1996–97 Azerbaijan Top League

The 1996–97 Azerbaijan Top League was contested by 16 teams and won by Neftchi Baku. Champions are Garabag Agdam thanks to "youth points" from the U-15 and U-16 Championships.

Azerbaijan Top League

Season	1996–97
Champions	Neftchi Baku
Relegated	Pambiqci Neftcala Azerbaijan U-18
Champions League	Neftchi Baku
UEFA Cup	Qarabağ
Cup Winners' Cup	Kapaz
Matches played	450
Goals scored	718 (1.6 per match)
Top goalscorer	Gurban Gurbanov (34)
← 1995–96 1997–98 →

Teams

Stadia and locations

Azerbaijan U-18
Fahlasi
Fərid
Police
Khazri Buzovna
Khazar Sumgayit
MOIK
Neftchi

Kapaz

Kur Nur

Pambygchi Barda

Pambiqci Neftcala

Qarabağ

Shamkir

Turan Tovuz

Viləş Masallı

Location of teams in Azerbaijan Premier League 1996–97

Team	Venue	Capacity
Azerbaijan U-18
Bakı Fahlasi	Ismat Gayibov Stadium	5,000
Fərid Baku
Kapaz	Ganja City Stadium	26,120
Khazri Buzovna
Khazar Sumgayit
Kur Nur	Yashar Mammadzade Stadium	5,000
MOIK Baku	Shafa Stadium (IV field)	8,152
Neftchi Baku	Tofik Bakhramov Stadium	29,858
Pambygchi Barda	Barda City Stadium	10,000
Pambiqci Neftcala	Nariman Narimanov Stadium	2,000
Police Academy	Tofik Bakhramov Stadium	29,858
Qarabağ	Guzanli Olympic Stadium1	15,000
Shamkir
Turan Tovuz	Tovuz City Stadium	10,000
Viləş Masallı	Anatoliy Banishevskiy Stadium	8,000

¹Qarabağ played their home matches at Surakhani Stadium in Baku before moving to their current stadium on 3 May 2009.^[1]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Neftçi Baku (C)	30	23	5	2	98	20	+78	74	Qualification for Champions League first qualifying round
2	Qarabağ	30	23	2	5	61	25	+36	71	Qualification for UEFA Cup first qualifying round
3	Khazri Buzovna	30	20	6	4	59	23	+36	66
4	Turan	30	19	7	4	48	13	+35	64
5	Kapaz	30	18	4	8	59	26	+33	58	Qualification for Cup Winners' Cup qualifying round[a]
6	Khazar Sumgayit	30	18	4	8	58	30	+28	58
7	Fərid Baku	30	13	8	9	45	31	+14	47
8	Pambygchi Barda	30	11	5	14	41	47	−6	38
9	MOIK Baku	30	7	6	17	26	50	−24	27
10	Şəmkir	30	8	2	20	30	106	−76	26
11	Bakı Fahlasi	30	10	7	13	37	41	−4	37
12	FK Masallı	30	9	6	15	38	52	−14	33
13	Kur-Nur	30	7	4	19	30	59	−29	25
14	Police Academy	30	5	7	18	23	49	−26	22
15	Pambiqci Neftcala (R)	30	5	6	19	27	68	−41	21	Relegation to Azerbaijan First Division
16	Azerbaijan U-18	30	4	1	25	38	78	−40	13

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

1. Kapaz qualified for the qualifying round of the 1995–96 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup as winners of the 1996–97 Azerbaijan Cup.

Results

Home \ Away	U18	BFA	FAR	KAP	KHS	KHB	KNU	MAS	MOI	NEF	PNE	PBÄ	PAC	QAR	SHA	TUR
Azerbaijan U-18		1–2	0–2	1–2	0–4	1–4	2–3	4–2	0–1	1–7	5–3	0–2	2–3	1–4	5–1	0–3
Bakı Fahlasi	3–2		1–2	0–3	2–1	0–1	4–1	0–0	1–1	0–1	7–1	3–0[a]	1–0	1–2	3–0[a]	0–0
Fərid Baku	2–1	1–1		2–0	0–2	1–0	0–0	1–1	3–0	0–3	2–0	2–2	2–0	1–2	9–0	1–0
Kapaz	2–1	3–0[a]	3–0		1–1	1–2	2–0	2–0	1–0	1–1	2–0	5–1	3–0	3–1	14–2	1–0
Khazar Sumgayit	0–2	3–0	2–2	4–2		0–0	3–1	3–1	2–0	0–1	3–1	4–1	1–0	1–0	7–0	1–3
Khazri Buzovna	3–2	1–0	3–2	1–0	3–1		1–0	2–1	4–0	1–1	3–0[a]	8–0	2–0	1–0	2–1	3–1
Kur-Nur	2–0	1–1	1–2	1–0	0–2	1–5		1–1	0–1	1–3	2–0	3–2	2–0	1–2	0–3[a]	1–1
FK Masallı	2–1	1–3	0–0	0–1	1–2	3–0[a]	2–0		2–0	2–4	5–0	2–0	1–1	0–2	6–1	0–0
MOIK Baku	1–0	0–1	0–4	0–1	1–2	1–1	4–1	0–1		0–0	1–0	1–1	1–1	0–3	9–0	0–1
Neftçi Baku	7–1	6–1	0–0	2–0	3–1	4–1	4–0	7–1	9–0		7–2	2–0	5–0	0–0	4–1	2–0
Pambiqci Neftcala	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–1	0–2	0–0	2–1	3–1	0–2	2–3		0–1	1–0	2–4	2–4	0–2
Pambygchi Bärdä	2–1	3–0	3–0[a]	1–2	2–0	0–0	3–2	4–0	6–1	0–4	0–0		1–0	0–1	1–2	0–2
Police Academy	4–2	0–0	1–1	0–3	1–3	0–1	2–1	0–1	1–0	1–2	0–0	0–0		1–1	0–2	1–3
Qarabağ	2–1	2–1	2–1	1–0	1–0	2–1	3–1	2–1	3–1	2–1	4–1	1–0	6–1		3–0	1–2
Şəmkir	2–1	2–0	0–1	3–0	1–3	0–5	0–1	3–0[a]	0–0	0–5	1–3	0–5	0–5	1–4		0–0
Turan	2–0	1–0	2–1	0–0	0–0	0–0	4–1	5–0	1–0	1–0	3–0[a]	1–0	1–0	1–0	8–0

Source: APL: Yüksək dəstə - 1996/97
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

1. Walkover.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[2]
1	Qurban Qurbanov	Neftchi	34
2	Samir Alakbarov	Neftchi	25
3	Rövşən Əhmədov	Kəpəz	18
4	Nazim Aliyev	Qarabağ	17
5	Mushfig Huseynov	Qarabağ	15
6	Həsən Abdullayev	Şəmkir / Pambygchi Neftchala	14
7	Pasha Aliyev	Khazri Buzovna	13
8	Musa Qurbanov	Kur-Nur / Neftchi	12
	Azər İsayev	Khazri Buzovna	12
	Ismayil Mammadov	Khazar Sumgayit	12