2011 Kazakhstan Premier League

The 2011 Kazakhstan Premier League was the 20th season of the Kazakhstan Premier League, the highest football league competition in Kazakhstan. The season began on 6 March 2011 and ended on 29 October 2011.^[1] Tobol were the defending champions having won their first league championship last year.

Kazakhstan Premier League

Season	2011
Champions	Shakhter
Relegated	Vostok
Champions League	Shakhter
Europa League	Zhetysu Aktobe Ordabasy
Matches played	196
Goals scored	485 (2.47 per match)
Biggest home win	Aktobe 6–1 Kaisar Irtysh 5–0 Astana Astana 6–1 Kairat Aktobe 7–2 Irtysh
Biggest away win	Vostok 0–4 Ordabasy Kaisar 0–4 Zhetysu
Highest scoring	Aktobe 7–2 Irtysh
← 2010 2012 →

As in the 2010 season, the competition was completed in two stages, with all twelve clubs playing twice against each other before splitting up into two groups of six teams each, according to their position after 22 matches. However, all earned points after the first stage will be halved this time, with any odd numbers of points being rounded up.^[2] Shakhter won the championship, the teams' first title.^[3]

Teams

Akzhayik and FC Okzhetpes were relegated to the Kazakhstan First Division at the end of last season after finishing in the bottom two places of the table. Akzhayik returned to the Kazakhstan First Division after just one season, while Okzhetpes eventually had to leave the Kazakh top league after 15 seasons.

The relegated teams will be replaced by First Division champions Vostok and Kaisar. Both clubs returned to the league after one-year absences.

In further changes, Lokomotiv Astana renamed themselves FC Astana on 20 May 2011.^[4]

Aktobe

Atyrau

Irtysh

Kairat

Kaisar

Astana

Ordabasy

Shakhter

Taraz

Tobol

Vostok

Zhetysu

Locations of teams in the 2011 Kazakhstan Premier League

Team	Location	Venue	Capacity
Aktobe	Aktobe	Aktobe Central Stadium	13,500
Astana	Astana	Astana Arena	30,000
Atyrau	Atyrau	Munayshy Stadium	08,660
Irtysh	Pavlodar	Pavlodar Central Stadium	15,000
Kairat	Almaty	Almaty Central Stadium	25,057
Kaisar	Kyzylorda	Gany Muratbayev Stadium	07,300
Ordabasy	Shymkent	K. Munaitpasov Stadium, Shymkent	37,000
Shakhter	Karagandy	Shakhtyor Stadium	19,000
Taraz	Taraz	Taraz Central Stadium	12,525
Tobol	Kostanay	Kostanay Central Stadium	08,323
Vostok	Oskemen	Vostok Stadium	08,500
Zhetysu	Taldykorgan	Zhetysu Stadium	04,000

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	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer[citation needed]	Shirt sponsor[citation needed]
Aktobe	Vladimir Mukhanov	Samat Smakov	Adidas
Astana	Holger Fach	Nurbol Zhumaskaliyev	Adidas	Qazaqstan Temir Zholy
Atyrau	Ramiz Mammadov	Andrei Travin	Adidas
Irtysh	Talgat Baisufinov	David Loria	Nike	ENRC
Kairat	John Gregory	Ruslan Baltiev	Adidas	KazRosGaz
Kaisar	Algimantas Liubinskas	Borut Semler	Adidas
Ordabasy	Viktor Pasulko	Kairat Ashirbekov	Adidas
Shakhter	Viktor Kumykov	Andrey Finonchenko	Umbro	ArcelorMittal
Taraz	Vait Talgayev	Nurtas Kurgulin	Nike
Tobol	Sergei Petrenko	Aleksandr Petukhov	Erreà
Vostok	Oleksandr Holokolosov	Renat Abdulin	Adidas
Zhetysu	Serik Abdualiyev	Aidar Kumisbekov	Nike

Foreign players

The number of foreign players is restricted to six per KPL team. A team can use only five foreign players on the field in each game.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	Player 6
Aktobe	Darko Maletić	Emil Kenzhesariyev	Malick Mané	Vladimir Đilas	Zoran Kostić	Robert Primus
Astana	Bobi Božinovski	Anatolie Doroș	Igor Bugaiov	Dragan Bogavac	Nenad Erić	Aleksei Belkin
Atyrau	Javier Leon	Nivaldo	Kiran Bechan	Sylvano Comvalius	Bojan Trkulja
Irtysh	Georgi Daskalov	Sergei Ivanov	Mamoutou Coulibaly	Predrag Govedarica	Milan Nikolić	Marko Balažič
Kairat	Pavel Kirylchyk	Deyan Hristov	Stéphane Kingue Mpondo	Yossi Shekel	Artyom Fomin	Marko Đorđević
Kaisar	Ivan Perić	Borut Semler	Philip Edeipo	Gradimir Crnogorac
Ordabasy	Vagner	Baba Collins	Aleksandar Trajković	Andrew Mwesigwa	Artem Kasyanov
Shakhter Karagandy	Aldin Đidić	Nikola Vasiljević	Gediminas Vičius	Viorel Frunză	Dušan Petronijević
Taraz	Damir Memišević	Abdoulaye Diakate	Miloš Adamović	Danilo Belić	Nemanja Jovanović
Tobol	Robert Zebelyan	Nenad Šljivić	Samir Bekrić	Vitali Volkov
Vostok	Otar Khizaneishvili	Ruslan Bidnenko	Ihor Buryak	Oleksandr Zgura
Zhetysu	Arūnas Klimavičius	Marko Đalović	Ivan Cvetković	Miloš Mihajlov

In bold: Players that have been capped for their national team.

First stage

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Zhetysu	22	15	4	3	39	16	+23	49	Qualification for the championship group
2	Astana[a]	22	13	6	3	35	19	+16	45
3	Shakhter Karagandy	22	13	3	6	35	20	+15	42
4	Aktobe	22	12	5	5	39	19	+20	41
5	Irtysh Pavlodar	22	11	3	8	38	34	+4	36
6	Ordabasy	22	8	7	7	28	19	+9	31
7	Tobol	22	8	3	11	30	28	+2	27	Qualification for the relegation group
8	Taraz	22	6	3	13	15	24	−9	21
9	Kairat	22	5	5	12	20	37	−17	20
10	Atyrau	22	4	8	10	15	30	−15	20
11	Vostok	22	3	9	10	15	32	−17	18
12	Kaisar	22	4	4	14	13	44	−31	16

Source: kff.kz (in Russian)
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd overall wins; 3rd goal difference; 4th goals scored. The winners of the 2011 Kazakhstan Cup competition will qualify for the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.
Notes:

1. Astana began the season as "Lokomotiv Astana" before being renamed in May 2011.^[4]

Results

During these matches, each team played each other team twice (once at home and once away).

Home \ Away	AKT	AST	ATY	IRT	KRT	KSR	ORD	SHA	TAR	TOB	VOS	ZHE
Aktobe		0–0	2–0	7–2	3–0	6–1	2–1	0–1	0–0	2–1	3–0	1–1
Astana	1–0		3–2	0–0	6–1	5–1	1–0	2–0	1–0	3–1	2–0	0–2
Atyrau	1–1	0–0		1–0	2–2	0–0	1–1	1–4	1–0	0–2	0–1	1–0
Irtysh Pavlodar	2–3	5–0	3–0		1–1	4–1	2–0	2–1	1–0	3–2	3–1	2–3
Kairat	3–0	2–3	2–0	1–3		0–0	0–3	2–1	1–0	0–0	1–1	0–1
Kaisar	0–2	2–4	1–0	1–0	2–0		1–2	0–1	1–0	0–3	1–1	0–4
Ordabasy	0–1	1–1	1–1	3–0	2–0	1–1		1–0	0–1	1–0	0–0	0–1
Shakhter Karagandy	1–0	0–0	0–2	3–0	4–2	2–0	2–2		3–0	2–0	2–0	3–3
Taraz	0–2	1–2	3–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–1	0–1		1–0	3–1	0–1
Tobol	1–2	0–1	0–0	4–1	3–1	3–0	1–3	1–2	3–0		1–0	1–0
Vostok	0–0	0–0	2–2	1–2	1–0	2–0	0–4	1–2	1–1	2–2		0–0
Zhetysu	3–2	1–0	2–0	1–1	0–1	3–0	2–1	1–0	3–2	4–1	3–0

Source: kff.kz (in Russian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second stage

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Shakhter Karagandy (C)	32	19	6	7	52	29	+23	42	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round
2	Zhetysu	32	19	5	8	51	27	+24	38	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round[a]
3	Aktobe	32	15	9	8	53	31	+22	34
4	Astana[b]	32	16	7	9	50	37	+13	33
5	Irtysh Pavlodar	32	15	5	12	50	50	0	32
6	Ordabasy	32	11	10	11	41	36	+5	28	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round[a]
7	Tobol	32	14	3	15	48	44	+4	32
8	Kaisar	32	10	5	17	29	53	−24	27
9	Taraz	32	10	5	17	30	39	−9	25
10	Atyrau	32	8	10	14	28	43	−15	24
11	Kairat	32	8	8	16	30	49	−19	22
12	Vostok (R)	32	5	11	16	23	47	−24	17	Relegation to the Kazakhstan First Division

Source: kff.kz (in Russian)
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd overall wins; 3rd goal difference; 4th goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. The winners of the 2011 Kazakhstan Cup competition will qualify for the first qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.
2. Astana began the season as "Lokomotiv Astana" before being renamed in May 2011.^[4]

Results

During these matches, each team played every other team in their half of the table twice (once at home and once away).

Top six Home \ Away AKT AST IRT ORD SHA ZHE Aktobe 1–0 2–0 2–0 1–1 1–1 Astana 3–2 5–1 1–3 1–2 1–0 Irtysh Pavlodar 0–0 3–1 3–0 2–1 2–1 Ordabasy 2–4 3–2 0–0 0–0 1–2 Shakhter Karagandy 2–1 2–0 3–1 2–2 2–1 Zhetysu 2–0 1–0 3–0 1–2 0–2 Source: kff.kz (in Russian) Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Bottom six Home \ Away ATY KRT KSR TAR TOB VOS Atyrau 3–0 0–2 0–1 2–1 2–1 Kairat 1–1 2–0 1–1 3–0 2–1 Kaisar 1–0 2–0 2–0 4–1 2–0 Taraz 1–1 2–1 4–2 1–3 3–1 Tobol 4–2 2–0 2–1 2–1 0–1 Vostok 1–2 0–0 0–0 2–1 1–3 Source: kff.kz (in Russian) Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top goalscorers

Last updated: 2 November 2011^[5]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals (Pen.)
1	Ulugbek Bakaev	Zhetysu	18
2	Sergei Khizhnichenko	Shakhter	16
3	Malick Mane	Aktobe	12
	Dragan Bogavac	Astana	12
	Sergey Gridin	Tobol	12
6	Daurenbek Tazhimbetov	Ordabasy	11
7	Marat Khairullin	Aktobe	10
	Gleb Maltsev	Irtysh	10
	Nurbol Zhumaskaliyev	Astana	10
	Konstantin Golovskoy	Kairat	10
11	Georgi Daskalov	Irtysh	9
	Zhambyl Kukeyev	Shakhter	9