2019 Kazakhstan Premier League

The 2019 Kazakhstan Premier League was the 28th season of the Kazakhstan Premier League, the highest football league competition in Kazakhstan. FC Astana defended their title, winning the championship for the sixth season in a row, whilst FC Atyrau and FC Aktobe were relegated and FC Taraz survived a relegation playoff against FC Akzhayik.

Kazakhstan Premier League

Season	2019
Champions	Astana
Relegated	Atyrau Aktobe
Champions League	Astana
Europa League	Kairat Ordabasy Kaisar (via Kazakhstan Cup)
Matches played	192
Goals scored	495 (2.58 per match)
Top goalscorer	Marin Tomasov (19) Aderinsola Eseola (19)
Highest attendance	16,200- Astana vs Kairat (20 October 2019)
Lowest attendance	200 - Atyrau vs Taraz (31 May 2019)
Total attendance	720,250
Average attendance	3,751 (10 November 2019)
← 2018 2020 → All statistics correct as of 11 November 2019.

Teams

FC Kyzylzhar and FC Akzhayik were relegated at the end of the 2018 season, and were replaced by FC Okzhetpes and FC Taraz.

Team overview

Aktobe

Astana

Atyrau

Irtysh

Kairat

Kaisar

Okzhetpes

Ordabasy

Shakhter

Taraz

Tobol

Zhetysu

Locations of teams in the 2019 Kazakhstan Premier League

Team	Location	Venue	Capacity
Aktobe	Aktobe	Aktobe Central Stadium	15,000
Astana	Nur-Sultan	Nur-Sultan Arena	30,000
Atyrau	Atyrau	Munaishy Stadium	8,690
Irtysh	Pavlodar	Pavlodar Central Stadium	15,000
Kairat	Almaty	Almaty Central Stadium	25,057
Kaisar	Kyzylorda	Gani Muratbayev Stadium	7,500
Okzhetpes	Kokshetau	Alisher Sagynbayev Stadium	4,158
Ordabasy	Shymkent	Kazhymukan Munaitpasov Stadium	20,000
Shakhter	Karaganda	Shakhter Stadium	20,000
Taraz	Taraz	Yerkebulan Babayev Stadium	11,525
Tobol	Kostanay	Bauyrzhan Sagintayev Stadium	10,500
Zhetysu	Taldykorgan	Samat Suyumbayev Stadium	4,000

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	Shirt sponsor
Aktobe	Mykhaylo Fomenko	Marcos Pizzelli	Adidas	—
Astana	Roman Hryhorchuk	Dmitri Shomko	Adidas	Samruk-Kazyna
Atyrau	Yuri Krasnozhan	Marat Khayrullin	Nike	—
Irtysh	Samvel Babayan	Nikita Kalmykov	Nike	ENRC
Kairat	Talgat Baysufinov	Bauyrzhan Islamkhan	Nike	Halyk Bank
Kaisar	Stoycho Mladenov	Maksat Baizhanov	Nike	—
Okzhetpes	Bakhytzhan Babayev		Adidas	—
Ordabasy	Kakhaber Tskhadadze	Azat Nurgaliev	Nike	Aysu Mineral Water
Shakhter	Nikolay Kostov	Evgeniy Tarasov	Nike	BTL Kazakhstan
Taraz	Nurken Mazbaev	Ilya Vorotnikov	Nike	—
Tobol	Vladimir Gazzayev	Azat Nurgaliev	Adidas	Polymetal
Zhetysu	Dmitry Ogai		Adidas	—

Foreign players

The number of foreign players is restricted to eight 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	Player 7	Player 8	Player 9
Aktobe	Marcos Pizzelli	Hrvoje Miličević	Oleksandr Kitsak
Astana	Ivan Mayewski	Luka Šimunović	Marin Tomasov	Rangelo Janga	Ndombe Mubele	Rúnar Már Sigurjónsson	Žarko Tomašević	Dorin Rotariu	Antonio Rukavina
Atyrau	Alex Bruno	Sebastijan Antić	Antun Marković	Jacques Alberto Ngwem	Piotr Grzelczak	Islamnur Abdulavov	Vitali Ustinov	Boubacar Mansaly	Rizvan Ablitarov
Irtysh	Jérémy Manzorro	Patrik Hidi	Carlos Fonseca	Dejan Georgijević	Milan Mirosavljev	Miloš Stamenković	Uroš Vitas	Ruslan Mingazow
Kairat	Syarhey Palitsevich	Dino Mikanović	Márton Eppel	Han Jeong-uh	Nebojša Kosović	Konrad Wrzesiński	Rade Dugalić	Aderinsola Eseola
Kaisar	Tigran Barseghyan	Joshua John	Ivan Sadownichy	Abdel Lamanje	Ivan Graf	André Bukia	Kule Mbombo	Bratislav Punoševac
Okzhetpes	Danilo Almeida Alves	Plamen Dimov	Artjom Dmitrijev	Deimantas Petravičius	Darko Zorić	Milan Stojanović	Ivan Bobko
Ordabasy	Pablo Fontanello	Ziguy Badibanga	Mirzad Mehanović	João Paulo	May Mahlangu	Abdoulaye Diakate	Kyrylo Kovalchuk
Shakhter	Ivan Pešić	Sergei Zenjov	Donjet Shkodra	Reginaldo	Miloš Vidović	Luwagga Kizito	Artem Baranovskyi	Yevhen Tkachuk
Taraz	Elivelto	Gian	Lasha Kasradze	Elguja Lobjanidze	Mihailo Jovanović	Aleksandar Simčević	Nemanja Subotić	Serge Nyuiadzi
Tobol	Emil Balayev	Fernander Kassaï	Nika Kvekveskiri	Jaba Kankava	Senin Sebai	Vytautas Andriuškevičius	Artūras Žulpa	Nikita Bocharov
Zhetysu	Kamo Hovhannisyan	Andrey Lebedzew	Nikita Naumov	Martin Toshev	David Mawutor	Mantas Kuklys	Oleg Hromțov	Nenad Adamović	Ruslan Stepanyuk

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

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Kairat	Andrei Karpovich (Caretaker)	End of Contract	25 November 2018	Pre-Season	Aleksey Shpilevsky	25 November 2018[1]
Aktobe	Vladimir Mukhanov			Pre-Season	Aleksandr Sednyov	9 January 2019[2]
Okzhetpes	Sergey Popkov			Pre-Season	Andrei Karpovich	3 January 2019[3]
Tobol	Marek Zub	End of Contract	31 December 2018[4]	Pre-Season	Vladimir Gazzayev	31 December 2018[5]
Atyrau	Viktor Kumykov	Mutual Consent	27 April 2019[6]	11th	Kuanysh Kuandulov (Caretaker)	27 April 2019[6]
Irtysh Pavlodar	Dimitar Dimitrov	Suspended	2 May 2019[7]	9th	Sergey Klimov (Caretaker)	2 May 2019
Atyrau	Kuanysh Kuandulov (Caretaker)	End of Caretaker Role	3 May 2019	11th	Oleg Dulub	3 May 2019[8]
Irtysh Pavlodar	Sergey Klimov (Caretaker)	End of Caretaker Role	7 June 2019	9th	Milan Milanović	7 June 2019[9]
Tobol	Vladimir Gazzayev	Resigned	21 July 2019[10]	1st	Nurbol Zhumaskaliyev (Caretaker)	22 July 2019[11]

Regular season

Table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Astana (C)	33	22	3	8	67	28	+39	69	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Kairat	33	22	2	9	65	32	+33	68	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
3	Ordabasy	33	19	8	6	52	24	+28	65
4	Tobol	33	19	6	8	45	27	+18	63
5	Zhetysu	33	16	8	9	45	25	+20	56
6	Kaisar	33	12	6	15	37	43	−6	42	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round[a]
7	Okzhetpes	33	11	7	15	44	49	−5	40
8	Irtysh Pavlodar	33	11	4	18	30	45	−15	37
9	Shakhter Karagandy	33	9	8	16	40	47	−7	35
10	Taraz (O)	33	7	8	18	28	60	−32	29	Qualification for the relegation play-offs
11	Atyrau (R)	33	6	8	19	25	58	−33	26	Relegation to the Kazakhstan First Division
12	Aktobe[b] (R)	33	7	6	20	35	75	−40	15

Source: UEFA, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Matches won; 4) Goals scored; 5) Away goals scored; 6) Head-to-head points; 7) Head-to-head matches won; 8) Head-to-head goal difference; 9) Head-to-head goals scored; 10) Head-to-head away goals scored; 11) Draw.^[14]
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Kaisar qualified for the Europa League second qualifying round by winning the 2019 Kazakhstan Cup.
2. Aktobe had six points deducted on 18 February 2019 as a punishment for unpaid debts to former player Dele Adeleye.^[12] On 14 March 2019, Aktobe were handed a further six point deduction for unpaid debts to former player Nemanja Nikolić.^[13]

Results

Games 1–22

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

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

Games 23–33

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

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

Relegation play-offs

Akzhayik v Taraz

15 November 2019 1st leg	Akzhayik	0 – 0	Taraz	Oral
15:00 (UTC+6)		Report		Stadium: Petr Atoyan Stadium Attendance: 2,500 Referee: Grigory Moskovchenko

Taraz v Akzhayik

18 November 2019 2nd leg	Taraz	3 – 1 (3 – 1 agg.)	Akzhayik	Taraz
15:00 (UTC+6)	Sarsenov 9' Abzal Taubay 14', 26'	Report	Simčević 28' (o.g.)	Stadium: Central Stadium Attendance: 1,500 Referee: Grigory Moskovchenko

Statistics

Scoring

• First goal of the season: Ablaykhan Makhambetov for Zhetysu against Okzhetpes (9 March 2019)

Top scorers

As of matches played 10 November 2019^[15]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Marin Tomasov	Astana	19
	Aderinsola Eseola	Kairat
3	Abat Aimbetov	Aktobe	16
	Márton Eppel	Kairat
5	João Paulo	Ordabasy	15
6	Tigran Barseghyan	Kaisar	11
	Azat Nurgaliev	Tobol
8	Kule Mbombo	Kaisar	9
	Martin Toshev	Zhetysu
10	Toktar Zhangylyshbay	Ordabasy	8
	Ivan Pešić	Shakhter Karagandy
	Sergei Zenjov	Shakhter Karagandy
	Elguja Lobjanidze	Taraz
	Serge Nyuiadzi	Taraz
	Senin Sebai	Tobol
	Bauyrzhan Turysbek	Tobol

Clean sheets

Updated to matches played on 10 November 2019.

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Emil Balayev	Tobol	18
2	Dmytro Nepohodov	Ordabasy	16
3	Stas Pokatilov	Kairat	13
4	Almat Bekbaev	Zhetysu	11
5	Nenad Erić	Astana	10
	Igor Shatskiy	Shakhter Karagandy
7	Aleksandr Grigorenko	Kaisar	6
8	Andrey Shabanov	Zhetysu	5
	Anton Tsirin	Irtysh Pavlodar
10	Yaroslav Baginsky	Okzhetpes	4
	Mukhammejan Seisen	Taraz
	Alexander Zarutsky	Atyrau

Attendance

Attendants who entered with free ticket are not counted.

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Kairat	104,800	12,000	2,500	6,164	n/a†
2	Aktobe	103,700	11,500	200	6,481	n/a†
3	FC Ordabasy	73,900	6,500	2,500	4,347	n/a†
4	Taraz	63,100	6,500	2,800	3,943	n/a†
5	Tobol	60,600	5,500	2,000	3,564	n/a†
6	Kaisar	54,800	6,500	1,500	3,223	n/a†
7	Astana	54,400	16,200	1,000	3,200	n/a†
8	Shakhter Karagandy	50,000	7,000	500	3,125	n/a†
9	FC Irtysh Pavlodar	43,600	5,800	1,200	2,725	n/a†
10	Zhetysu Taldykorgan	41,500	3,500	1,000	2,441	n/a†
11	Atyrau	36,150	4,500	250	2,259	n/a†
12	Okzhetpes	33,700	3,000	700	2,106	n/a†
	League total	720,250	16,200	200	3,751	n/a†

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

|u=10 November 2019|