2008–09 Azerbaijan Premier League

The 2008–09 Azerbaijan Premier League is the 17th season of Azerbaijan Premier League, the Azerbaijani professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992. Inter Baku were the defending champions, having won the previous season.

Azerbaijan Premier League

Season	2008–09
Champions	FK Baku (2nd title)
Relegated	Bakılı Baku MOIK Baku
Champions League	FK Baku
Europa League	Inter Baku Simurq Zaqatala Karabakh (via domestic cup)
Matches played	182
Goals scored	443 (2.43 per match)
Top goalscorer	Walter Guglielmone (17)
Biggest home win	Baku 7–0 Turan
Biggest away win	Bakılı Baku 0–7 Baku
Highest scoring	Baku 7–0 Turan MOIK 1–6 Olimpik Bakılı Baku 0–7 Baku
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

Teams

FK Gänclärbirliyi Sumqayit and ABN Bärdä were relegated after finishing the previous season in 13th and 14th place, respectively. They were replaced by the champions of the two groups in the Azerbaijan First Division, Bakılı Baku and MOIK Baku.

On 8 July 2008, FK Masallı withdrew their participation from the league, citing competitional and financial problems as reasons.^[1] Although it was unclear as of 21 July if the Azerbaijan Football Federation would be naming a substitute or if the championship would start with just 13 teams, shortly thereafter AFFA named FK NBC Salyan to replace Masallı in top league.^[2]

On 31 October 2008, FK NBC Salyan changed their name to FK Mughan.^[3]

Stadia and locations

Bakılı Baku
FK Baku
Inter
MOIK
Neftchi
Olimpik
Standard

Karabakh

Karvan

Khazar Lankaran

Mughan

FK Qäbälä

Simurq Zaqatala

Turan Tovuz

Location of teams in Azerbaijan Premier League 2008–09

Team	Venue	Capacity
Bakılı Baku	Shafa Stadium	8,150
FK Baku	Tofik Bakhramov Stadium	29,858
Inter Baku	Shafa Stadium	8,150
Karabakh	Guzanli Olympic Stadium1	2,000
Karvan	Yevlakh Stadium	5,000
Khazar Lankaran	Lankaran City Stadium	15,000
MOIK Baku	MOIK Stadium	1,000
Mughan	Salyany Olympic Sport Complex Stadium	3,000
Neftchi Baku	Tofik Bakhramov Stadium	29,858
Olimpik Baku	Shafa Stadium	8,150
FK Qäbälä	Gabala City Stadium	2,000
Simurq Zaqatala	Zaqatala City Stadium	3,000
Standard Baku	Shafa Stadium	8,150
Turan Tovuz	Tovuz City Stadium	6,000

¹Karabakh played their home matches at Surakhani Stadium in Baku before moving to their current stadium on 3 May 2009.^[4]

Personnel

Team	Head coach	Team captain	Club chairman
Bakılı Baku	Bakhtiyar Gulamov	Vasif Aliyev	Misir Abilov
FK Baku	Gjoko Hadžievski	Rafael Amirbekov	Hafiz Mammadov
Inter Baku	Valentin Khodukin	Khagani Mammadov	Georgi Nikolov
Karabakh	Gurban Gurbanov	Farhad Veliyev	Abdulbari Goozal
Karvan	vacant	Ilham Yadullayev	Javanshir Shiraliyev
Khazar Lankaran	Igor Ponomarev	Dmitry Kramarenko	Mübariz Mensimov
MOIK Baku	Akif Ibadov	Ismail Mammadov	Safar Abiyev
Mughan	Vladislav Gadyrov	Tarlan Khalilov	Fizuli Aliyev
Neftchi Baku	Boyukaga Agaev	Zaur Tagizade	Akper Hajiyev
Olimpik Baku	Asker Abdullayev	Tarlan Akhmedov	Rasul Rasulov
FK Qäbälä	Ramiz Mammadov	Kanan Karimov	Taleh Heydarov
Simurq Zaqatala	Roman Pokora	Mykhailo Starostyak	Zaur Mammadov
Standard Baku	Rafik Mirzoyev	Huseyn Mahammadov	Emin Babayev
Turan Tovuz	Etimad Gurbanov	Asaf Gadiri	Rashid Maherramov

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Standard Baku	Badri Kvaratskhelia	Resigned	20 April 2009[5]	Rafik Mirzoyev	20 April 2009[5]
Mughan	Nadir Gasymov	Sacked	5 May 2009[6]	Vladislav Gadirov	20 April 2009[7]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Baku (C)	26	20	2	4	54	13	+41	62	Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round
2	Inter Baku	26	18	7	1	54	16	+38	61	Qualification for Europa League first qualifying round
3	Simurq	26	16	5	5	39	20	+19	53
4	Khazar Lankaran	26	15	5	6	49	21	+28	50
5	Qarabağ	26	14	7	5	35	22	+13	49	Qualification for Europa League second qualifying round[a]
6	Olimpik Baku	26	12	8	6	32	18	+14	44
7	Standard Baku	26	12	3	11	30	31	−1	39
8	Neftçi Baku	26	9	9	8	30	21	+9	36
9	Karvan	26	10	4	12	28	33	−5	34
10	Gabala	26	9	6	11	28	21	+7	33
11	Turan	26	5	5	16	19	45	−26	20
12	Mughan	26	4	2	20	19	53	−34	14
13	Bakili (R)	26	3	3	20	14	65	−51	12	Relegation to Azerbaijan First Division
14	MOIK Baku (R)	26	1	2	23	12	64	−52	5

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

1. Karabakh won the 2008–09 Azerbaijan Cup and therefore qualified for the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.

Results

Home \ Away	BKL	BAK	INT	QAR	KAR	KHA	MOI	MUG	NEF	OLI	GAB	SIM	STA	TUR
Bakili		0–7	1–5	1–2	2–1	1–3	1–0	3–2	0–2	1–2	0–1	0–2	0–2	0–2
Baku	3–1		0–0	2–0	0–3	0–0	1–0	4–0	2–0	3–1	3–0	1–0	2–0	7–0
Inter Baku	4–0	0–1		1–1	4–0	2–2	2–0	2–0	2–2	1–0	1–1	2–1	3–0	3–0
Qarabağ	3–0	0–2	1–1		3–2	1–0	3–0	3–1	1–1	1–1	0–0	0–2	0–1	4–2
Karvan	2–0	0–1	1–2	0–0		1–0	2–0	3–1	1–1	0–1	2–1	1–3	3–1	1–1
Khazar Lankaran	5–0	3–0	2–4	1–3	0–0		2–0	2–1	2–0	0–0	1–2	3–1	4–0	5–0
MOIK Baku	1–1	0–3	0–3	0–1	0–3	0–4		1–3	0–5	1–6	0–3	2–4	1–2	2–0
Mughan	1–0	0–4	1–2	1–2	0–1	1–3	1–1		0–3	0–1	0–4	1–2	1–3	2–1
Neftçi Baku	3–0	0–1	1–3	0–1	0–1	2–1	3–1	0–0		1–2	0–0	0–0	2–1	1–1
Olimpik Baku	4–0	2–1	1–1	0–1	1–0	0–1	3–1	1–0	0–0		1–0	0–2	0–0	3–0
Gabala	3–0	0–1	0–1	1–2	3–0	0–1	2–0	4–1	0–1	1–1		0–0	2–1	0–1
Simurq	3–0	2–1	0–2	0–0	2–0	2–2	1–0	2–0	0–2	1–1	1–0		3–1	3–1
Standard Baku	1–1	1–2	0–2	2–1	2–0	0–1	2–1	1–0	1–0	0–0	2–0	0–1		4–1
Turan	1–1	0–2	0–1	0–1	4–0	0–1	3–0	0–1	0–0	1–0	0–0	0–1	0–2

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

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[8]
1	Walter Guglielmone	Inter	17
2	Ivan Tsvetkov	Khazar	15
3	Volodymyr Mazyar	Simurq	11
	Amiran Mujiri	Baku	11
5	Leandro Gomes	Olimpik Baku	10
	Angel Gutierrez	Standard	10
7	Victor Igbekoyi	Qarabağ/Turan	8
	Farzad Hatami	Gabala	8
	Rômulo	Khazar	8
10	Bakhtiyar Soltanov	Baku	7

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Farzad Hatami	Gabala	MOIK	3–0	17 August 2008[9]
Ivan Tsvetkov4	Khazar	MOIK	4–0	26 September 2008[10]
Leandro Gomes	Olimpik Baku	Bakılı	4–0	7 March 2009[11]
Bakhtiyar Soltanov	Baku	Bakılı	3–1	21 March 2009[12]
Victor Igbekoi	Turan	Karvan	4–0	12 April 2009[13]
Walter Guglielmone	Inter	MOIK	3–0	12 April 2009[14]
Nariman Äzimov	Olimpik Baku	MOIK	6–1	11 May 2009[15]

• ⁴ Player scored 4 goals

Scoring

• First goal of the season: Kanan Karimov for Gabala against NBC Salyan (9 August 2008)^[16]
• Fastest goal of the season: 1st minute,
  • Angel Gutierrez for Standard Baku against Gabala (25 October 2008)^[17]
  • Farzad Hatami for Gabala against Karvan (22 March 2009)^[18]
• Largest winning margin: 7 goals
  • Bakılı Baku 0–7 Baku (28 September 2008)^[19]
  • Baku 7–0 Turan Tovuz (22 November 2008)^[20]
• Highest scoring game: 7 goals
  • Bakılı Baku 0–7 Baku (28 September 2008)^[19]
  • Baku 7–0 Turan Tovuz (22 November 2008)^[20]
  • MOIK Baku 1–6 Olimpik Baku (11 May 2009)^[21]
• Most goals scored in a match by a single team: 7 goals
  • Bakılı Baku 0–7 Baku (28 September 2008)^[19]
  • Baku 7–0 Turan Tovuz (22 November 2008)^[20]
• Most goals scored in a match by a losing team: 2 goals
  • Bakılı Baku 3–2 NBC Salyan (9 November 2008)^[22]
  • Khazar Lankaran 2–4 Inter Baku (9 November 2008)^[23]
  • Karabakh 3–2 Karvan (29 November 2008)^[24]
  • MOIK Baku 2–4 Simurq (1 March 2009)^[25]
  • Karabakh 4–2 Turan Tovuz (5 April 2009)^[26]

Clean sheets

• Most clean sheets: 19
  • Baku
• Fewest clean sheets: 1
  • Bakılı Baku
  • MOIK Baku