2014–15 Azerbaijan Premier League

The 2014–15 Azerbaijan Premier League was the 23rd season of Azerbaijan Premier League, the Azerbaijani professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992. Qarabağ were the defending champions, having won the previous season. The season started on 9 August 2014 and ended on 28 May 2015.

Azerbaijan Premier League

Season	2014–15
Champions	Qarabağ
Champions League	Qarabağ
Europa League	Inter Baku Gabala Neftchi Baku
Matches played	144
Goals scored	354 (2.46 per match)
Top goalscorer	Nurlan Novruzov (14 goals)
Biggest home win	Inter Baku 7–0 Baku
Biggest away win	AZAL 0–4 Gabala
Highest scoring	Inter Baku 7–0 Baku Simurq 5–2 Baku
Highest attendance	7,500 Araz-Naxçıvan 3–0 Neftchi (11 August 2014)[1]
Lowest attendance	500 AZAL 1–1 Khazar Lankaran (9 August 2014)[1]
← 2013–14 2015–16 → All statistics correct as of 9 March 2015.

Teams

AZAL
Baku
Inter Baku
Neftchi Baku

Sumgayit

Khazar Lankaran

Simurq

Gabala

Araz-Naxçıvan

Qarabağ

Location of teams in 2014–15 Azerbaijan Premier League

Ravan Baku were relegated to Azerbaijan First Division.

The format of the league did not change as a total of 10 teams contested the league, with the last club relegated and Araz-Naxçıvan promoted from the First Division.^[2] 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.^[3]

On 3 November 2014, Araz-Naxçıvan announced their withdrawal from the league due to alleged constant biased referee decisions, which meant that all of their results were annulled.^[4][5]

Stadia and locations

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.

Team	Location	Venue	Capacity[6]
Araz-Naxçıvan	Nakhchivan	Nakhchivan City Stadium	11,800
AZAL	Baku	AZAL Stadium	5,000
Baku	Baku	FC Baku's Training Base	2,000
Gabala	Gabala	Gabala City Stadium	8,000
Inter Baku	Baku	Inter Arena	10,000
Khazar Lankaran	Lankaran	Lankaran City Stadium	15,000
Neftchi Baku	Baku	Bakcell Arena	11,000
Qarabağ	Ağdam	Tofiq Bahramov Stadium	31,200
Simurq	Zaqatala	Zaqatala City Stadium	3,500
Sumgayit	Sumqayit	Kapital Bank Arena	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
Araz-Naxçıvan	Asgar Abdullayev	Elmin Chobanov	Joma
AZAL	Tarlan Ahmadov	Shahriyar Rahimov	Umbro	Silk Way
Baku	Ibrahim Uzunca	Aqil Mammadov	Kappa
Gabala	Roman Hryhorchuk	Volodimir Levin	Joma	Pepsi[7]
Inter Baku	Kakhaber Tskhadadze	Asif Mammadov	Umbro	IBA
Khazar Lankaran	Elbrus Mammadov	Rahid Amirguliyev	Puma	Palmali[8]
Neftçi Baku	Arif Asadov	Flavinho	Adidas	SOCAR
Qarabağ	Gurban Gurbanov	Rashad Sadygov	Adidas	Azersun[9]
Simurq	Giorgi Chikhradze	Ilkin Qirtimov	Joma
Sumgayit	Agil Mammadov	Ruslan Poladov	Umbro	Azerkimya[10]

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Khazar Lankaran	Mustafa Denizli	Mutual consent	16 May 2014[11]	Pre-season	Oğuz Çetin	5 June 2014[12]
Gabala	Yuri Semin		23 May 2014		Dorinel Munteanu	14 June 2014[13]
Baku	Milinko Pantić		24 July 2014		Ibrahim Uzunca	12 August 2014
Neftchi Baku	Boyukagha Hajiyev	Resigned	3 September 2014	6th	Arif Asadov	4 September 2014
Gabala	Dorinel Munteanu	Sacked	8 December 2014[14]	6th	Sanan Gurbanov (caretaker)	8 December 2014[15]
Gabala	Sanan Gurbanov (caretaker)	End of tenure as caretaker	21 December 2014	6th	Roman Hryhorchuk	21 December 2014[16]
Khazar	Oğuz Çetin	Resigned	22 December 2014[17]	5th	Elbrus Mammadov	23 December 2014[18]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Qarabağ (C)	32	20	8	4	51	28	+23	68	Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round
2	Inter Baku	32	17	12	3	55	20	+35	63	Qualification for Europa League first qualifying round
3	Gabala	32	15	9	8	46	35	+11	54
4	Neftchi Baku	32	13	10	9	38	33	+5	49
5	Simurq	32	11	6	15	41	39	+2	39
6	AZAL	32	10	9	13	37	42	−5	39
7	Khazar Lankaran	32	8	8	16	35	46	−11	32
8	Sumgayit	32	7	10	15	32	43	−11	31
9	Baku	32	3	8	21	19	68	−49	17	Relegation to the Azerbaijan First Division
10	Araz-Naxçıvan[a]	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Team withdrawn

Source: uefa.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head goals scored; 5. head-to-head away goals (only if 2 teams are tied); 6) goal difference; 7) goals scored.^[20]
(C) Champions
Notes:

1. Araz-Naxçıvan were officially withdrawn from the league on 17 November 2014^[19]

Results

Games 1–18 Home \ Away AZL BAK INT KHA SIM NEF QAR GAB SUM AZAL 0–1 1–1 1–1 2–2 2–1 0–3 3–3 3–2 Baku 1–3 0–1 0–0 1–0 1–3 2–4 0–2 1–2 Inter Baku 1–0 7–0 3–1 0–0 2–1 0–0 4–0 5–1 Khazar Lankaran 1–1 4–0 1–0 2–1 2–2 2–3 3–0 0–1 Simurq 2–0 5–2 1–1 2–0 1–0 2–3 1–2 3–2 Neftçi Baku 4–0 1–0 0–0 1–0 2–1 1–3 0–0 3–2 Qarabağ 2–1 2–2 0–0 3–2 1–0 0–0 2–0 2–0 Gabala 1–2 1–1 1–1 1–1 2–3 0–0 2–1 3–1 Sumgayit 0–1 1–1 0–0 1–2 2–1 0–1 3–0[21] 1–1 Source: Azerbaijan Premier League Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

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

Season statistics

Scoring

• First goal of the season: Rauf Aliyev for Khazar against AZAL (9 August 2014)^[22]
• Fastest goal of the season: 1st minute,
  • Freddy Mombongo-Dues for AZAL against Inter Baku (19 February 2015)^[23]
• Latest goal of the season: 94 minutes,
  • Mirhuseyn Seyidov for Neftchi Baku against Khazar Lankaran (24 November 2014)^[24]
• Largest winning margin: 7 goals
  • Inter Baku 7–0 Baku (19 September 2014)
• Highest scoring game: 7 goals
  • Inter Baku 7–0 Baku (19 September 2014)
• Most goals scored in a match by a single team: 7 goals
  • Inter Baku 7–0 Baku (19 September 2014)

Top scorers

As of 28 May 2015^[25]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Nurlan Novruzov	Baku	15
2	Dragan Ćeran	Simurq	14
3	Freddy Mombongo-Dues	AZAL	13
	Magomed Kurbanov	Sumgayit
5	Javid Huseynov	Gabala	11
	Nicolás Canales	Neftchi
7	Reynaldo	Qarabağ	10
	Leroy George	Qarabağ
9	Mikel Álvaro	Inter Baku	9
10	Nildo	Inter Baku	8

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Freddy Mombongo-Dues4	AZAL	Simurq	5–0[26]	22 May 2015

• ⁴ Player scored 4 goals

Discipline

Player

Most yellow cards; 12^[27]

• Ruslan Abışov (Gabala)
• Alfred Sankoh (Khazar Lankaran)
• Éric Ramos (Neftchi Baku)

Most red cards; 2^[27]

• Vugar Baybalayev (Baku)
• Elshad Manafov (Baku)
• Carlos Cardoso (Neftchi Baku)

Club

• Most yellow cards: 105^[27]
  • Neftchi Baku
• Most red cards: 8^[27]
  • Baku
  • Neftchi Baku