2007–08 Azerbaijan Premier League

The 2007–08 Azerbaijan Premier League is the 16th season of Azerbaijan Premier League, the Azerbaijani professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992. Khazar Lankaran were the defending champions, having won the previous season.

Azerbaijan Premier League

Season	2007–08
Champions	Inter Baku
Relegated	Gänclärbirliyi Sumqayit ABN Bärdä
Champions League	Inter Baku
UEFA Cup	Olimpik Baku Khazar Lankaran
Intertoto Cup	Neftchi Baku
Matches played	182
Goals scored	437 (2.4 per match)
Top goalscorer	Khagani Mammadov (19)
Biggest home win	Standard Baku 6-0 ABN Bärdä Masallı 6-0 Gänclärbirliyi Sumqayit
Biggest away win	Gänclärbirliyi Sumqayit 0-6 Gabala
Highest scoring	Gänclärbirliyi Sumqayit 2-6 Neftchi Baku
← 2006–07 2008–09 →

Teams

Shahdag Qusar were relegated after finishing the previous season in 13th. FK Gäncä, who were excluded from the league the previous season, also would not take part in the 2007–08 season. On 13 August 2007 UEFA declared MKT Araz defunct and withdrew their participation from the league.

They were replaced by ABN Bärdä, Masallı and Standard Baku from the Azerbaijan First Division.

Stadia and locations

FK Baku
Gänclärbirliyi
Inter
Neftchi
Olimpik
Standard

ABN Bärdä

Karabakh

Karvan

Khazar Lankaran

FK Masallı

FK Qäbälä

Simurq Zaqatala

Turan Tovuz

Location of teams in Azerbaijan Premier League 2007–08

Team	Venue	Capacity
ABN Bärdä	Barda City Stadium	10,000
FK Baku	Tofik Bakhramov Stadium	29,858
Gabala	Gabala City Stadium	2,000
Gänclärbirliyi Sumqayit	Mehdi Huseynzade Stadium	15,350
Inter Baku	Shafa Stadium	8,200
Karabakh	Guzanli Olympic Stadium1	15,000
Karvan	Yevlakh Stadium	5,000
Khazar Lankaran	Lankaran City Stadium	15,000
FK Masallı	Anatoliy Banishevskiy Stadium	7,500
Neftchi Baku	Tofik Bakhramov Stadium	29,858
Olimpik Baku	Shafa Stadium	8,200
Simurq Zaqatala	Zaqatala City Stadium	4,000
Standard Baku	Shafa Stadium	8,200
Turan Tovuz	Tovuz City Stadium	10,000

¹Karabakh played their home matches at Surakhani Stadium in Baku before moving to their current stadium on 3 May 2009.^[1]

Personnel and kits

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

Team	Manager	Team captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
ABN Bärdä	Faig Jabbarov
Baku	Gjoko Hadžievski
Gabala	Ramiz Mammadov		Erreà
Gänclärbirliyi Sumqayit	Sabir Aliyev
Inter Baku	Valentyn Khodukin
Karabakh	Rasim Kara
Karvan	Tabriz Hasanov
Khazar Lankaran	Agaselim Mirjavadov
FK Masallı	Gahraman Aliyev
Neftchi Baku	Anatoliy Demyanenko
Olimpik Baku	Asgar Abdullayev		Umbro	Silk Way Airlines
Simurq	Roman Pokora
Standard Baku	Yunis Huseynov
Turan Tovuz	Salahattin Darvand

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Neftchi Baku	Vlastimil Petržela	Sacked	5 January 2008[2]		Anatoliy Demyanenko	5 January 2008[2]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Inter Baku (C)	26	18	4	4	55	18	+37	58	Qualification for Champions League first qualifying round
2	Olimpik Baku	26	17	7	2	29	7	+22	58	Qualification for UEFA Cup first qualifying round[a]
3	Neftçi Baku	26	16	7	3	42	18	+24	55	Qualification for Intertoto Cup first round
4	Khazar Lankaran	26	14	10	2	44	16	+28	52	Qualification for UEFA Cup first qualifying round[a]
5	Qarabağ	26	11	8	7	25	16	+9	41
6	Gabala	26	11	3	12	33	36	−3	36
7	Simurq	26	9	9	8	31	25	+6	36
8	Baku	26	8	11	7	35	26	+9	35
9	Standard Baku	26	8	8	10	36	26	+10	32
10	FK Masallı	26	8	6	12	30	40	−10	30
11	Karvan	26	6	5	15	23	36	−13	23
12	Turan	26	4	6	16	21	49	−28	18
13	Gänclärbirliyi Sumqayit (R)	26	4	2	20	21	68	−47	14	Relegation to Azerbaijan First Division
14	ABN Bärdä (R)	26	2	6	18	12	56	−44	12

Source: Azerbaijan Professional Football league
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Khazar Lankaran qualified for the first qualifiying round of the 1st qualifying round of the UEFA Cup as winners of the 2007–08 Azerbaijan Cup.

Results

Home \ Away	ABB	BAK	GAB	GAS	INT	KAR	KHA	MAS	NEF	OLI	QAR	SIM	STA	TUR
ABN Bärdä		0–4	1–2	2–0	1–4	2–0	0–4	1–2	0–2	1–1	0–3	1–1	0–1	0–0
Baku	0–0		3–0	3–1	0–1	3–3	2–2	2–1	5–1	0–1	0–0	1–1	0–1	2–2
Gabala	2–0	2–0		2–2	2–1	1–0	1–1	1–1	2–3	0–1	1–2	1–0	1–0	2–1
Gänclärbirliyi Sumqayit	4–0	0–2	0–6		0–3	3–1	1–2	1–0	2–6	0–1	0–1	0–3	1–5	1–1
Inter Baku	4–0	1–0	4–0	3–0		3–1	2–2	3–0	0–0	2–0	1–0	2–0	1–1	3–1
Karvan	2–0	0–1	1–2	1–2	0–3		0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–0	1–1	1–1	1–0
Khazar Lankaran	0–0	0–0	2–1	5–0	3–1	0–0		4–1	0–1	0–0	2–0	2–1	2–2	2–0
FK Masallı	1–1	2–0	1–0	6–0	0–3	4–1	0–3		0–2	1–2	1–0	1–1	1–1	3–1
Neftçi Baku	3–0	3–2	2–0	2–0	2–0	2–1	0–1	4–1		0–0	0–0	2–1	3–1	1–2
Olimpik Baku	1–0	3–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	2–0	0–0	3–1	0–0		0–1	1–0	1–0	3–0
Qarabağ	3–1	1–1	2–1	3–1	0–1	0–1	2–0	1–1	0–0	0–1		2–0	1–0	0–0
Simurq	3–1	0–0	2–0	3–0	3–4	0–1	1–1	1–0	0–0	0–0	1–0		1–0	3–0
Standard Baku	6–0	1–1	0–1	3–1	1–2	1–2	0–1	4–1	1–1	0–0	0–1	3–0		1–1
Turan	3–0	0–2	4–2	2–0	0–4	1–5	0–4	0–0	0–1	1–3	0–2	1–2	0–2

Source: APL: Yüksək dəstə - 2007-08
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[3]
1	Khagani Mammadov	Inter	19
2	Branimir Subašić	Neftchi	14
3	Walter Guglielmone	Inter	11
	Junivan	Olimpik-Shuvalan	11
	Zaur Ramazanov	Khazar	11
6	Volodymyr Mazyar	Simurq	10
7	Roman Akhalkatsi	Karvan	9
	Georgi Adamia	Neftchi	9
9	Vitali Balamestny	Gabala	8
	Léo Rocha	Standard Baku	8

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Branimir Subašić	Neftchi	Gänclärbirliyi	6–2	18 August 2007[4]
Roman Akhalkatsi	Karvan	Turan	5–1	1 September 2007[5]
Khagani Mammadov	Inter	Turan	4–0	10 November 2007[6]
Vitali Balamestny4	Gabala	Gänclärbirliyi	0–6	11 November 2007[7]
Anatolie Doroș	Standard	Gänclärbirliyi	5–1	1 December 2007[8]
Nadir Nabiyev	Khazar	Gänclärbirliyi	5–0	29 March 2008[9]

• ⁴ Player scored 4 goals