complex Stadium	1,300

Stadiums

Gabala	Keşla	Qarabağ	Neftçi Baku
Gabala City Stadium	ASK Arena	Azersun Arena	Bakcell Arena
Capacity: 4,500	Capacity: 5,800	Capacity: 5,200	Capacity: 10,200

Sabah	Sabail	Sumgayit	Zira
Bank Respublika Arena	ASCO Arena	Kapital Bank Arena	Zira Olympic Sport Complex Stadium

Capacity: 13,000	Capacity: 3,200	Capacity: 1,400	Capacity: 1,300

Personnel and kits

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

Team	President	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Gabala	Fariz Najafov	Elmar Bakhshiyev	Asif Mammadov	Joma	Milla
Keşla	Zaur Akhundov	Yunis Huseynov	Ilkin Qirtimov	Joma	Samaya LTD
Neftçi Baku	Kamran Guliyev	Samir Abbasov	Emin Mahmudov	Nike	Turkish Airlines
Qarabağ	Abdolbari Gozal	Gurban Gurbanov	Maksim Medvedev	Adidas	Azersun
Sabah	Magsud Adigozalov	Ramin Guliyev (Acting Head Coach)	Ruslan Abışov	Nike	Bank Respublika
Sabail	Rashad Abdullayev	Aftandil Hacıyev	Rahid Amirguliyev	Nike	AzTea
Sumgayit	Riad Rafiyev	Aykhan Abbasov	Vurğun Hüseynov	Jako	Pasha Insurance, Azərikimya
Zira	Taleh Nasibov	Rashad Sadygov	Aghabala Ramazanov	Joma	Bakcell, Azfargroup

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Sabah	Željko Sopić	Resigned	3 July 2020^[6]	Pre-season	Vicente Gómez	10 July 2020.^[7]
Zira	Zaur Hashimov	End of contract	17 July 2020	Pre-season	Rashad Sadygov	17 July 2020^[8]
Keşla	Tarlan Ahmedov	End of contract	8 August 2020^[9]	Pre-season	Yunis Huseynov	16 August 2020^[10]
Neftchi	Fizuli Mammedov	Resigned	11 November 2020^[11]	4th	Samir Abbasov	11 November 2020^[11]
Keşla	Yunis Huseynov	Resigned	24 January 2021^[12]	7th	Sanan Gurbanov	25 January 2021^[13]
Sabah	Vicente Gómez	Mutual termination	11 March 2021^[14]	Pre-season	Ramin Guliyev (Acting Head Coach)	11 March 2021^[14]

Foreign players

A team could use only six foreign players on the field in each game.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	Player 6	Player 7	Player 8	Player 9	Player 10	Player 11
Gabala	Jurgen Goxha	Raphael Alemão	Vinko Međimorec	Merab Gigauri	Stefan Vukčević	James Adeniyi	Nicolas Rajsel	Yaovi Akakpo
Keşla	Eugeniu Cociuc	Sílvio	Anatole Abang	Sadio Tounkara	Stanislav Namașco	Mijuško Bojović	César Meza Colli	John Kamara
Neftçi	Bruno Telushi	Rener Pavão	Thallyson	Steeven Joseph-Monrose	Mamadou Kane	Keisuke Honda	Sabir Bougrine	Yusuf Lawal	Mamadou Mbodj	Vojislav Stanković	Ahmed Ahmedov
Qarabağ	Kevin Medina	Patrick Andrade	Uroš Matić	Filip Ozobić	Jaime Romero	Abdellah Zoubir	Owusu Kwabena
Sabah	Kévin Koubemba	Mario Marina	Amadou Diallo	Tiemoko Fofana	Zurab Ochihava	Julio Rodríguez	Filip Ivanović	Saša Stamenković	Álvaro Villete	Dmytro Klyots
Sabail	Luka Imnadze	Nicholas Hagen	Peyman Keshavarzi	Florijan Kadriu	Hendrick Ekstein	Milovan Petrovikj	Alie Sesay
Sumgayit	Martin Balco	Hojjat Haghverdi	Mehdi Sharifi	Dzhamaldin Khodzhaniyazov	Mehdi Jannatov
Zira	Matheus Albino	Davit Volkovi	Dimitrios Chantakias	Clésio	Nemanja Andjelkovic	Lazar Đorđević	Rodrigue Bongongui	Facundo Melivilo	Filipe Pachtmann

In bold: Players that capped for their national team.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Neftçi Baku (C)	28	18	5	5	47	25	+22	59	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Qarabağ	28	16	9	3	64	18	+46	57	Qualification to Europa Conference League second qualifying round
3	Sumgayit	28	10	9	9	30	31	−1	39
4	Zira	28	8	14	6	28	28	0	38
5	Sabah	28	7	8	13	28	38	−10	29
6	Keşla	28	5	11	12	25	40	−15	26	Qualification to Europa Conference League second qualifying round
7	Gabala	28	5	11	12	23	44	−21	26
8	Sabail	28	5	9	14	21	42	−21	24

Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Head-to-head away goals scored (only if two teams); 6) Goal difference; 7) Goals scored.^[15]
(C) Champions

Fixtures and results

Clubs played each other four times for a total of 28 matches each.

Matches 1–14

Home \ Away	GAB	KES	NEF	QAR	SAB	SEB	SUM	ZIR
Gabala		0–0	1–4	1–1	2–1	1–1	1–1	1–1
Keşla	3–1		0–1	0–0	1–1	0–2	0–1	2–3
Neftçi Baku	1–1	2–1		0–6	1–0	2–1	0–2	0–0
Qarabağ	3–0	6–1	1–2		2–0	4–0	6–1	3–2
Sabah	3–0	0–2	0–2	1–2		2–1	1–2	0–1
Sabail	1–3	1–1	1–3	1–1	2–1		2–1	1–2
Sumgayit	0–1	0–1	0–0	2–2	1–2	2–1		2–1
Zira	2–0	3–1	1–0	0–0	0–2	0–0	2–2

Source: soccerway.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 15–28

Home \ Away	GAB	KES	NEF	QAR	SAB	SEB	SUM	ZIR
Gabala		2–1	2–2	0–5	2–2	1–1	1–0	1–1
Keşla	3–1		0–3	1–1	0–0	1–0	0–1	2–2
Neftçi Baku	1–0	3–1		1–0	2–1	4–0	0–2	4–0
Qarabağ	3–0	2–0	1–2		2–0	1–0	4–1	1–1
Sabah	1–0	1–1	2–2	0–4		0–0	1–1	2–1
Sabail	1–0	1–1	0–4	1–1	2–0		0–1	0–0
Sumgayit	2–0	2–2	0–1	0–0	0–2	3–0		0–0
Zira	0–0	0–0	1–0	0–2	2–2	2–0	0–0

Source: soccerway.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of matches played 19 May 2021

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Namik Alaskarov	Neftçi	19
2	Mahir Emreli	Qarabağ	18
3	Filip Ozobić	Qarabağ	11
4	Ali Ghorbani	Sumgayit	9
5	Davit Volkovi	Zira	8
5	Rahim Sadikhov	Sumgayit	8
7	Mirabdulla Abbasov	Neftçi	7
7	Owusu Kwabena	Qarabağ	7
9	Amil Yunanov	Sabail	6
9	Abdellah Zoubir	Qarabağ	6

Clean sheets

As of matches played 25 February 2021

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Matheus Albino	Zira	7
2	Shahrudin Mahammadaliyev	Qarabağ	6
3	Agil Mammadov	Neftçi	5
4	Anar Nazirov	Gabala	4
4	Mehdi Jannatov	Sumgayit	4
6	Stanislav Namașco	Keşla	3
6	Nicholas Hagen	Sabail	3
8	Saša Stamenković	Sabah	2
8	Aydin Bayramov	Sumgayit	2

References

^ "Azərbaycan Premyer Liqasının startı müəyyənləşdi". www.pfl.az (in Azerbaijani). PFL. 8 August 2020.
^ Azərbaycan Peşəkar Liqası (in Azerbaijani)
^ "Qəbələ – 10". gabalafc.az (in Azerbaijani). Gabala FK. 1 September 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
^ Establishment of SC Qabala Archived 23 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
^ "Arts, Sports & Events". Official Khazar University website. 2006. Archived from the original on 27 March 2008. Retrieved 23 June 2008.
^ "SABAH FC PARTED WAYS WITH ZELJKO SOPIC". sabahfc.az/. Sabah FC. 3 July 2020.
^ "SABAH FC OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCE VICENTE GOMEZ AS NEW HEAD COACH". sabahfc.az/. Sabah FC. 10 July 2020.
^ ""Zirə" PFK – nın baş məşqçisinin adı məlum olub. Komandanın yeni baş məşqçisi Rəşad Sadıqov olacaq". fczire.az/ (in Azerbaijani). Zira FK. 17 July 2020. Archived from the original on 17 July 2020. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
^ ""Keşlə" FK-nın məlumatı". www.keshlafc.az (in Azerbaijani). Zira FK. 8 August 2020.
^ ""Keşlə" Futbol Klubunun məlumatı". www.keshlafc.az (in Azerbaijani). Keşla FK. 16 August 2020.
^ ^a ^b ""Neftçi"də yeni baş məşqçi" (in Azerbaijani). Neftchi PFK. 11 November 2020.
^ "Yunis Hüseynov istefa verib". keshlafc.az/ (in Azerbaijani). Keşla FK. 24 January 2021. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
^ "Sənan Qurbanov "Keşlə"də!". keshlafc.az/ (in Azerbaijani). Keşla FK. 25 January 2021. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
^ ^a ^b "VİSENTE QOMESLƏ YOLLAR AYRILDI". sabahfc.az (in Azerbaijani). Sabah FC. 11 March 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
^ "Premyer Liqa: Season rules". Scoresway. Retrieved 1 July 2018.

External links

UEFA

Azerbaijan Premier League

Predecessor: Soviet Top League

Seasons

Top League	1992 1993 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07
Premier League	2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24

Champions

Neftçi (9)
Qarabağ (9)
Kapaz (3)
Shamakhi (2)
Baku (2)
Shamkir (2)
Khazar Lankaran (1)
Turan Tovuz (1)

Current teams

Former clubs

Football in Azerbaijan

Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan

League competitions

Professional	Premier League First League Second League Regional League
Amateur	AFFA Amateur League
Defunct	Women's League

Cup competitions