2010–11 Azerbaijan Premier League

The 2010–11 Azerbaijan Premier League (known as the Unibank Premyer Liqası for sponsorship reasons) was the nineteenth season of the top tier Azerbaijan Premier League since its establishment in 1992. The fixtures were announced on 29 July 2010; the season began on 7 August 2010 and ended on 28 May 2011.^[1] Neftchi Baku were the eventual champions, winning their first Azerbaijani championship since 2005.

Azerbaijan Premier League

Season	2010–11
Champions	Neftchi Baku
Relegated	Simurq Zaqatala MOIK Baku
Champions League	Neftchi Baku
Europa League	Khazar Lankaran Qarabağ AZAL Baku
Matches played	192
Goals scored	302 (1.57 per match)
Top goalscorer	Georgi Adamia (18)
Biggest home win	AZAL 5–0 Inter
Biggest away win	MOIK 0–5 Ganja
Highest scoring	Neftchi 6–2 Ganja
← 2009–10 2011–12 →

The league was competed over two stages. The first stage consisted of a regular home-and-away round-robin schedule for a total of 22 matches per team. The competition was then split in half, with the teams ranked first through sixth playing out the championship and the European spots while the bottom six teams having to avoid one of the two relegation places.^[2] In contrast to the previous season, each team transferred their full record from the first to the second stage.^[3]

Adidas provided their Jabulani match ball for the season.^[4]

Teams

Standard Sumgayit and Karvan had been relegated to the Azerbaijan First Division after finishing 11th and 12th, respectively, at the end of last season. They were replaced by First Division champions Ganja and runners-up MOIK Baku.

Olimpik-Shuvalan Baku were renamed AZAL Baku prior to the start of the season.^[5][6]

Stadia and locations

AZAL
FK Baku
Inter
MOIK
Neftchi

Ganja

Khazar

Mughan

Qarabağ

Gabala

Simurq

Turan

Location of teams in Azerbaijan Premier League 2010-11

Team	Location	Venue	Capacity[7]
AZAL	Baku	AZAL Stadium	3,000
FK Baku	Baku	Tofig Bahramov Stadium	30,000
Ganja	Ganja	Ganja City Stadium	25,000
Inter	Baku	Shafa Stadium	8,150
Khazar	Lankaran	Lankaran City Stadium	15,000
MOIK Baku	Baku	MOIK Stadium	1,000
Mughan	Salyan	Salyany Olympic Stadium	2,000
Neftchi	Baku	Ismat Gayibov Stadium	5,000
Qarabağ	Aghdam	Guzanli Olympic Stadium	2,000
Gabala FC	Gabala	Gabala City Stadium	2,000
Simurq	Zaqatala	Zaqatala City Stadium	3,500
Turan	Tovuz	Tovuz City Stadium	10,000

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Head coach	Team captain	Kitmaker	Shirt sponsor
AZAL	Nazim Suleymanov	Agil Nabiyev	Umbro	Silk Way
FK Baku	Aleksandrs Starkovs	Jamshid Maharramov	Kappa
FK Ganja	Mehman Allahverdiyev	Azer Mammadov	Adidas
Inter	Kakhaber Tskhadadze	Vladimir Levin	Adidas	IBA
Khazar	Mircea Rednic	Kamran Agaev	Puma	Palmali
MOIK Baku	Gahraman Aliyev	Farid Hashimzadeh	Umbro
Mughan	Bahman Hasanov	Elnur Abdullayev	Olympikus	Nissan
Neftchi	Arif Asadov	Rail Malikov	Adidas	SOCAR
Qarabağ	Gurban Gurbanov	Aslan Kerimov	Adidas	Azersun Holding
Qabala	Tony Adams	Kanan Karimov	Erreà	Hyundai
Simurq	Gjoko Hadžievski	Rasim Ramaldanov	Umbro
Turan	Asgar Abdullayev	Vurgun Huseynov	Umbro

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Gabala	Ramiz Mammadov	End of contract	10 May 2010	Tony Adams[8]	12 May 2010
FK Baku	Cüneyt Biçer	End of contract	10 June 2010	Winfried Schäfer[9]	10 June 2010
Simurq PFC	Roman Pokora	Sacked	18 June 2010	Gjoko Hadžievski[10]	18 June 2010
Turan Tovuz	Nizami Sadygov	Sacked	29 June 2010	Sakit Aliyev[11]	29 June 2010
Khazar Lankaran	Agaselim Mirjavadov[12]	Resigned	8 July 2010	Mircea Rednic[13]	15 July 2010
Turan Tovuz	Sakit Aliyev[14]	Sacked	30 September 2010	Revaz Dzodzuashvili[14]	30 September 2010
FK Mughan	Almir Hurtić[15]	Resigned	13 November 2010	Bahman Hasanov	13 November
Turan Tovuz	Revaz Dzodzuashvili	End of contract	23 December 2010	Naci Şensoy[16]	25 December 2010
FK Baku	Winfried Schäfer[17]	Sacked	6 January 2011	Aleksandrs Starkovs[18]	16 January 2011
FK Ganja	Fuad Ismayilov	Resigned	17 March 2011	Mehman Allahverdiyev[19]	18 March 2011
Turan Tovuz	Naci Şensoy	Sacked	6 May 2011	Asgar Abdullayev	6 May 2011

First round

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Neftçi Baku	22	14	6	2	40	9	+31	48	Qualification for championship group
2	Khazar Lankaran	22	14	5	3	28	12	+16	47
3	Qarabağ	22	13	3	6	30	14	+16	42
4	Inter Baku	22	12	4	6	24	16	+8	40
5	AZAL	22	9	9	4	27	16	+11	36
6	Baku	22	9	6	7	28	21	+7	33
7	Gabala	22	8	7	7	19	14	+5	31	Qualification for relegation group
8	Mughan	22	7	6	9	14	23	−9	27
9	Ganja	22	5	9	8	23	27	−4	24
10	Turan	22	3	6	13	17	35	−18	15
11	Simurq	22	2	6	14	12	34	−22	12
12	MOIK Baku	22	1	3	18	6	47	−41	6

Source: Soccerway.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.

Results

Home \ Away	AZL	BAK	GAN	INT	KHA	MOI	MUG	NEF	QAR	GAB	SIM	TUR
AZAL		0–0	0–0	5–0	0–1	2–0	2–0	0–0	2–0	2–2	2–1	1–0
Baku	2–3		1–1	1–2	1–1	2–1	1–1	0–2	2–0	2–1	0–1	3–1
Ganja	1–1	1–3		1–0	4–1	1–0	3–0	0–4	0–1	0–0	1–1	1–1
Inter Baku	1–1	1–0	1–0		1–3	1–0	1–0	0–2	1–0	0–0	2–0	3–0
Khazar Lankaran	2–1	1–1	1–0	0–0		3–0	2–0	1–0	1–2	1–0	1–0	2–0
MOIK Baku	1–1	0–4	0–5	0–4	0–2		3–2	0–4	0–1	0–3	0–2	0–2
Mughan	3–1	1–0	1–1	1–0	0–0	1–0		0–3	0–0	1–0	1–0	0–0
Neftçi Baku	1–0	0–2	6–2	1–1	0–0	1–0	1–0		1–1	0–0	4–0	2–0
Qarabağ	0–0	2–0	3–0	1–0	0–1	3–0	2–0	0–1		3–0	3–2	5–1
Gabala	0–0	0–1	0–0	0–1	1–0	0–0	2–0	0–2	2–1		4–0	1–0
Simurq	0–1	1–1	0–0	0–1	0–2	1–1	0–1	0–3	0–1	0–2		2–2
Turan	1–2	0–1	2–1	0–3	1–2	2–0	1–1	2–2	0–1	0–1	1–1

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

Second round

The league was split into two groups; however, each team retained its record from the first round.^[3]

Championship group

The top six teams of the first phase participate in this group, which will decide which team will win the championship. Additionally, teams in this group compete for one 2011–12 Champions League and two Europa League spots.

The winners will qualify for the Champions League Second qualifying round, with the runners-up and third place team earning a spot in the Europa League first qualifying round.

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Neftçi Baku (C)	32	19	10	3	53	17	+36	67	Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round
2	Khazar Lankaran	32	16	12	4	38	18	+20	60	Qualification for Europa League second qualifying round[a]
3	Qarabağ	32	17	7	8	41	22	+19	58	Qualification for Europa League first qualifying round
4	AZAL	32	13	10	9	36	28	+8	49
5	Inter Baku	32	13	10	9	29	24	+5	49
6	Baku	32	10	10	12	33	32	+1	40

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

1. Khazar Lankaran won the 2010–11 Azerbaijan Cup and therefore qualified for the second qualifying round of the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League.

Results

Home \ Away	AZL	BAK	INT	KHA	NEF	QAR
AZAL		1–0	1–0	1–0	1–3	3–1
Baku	2–1		0–1	0–0	0–1	0–0
Inter Baku	0–0	1–1		1–1	1–1	0–2
Khazar Lankaran	3–0	2–0	1–1		1–1	1–1
Neftçi Baku	2–1	2–0	0–0	1–1		2–0
Qarabağ	1–0	2–2	1–0	0–0	3–0

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

Relegation group

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Relegation
7	Gabala	32	13	12	7	31	18	+13	51
8	Mughan	32	13	8	11	29	31	−2	47
9	Ganja	32	8	12	12	33	37	−4	36
10	Turan	32	7	6	19	24	47	−23	27
11	Simurq (R)	32	4	7	21	20	52	−32	19	Relegation to Azerbaijan First Division
12	MOIK Baku (R)	32	4	6	22	14	55	−41	18

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

Results

Home \ Away	GAB	GAN	MOI	MUG	SIM	TUR
Gabala		1–1	0–0	2–1	3–0	1–0
Ganja	0–0		1–0	1–1	0–1	1–0
MOIK Baku	1–1	0–2		0–0	1–0	4–1
Mughan	1–2	2–1	1–0		3–0	2–1
Simurq	0–0	4–3	1–2	1–3		0–1
Turan	0–2	1–0	1–0	0–1	2–1

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

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of 18 May 2011^[20]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Georgi Adamia	Qarabağ	18
2	Bahodir Nasimov	Neftchi Baku	15
3	Flavinho	Neftchi Baku	11
4	Rauf Aliyev	Qarabağ	10
	Gvidas Juška	AZAL	10
	Junivan	Gence	10
5	Deon Burton	Gabala	9
	Sabir Allahquliyev	FK Gence	9
6	Winston Parks	Khazar	8
7	Rashad Abdullayev	Neftchi Baku	7
	Jabá	FK Baku	7

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Bahodir Nasimov	Neftchi Baku	Simurq	4–0[21]	21 August 2010
Giorgi Adamia	Qarabağ	Neftchi Baku	3–0[22]	13 May 2011

Scoring

• First goal of the season: Bachana Tskhadadze for Simurq against Ganja (7 August 2010)
• Fastest goal of the season: 1st minute, Bahodir Nasimov for Neftchi Baku against Simurq (21 August 2010)^[21]
• Latest goal of the season: 94 minutes, George Gulordava for FK Mughan against Simurq (12 March 2011)^[23]
• Largest winning margin: 5 goals
  • MOIK Baku 0–5 Ganja (2 October 2010)^[24]
  • AZAL 5–0 Inter Baku (16 October 2010)^[25]
• Highest scoring game: 8 goals
  • Neftchi Baku 6–2 Ganja (23 October 2010)^[26]
• Most goals scored in a match by a single team: 6 goals
  • Neftchi Baku 6–2 Ganja (23 October 2010)^[26]
• Most goals scored in a match by a losing team: 3 goals
  • Simurq 4–3 Ganja (19 May 2011)^[27]

Clean sheets

• Most clean sheets: 19
  • Neftchi Baku
  • Gabala
• Fewest clean sheets: 4
  • MOIK Baku

Discipline

Most yellow cards (club): 77[28] FK Mughan Most yellow cards (player): 12[28] Zurab Dzamsashvili (Ganja)

Most red cards (club): 6[28] Baku Ganja Most red cards (player): 2[28] Aziz Guliyev (Baku) Ramal Huseynov (Ganja)

Monthly awards

Month	Player of the Month
	Player	Club
September	Bahodir Nasimov	Neftchi Baku[29]
October	Flavinho	Neftchi Baku[30]
November	Zouhir Benouahi	AZAL[31]
December	Samir Aliyev	Simurg[31]
February	Flavinho	Neftchi Baku
March	Rauf Aliyev	FK Qarabag
April	Winston Parks	Khazar
May	Giorgi Adamia	Qarabağ