2013–14 Azerbaijan Premier League

The 2013–14 Azerbaijan Premier League was the 22nd season of Azerbaijan Premier League, the top tier of Azerbaijani professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992. Neftchi Baku were the defending champions, having won the previous season.

Azerbaijan Premier League

Season	2013–14
Champions	Qarabağ
Matches played	180
Goals scored	416 (2.31 per match)
Top goalscorer	Reynaldo (22 goals)
Biggest home win	Qarabağ 5–1 Sumgayit[1] Qarabağ 5–1 Ravan Baku[2]
Biggest away win	Ravan 1–5 Inter[3]
Highest scoring	Qarabağ 4–3 Gabala[4] Khazar Lankaran 4–3 Sumgayit
Longest winning run	7 games Qarabağ, AZAL
Longest unbeaten run	11 games Qarabağ
Longest losing run	4 games Ravan Baku, Sumgayit
Highest attendance	10,000 Khazar 0–0 Neftchi (25 August 2013)[5]
Lowest attendance	150 Simurq 2–0 Ravan Baku (3 August 2013)[6]
Average attendance	1,608[7]
← 2012–13 2014–15 →

Teams

AZAL
Baku
Inter
Neftchi
Ravan

Sumgayit

Khazar

Simurq

Qarabağ

Gabala

Location of teams in 2013–14 Azerbaijan Premier League

Kəpəz and Turan were relegated from the 2012–13 Azerbaijan Premier League.

The format of the league changed as a total of 10 teams contested the league, with two clubs relegated in the previous season and no teams promoted from the first division.^[8] The competition format follows the usual double round-robin format. During the course of a season, which lasts from August to May, each club plays every other club four times, twice at home and twice away, for a total of 36 games.^[9]

As of this season, PFL announced that each player will have to wear not only the number, but also his name on the back of the jersey.^[10]

Stadia and locations

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.

Team	Location	Venue	Capacity[11]
AZAL	Baku	AZAL Stadium	3,000
Baku	Baku	FC Baku's Training Base	2,000
Gabala	Gabala	Gabala City Stadium	4,000
Inter	Baku	Shafa Stadium	8,000
Khazar	Lankaran	Lankaran City Stadium	15,000
Neftchi	Baku	Bakcell Arena	11,000
Qarabağ	Ağdam	Tofig Bahramov Stadium	31,200
Ravan	Baku	Bayil Stadium	5,000
Simurq	Zaqatala	Zaqatala City Stadium	3,500
Sumgayit	Sumqayit	Mehdi Huseynzade Stadium	16,000

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
AZAL	Vagif Sadygov	Jahangir Hasanzade	Umbro	Silk Way
Baku	Milinko Pantić	Elvin Mammadov	Kappa
Gabala	Yuri Semin	Volodimir Levin	Joma	Pepsi[12]
Inter	Kakhaber Tskhadadze	Vagif Javadov	Umbro	IBA
Khazar	Mustafa Denizli	Rahid Amirguliyev	Puma	Palmali[13]
Neftçi	Boyukagha Hajiyev	Rashad Sadiqov	Adidas	SOCAR
Qarabağ	Gurban Gurbanov	Rashad Sadygov	Adidas	Azersun[14]
Ravan	Güvenç Kurtar	Ramazan Abbasov	Legea	Nissan[15]
Simurq	Giorgi Chikhradze	Ruslan Poladov	Joma
Sumgayit	Agil Mammadov	Samir Abbasov	Umbro	Azerkimya[16]

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Baku	Božidar Bandović	Sacked	20 May 2013[17]	Pre-season	Milinko Pantić	14 June 2013
Gabala	Luis Aragón (caretaker)	End of tenure as caretaker	20 May 2013[18]		Yuri Semin	21 May 2013[18]
Sumgayit	Bernhard Raab	Resigned	11 June 2013[19]		Agil Mammadov	12 June 2013[19]
Neftchi	Boyukagha Hajiyev		25 July 2013[20]		Tarlan Ahmadov	26 July 2013[21]
Ravan	Ramil Aliyev		12 August 2012[22]	10th	Vladislav Kadyrov	12 August 2013[22]
	Vladislav Kadyrov	Sacked	5 October 2013[23]	9th	Shahin Diniyev	7 October 2013
Neftchi	Tarlan Ahmadov		23 October 2013	2nd	Nazim Suleymanov	25 October 2013[24]
Khazar	John Toshack	Resigned	22 November 2013[25]	8th	Giovanni Melkiorre (caretaker)	22 November 2013[25]
	Giovanni Melkiorre (caretaker)	End of tenure as caretaker	3 December 2013		Mustafa Denizli	3 December 2013
Ravan	Shahin Diniyev	Resigned	3 January 2014	9th	Güvenç Kurtar	3 January 2014
Neftchi	Nazim Suleymanov		8 January 2014	3rd	Boyukagha Hajiyev	11 January 2014
AZAL	Vagif Sadygov	Sacked	16 March 2014	8th	Tarlan Ahmadov	17 March 2014[26]
Khazar	Mustafa Denizli	Mutual Termination[27]	16 May 2014	6th	TBD	TBD

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Qarabağ (C)	36	21	9	6	65	21	+44	72	Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round
2	Inter Baku	36	20	7	9	60	37	+23	67	Qualification for Europa League first qualifying round
3	Gabala	36	18	7	11	48	36	+12	61
4	Neftçi Baku	36	17	9	10	47	43	+4	60	Qualification for Europa League second qualifying round
5	Baku	36	16	9	11	53	43	+10	57
6	Khazar Lankaran	36	12	13	11	44	49	−5	49
7	Simurq	36	11	13	12	35	28	+7	46
8	AZAL	36	6	13	17	29	49	−20	31
9	Sumgayit	36	5	10	21	27	61	−34	25
10	Ravan Baku (R)	36	4	10	22	22	66	−44	22	Relegation to Azerbaijan First Division

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

Results

Games 1–18 Home \ Away AZL BAK INT KHA SIM NEF QAR GAB RAV SUM AZAL 1–0 0–2 1–3 1–1 2–1 1–1 1–2 2–1 1–0 Baku 2–2 0–1 3–0 3–2 3–0 2–1 1–2 5–0 1–0 Inter Baku 1–2 2–2 0–0 1–2 3–1 1–2 0–1 3–2 2–0 Khazar Lankaran 1–1 2–1 0–1 0–0 0–0 0–3 0–0 1–0 4–3 Simurq 3–0 0–3 0–1 1–2 0–0 0–0 0–0 2–0 3–1 Neftçi Baku 4–1 2–1 3–1 4–1 1–0 0–0 2–1 2–1 0–0 Qarabağ 0–1 3–0 2–0 2–0 0–0 3–1 4–3 0–0 5–1 Gabala 1–0 2–0 3–2 2–0 2–1 1–2 0–1 3–0 2–0 Ravan Baku 0–0 0–0 1–5 1–1 0–3 0–2 1–1 0–1 1–1 Sumgayit 0–0 1–2 0–2 1–1 0–1 1–2 0–3 2–1 0–1 Source: Soccerway: Azerbaijan Premier League Table Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Games 19–36 Home \ Away AZL BAK INT KHA SIM NEF QAR GAB RAV SUM AZAL 1–2 1–3 2–2 0–2 0–0 0–2 1–2 0–0 2–2 Baku 1–0 0–4 2–2 2–1 2–0 0–0 1–1 5–1 0–0 Inter Baku 2–1 1–1 3–0 0–0 2–1 0–3 0–0 3–0 2–0 Khazar Lankaran 1–1 0–2 1–1 1–3 2–2 2–1 1–0 4–0 4–1 Simurq 0–0 0–1 0–1 2–2 0–0 1–0 0–0 2–0 4–0 Neftçi Baku 2–1 1–0 2–2 1–0 3–0 1–4 1–2 2–1 1–3 Qarabağ 2–1 4–0 4–1 0–1 0–0 1–1 3–0 5–1 3–0 Gabala 0–0 3–1 1–4 2–3 1–0 1–2 0–1 0–0 3–1 Ravan Baku 1–0 2–3 1–2 2–1 1–0 0–1 0–2 1–2 1–1 Sumgayit 2–1 1–1 0–1 0–1 1–1 2–0 1–0 0–3 1–1 Source: Soccerway: Azerbaijan Premier League Table Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Scoring

• First goal of the season: Mindaugas Kalonas for Baku against Gabala (2 August 2013)
• Fastest goal of the season: 2nd minute,
  • Ernest Nfor for Neftchi Baku against Baku (10 November 2013)^[28]
• Latest goal of the season: 94 minutes,
  • Shahriyar Rahimov for AZAL against Ravan Baku (8 December 2013)^[29]
    Mahir Shukurov for Neftchi Baku against Gabala (15 December 2013)^[30]
• Largest winning margin: 5 goals
  • Baku 5–0 Ravan Baku (18 August 2013)^[31]
• Highest scoring game: 7 goals
  • Qarabağ 4–3 Gabala (3 November 2013)^[4]
• Most goals scored in a match by a single team: 5 goals
  • Qarabağ 5–1 Sumgayit (11 August 2013)^[1]
  • Baku 5–0 Ravan Baku (18 August August 2013)^[31]
  • Ravan Baku 1–5 Inter Baku (25 August 2013)^[3]
• Most goals scored in a match by a losing team: 2 goals
  • Gabala 3–2 Inter Baku (3 August 2013)^[32]

Top scorers

As of 12 May 2014

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[33][34]
1	Reynaldo	Qarabağ	22
2	Vagif Javadov	Inter	14
4	Dragan Ćeran	Simurq	13
3	Danijel Subotić	Gabala	12
5	Mbilla Etame	Khazar	11
6	Bachana Tskhadadze	Inter	10
7	Leroy George	Qarabağ	9
8	Rauf Aliyev	Baku	8
	Chumbinho	Qarabağ
	Afran Ismayilov	Baku
	Will John	AZAL
12	Leonardo	Gabala	7
	Bahodir Nasimov	Neftchi
	Stjepan Poljak	Simurq
	Nildo	Khazar
	Lorenzo Ebecilio	Gabala

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Bachana Tskhadadze	Inter	Ravan	5–1	25 August 2013[35]
Reynaldo	Qarabağ	Neftchi	4–1	28 February 2014[36]
Reynaldo	Qarabağ	Inter	4–1	7 May 2014

Clean sheets

• Most clean sheets: 18
  • Qarabağ
• Fewest clean sheets: 4
  • Sumgayit

Discipline

Player

• Most yellow cards: 16^[37]
  • Aleksandr Shemonayev (AZAL)
• Most red cards: 3^[37]
  • Elvin Yunuszade (Neftchi Baku)
  • Ilkin Qirtimov (Simurq)

Club

• Most yellow cards: 112^[37]
  • Ravan Baku
• Most red cards: 13^[37]
  • Neftchi Baku

Awards

Monthly awards

Month
	Player	Club
August	Javid Huseynov	Baku
September	Afran Ismayilov	Baku
October	Reynaldo	Qarabağ
November	Vagif Javadov	Inter Baku
December	Danijel Subotić	Gabala
February	Reynaldo	Qarabağ
March	Reynaldo	Qarabağ
April	Richard Almeida	Qarabağ
May	Reynaldo	Qarabağ

Last updated: 11 November 2013
Source: Azerbaijan Premier League

PFL Team of the Year

Lomaia

Bocognano

Silva

Shukurov

Bertucci

Meza

Richard

George

Chumbinho

Reynaldo

Nfor

2014 PFL Team of the Year

The PFL team of the year was:^[38]

• Goalkeeper: Giorgi Lomaia (Inter)
• Defence: Bruno Bertucci (Neftchi), Mahir Shukurov (Neftchi), Denis Silva (Neftchi), Yohan Bocognano (Inter)
• Midfield: David Meza (Inter), Richard Almeida (Qarabağ), Leroy George (Qarabağ), Chumbinho (Qarabağ)
• Attack: Reynaldo (Qarabağ), Ernest Nfor (Neftchi)

See also

• 2013–14 Azerbaijan Cup
• 2013 Azerbaijan Supercup