2009–10 Azerbaijan Premier League

The 2009–10 Azerbaijan Premier League was the eighteenth season of top-tier football in Azerbaijan. It began on 14 August 2009 and finished in May 2010. FK Baku were the defending champions.

Azerbaijan Premier League

Season	2009–10
Champions	Inter Baku
Relegated	Standard Baku FK Karvan
Champions League	Inter Baku
Europa League	FK Baku FK Qarabağ Khazar Lankaran (via domestic cup)
Matches played	172
Goals scored	392 (2.28 per match)
Top goalscorer	Farid Guliyev (16)
Biggest home win	Standard 6–0 Karvan
Biggest away win	Mughan 1–6 Inter
Highest scoring	Mughan 1–6 Inter Standard 3–4 Baku
← 2008–09 2010–11 →

The league was competed in two stages. The first stage consisted of a regular home-and-away round-robin schedule for a total of 22 matches per team. The competition then split into two halves. However, each team took over to the respective group only records earned against the remaining 5 teams in their second round group. The teams ranked first through sixth played out the championship and the European spots while the bottom six teams had to avoid one of the two relegation places.

Teams

MOIK Baku and Bakili Baku were relegated after finishing the 2008–09 season in the bottom two places. Since the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan did not grant a Premier League license to any of the teams in the Azerbaijan First Division,^[1] the league size was reduced to twelve teams.

Stadia and locations

FK Baku
Inter
Neftchi
Olimpik-Shuv.

Karvan

Khazar

Mughan

Qarabağ

Qäbälä

Simurq

Standard

Turan

Location of teams in Azerbaijan Premier League 2009–10

Team	Location	Venue	Capacity[2]
FK Baku	Baku	Tofig Bakhramov Stadium	29,858
Inter	Baku	Shafa Stadium	7,840
Karvan	Yevlakh	Yevlakh Stadium	8,500
Khazar	Lankaran	Lankaran City Stadium	17,500
Mughan	Salyan	Salyany Olympic Stadium	4,000
Neftchi	Baku	Ismet Gaibov Stadium	7,000
Olimpik-Shuvalan	Baku	Shafa Stadium	7,840
Qarabağ	Aghdam	Guzanli Olympic Stadium	15,000
Qäbälä PFC	Qäbälä	Gabala City Stadium	2,000
Simurq	Zaqatala	Zaqatala City Stadium	3,500
Standard	Sumgayit	Mehdi Huseynzade Stadium	26,000
Turan	Tovuz	Tovuz City Stadium	10,000

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Head coach	Team captain	Kitmaker	Shirt sponsor
FK Baku	Cüneyt Biçer	Jamshid Maharramov	Erreà
Inter	Kakhaber Tskhadadze	Samir Abbasov	Adidas	IBA
Karvan	Yunis Huseynov	Ismayil Mammadov	Adidas	Azneftemash
Khazar	Agaselim Mirjavadov	Kamran Agaev	Puma	PalSüd
Mughan	Almir Hurtic	Elnur Mammadov	Olympikus	Nissan
Neftchi	Arif Asadov	Rail Malikov	Adidas	SOCAR
Olimpik-Shuvalan	Nazim Suleymanov	Agil Nabiyev	Adidas	Silk Way
Qarabağ	Gurban Gurbanov	Aslan Kerimov	Adidas	Azersun Holding
Qäbälä PFC	Tony Adams	Kanan Karimov	Adidas
Simurq	Roman Pokora	Alexandr Malygin	Adidas
Standard	Boyukagha Hajiyev	Agil Mammadov	Kappa	Bank Standard
Turan	Nizami Sadygov	Nadir Nabiyev	Adidas

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Inter Baku	Valentin Khodukin[3]	Resigned	10 June 2009	Kakhaber Tskhadadze[3]	10 June 2009
Khazar Lankaran	Igor Ponomaryov[4]	Resigned	11 June 2009	Agaselim Mirjavadov[5]	16 June 2009
Neftchi Baku	Boyukaga Aghayev[6]	Mutual consent	16 September 2009	Vagif Sadygov[7]	29 September 2009
FK Baku	Gjoko Hadžievski[8]	Resigned	24 September 2009	Bülent Korkmaz[9]	25 September 2009
FK Standard Sumgayit	Valdas Ivanauskas[10]	Sacked	21 October 2009	Boyukagha Hajiyev	23 October 2009
Olimpik-Shuvalan	Asgar Abdullayev[11]	Resigned	23 November 2009	Nazim Suleymanov[12]	23 November 2009
FK Mughan	Kemal Alispahić[13]	Sacked	1 December 2009	Almir Hurtić[14]	1 December 2009
Neftchi Baku	Vagif Sadygov[15]	Sacked	21 February 2010	Arif Asadov[16]	25 February 2010
FK Baku	Bülent Korkmaz[17]	Resigned	22 March 2010	Cüneyt Biçer[18]	3 April 2010

First round

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Inter Baku	22	15	4	3	36	18	+18	49	Qualification for championship group
2	Khazar Lankaran	22	12	8	2	29	11	+18	44
3	Qarabağ	22	11	9	2	21	12	+9	42
4	Baku	22	10	7	5	22	17	+5	37
5	Gabala	22	10	6	6	24	21	+3	36
6	Neftçi Baku	22	9	8	5	20	14	+6	35
7	Simurq	22	9	7	6	26	21	+5	34	Qualification for relegation group
8	Olimpik-Shuvalan	22	6	7	9	20	23	−3	25
9	Turan	22	4	5	13	23	32	−9	17
10	Mughan	22	3	7	12	12	27	−15	16
11	Standard	22	2	5	15	16	34	−18	11
12	Karvan	22	2	5	15	17	36	−19	11

Source: Soccerway.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.

Results

Home \ Away	BAK	INT	KAR	KHA	MUG	NEF	OLS	QAR	GAB	SIM	STA	TUR
Baku		2–0	1–0	0–3	0–0	0–2	0–0	0–1	2–0	1–2	0–0	2–1
Inter Baku	1–0		1–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	2–2	2–1	3–2	2–1	4–2	3–1
Karvan	1–1	0–2		0–2	1–1	0–1	1–3	1–1	4–1	3–2	2–2	0–0
Khazar Lankaran	1–1	1–0	3–0		2–0	0–0	2–1	0–0	1–0	3–0	0–0	1–1
Mughan	0–1	1–6	1–0	1–2		2–2	0–1	0–1	0–0	0–0	1–0	2–3
Neftçi Baku	1–1	2–1	1–0	0–0	0–2		0–0	0–0	1–1	0–1	2–0	2–0
Olimpik-Shuvalan	0–1	0–1	4–0	1–0	0–0	0–1		1–1	0–2	0–3	2–0	3–3
Qarabağ	0–0	1–1	3–2	1–0	2–1	1–0	1–0		0–0	0–0	1–0	2–1
Gabala	0–2	0–1	1–0	1–1	3–0	1–0	2–1	1–1		2–1	2–1	1–0
Simurq	1–2	1–1	2–0	1–2	0–0	0–0	2–0	1–0	1–1		1–1	2–1
Standard	3–4	0–1	1–0	1–2	1–0	1–2	0–1	0–1	1–2	1–2		1–1
Turan	0–1	0–1	2–1	1–2	1–0	2–3	0–0	1–2	0–1	1–2	3–0

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

Second round

Championship group

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Inter Baku (C)	20	7	8	5	22	19	+3	29	Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round
2	Baku	20	7	7	6	19	15	+4	28	Qualification for Europa League second qualifying round[a]
3	Qarabağ	20	6	9	5	16	18	−2	27[b]	Qualification for Europa League first qualifying round
4	Khazar Lankaran	20	6	9	5	19	14	+5	27[b]
5	Neftçi Baku	20	4	11	5	11	12	−1	23
6	Gabala	20	4	8	8	18	27	−9	20

Source: Soccerway.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head goals scored; 5) goal difference; 6) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions
Notes:

1. Baku were the winners of the 2009–10 Azerbaijan Cup competition and qualified for the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.
2. QAR: 7 pts, 4–3; KHA: 4 pts, 3–4

Home \ Away	BAK	INT	KHA	NEF	QAR	GAB
Baku		0–0	1–0	1–1	2–0	1–1
Inter Baku	1–1		1–0	1–1	0–1	4–1
Khazar Lankaran	0–1	2–2		0–0	2–1	4–1
Neftçi Baku	1–0	1–0	0–0		0–0	1–2
Qarabağ	1–4	1–1	2–1	2–0		1–1
Gabala	1–0	1–1	1–2	0–0	3–1

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

Relegation group

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Relegation
7	Olimpik-Shuvalan	20	10	6	4	27	15	+12	36
8	Simurq	20	8	7	5	21	21	0	31
9	Turan	20	7	8	5	27	22	+5	29
10	Mughan	20	7	6	7	17	16	+1	27
11	Standard (R)	20	7	4	9	26	23	+3	25	Relegation to Azerbaijan First Division
12	Karvan (R)	20	2	7	11	14	35	−21	13

Source: Soccerway.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(R) Relegated

Home \ Away	KAR	MUG	OLS	SIM	STA	TUR
Karvan		0–0	0–1	0–0	1–2	1–4
Mughan	2–3		2–1	3–1	1–0	0–0
Olimpik-Shuvalan	0–0	2–0		0–0	1–2	4–1
Simurq	0–0	1–0	0–3		0–4	2–1
Standard	6–0	0–2	0–1	3–1		2–3
Turan	2–0	1–2	0–0	0–0	0–0

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

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[19]
1	Farid Guliyev	Standard Sumgayit	16
2	Anatoli Doros	Olimpik-Shuvalan	12
	Robertas Poškus	Inter Baku	12
4	Adrian Neaga	Neftchi Baku	11
5	Jabá	Baku	10
	Nadir Nabiev	Turan Tovuz	10
7	Mario Sergio	Baku	9
	Allan Lalín	Turan Tovuz	9
9	Ģirts Karlsons	Inter Baku	8
10	Khagani Mammadov	Karvan	7

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Samir Musayev	Turan Tovuz	Mughan	3–2	1 November 2009[20]
Ģirts Karlsons	Inter Baku	Turan Tovuz	3–1	15 May 2010[21]
Anatolie Doroș	Olimpik-Shuvalan	Turan Tovuz	4–1	3 April 2010[22]
Farid Guliyev4	Standard	Karvan	6–0	9 May 2010[23]
Robertas Poškus	Inter Baku	Gabala	4–1	15 May 2010[24]
Nadir Nabiyev	Turan Tovuz	Karvan	4–1	16 May 2010[25]
Farid Guliyev	Standard	Simurq	4–0	16 May 2010[26]

• ⁴ Player scored 4 goals

Scoring

• First goal of the season: Oleg Gvelesiani own goal for Mughan against Standard Baku (14 August 2009)^[27]
• Fastest goal of the season: 1st minute,
  • Allan Lalín for Khazar Lankaran against Standard Baku (17 October 2009)^[28]
  • Jabá for Baku against Inter Baku (4 April 2010)^[29]
• Latest goal of the season: 95th minute,
  • Tomasz Stolpa for Gabala against Neftchi Baku (3 April 2010)^[30]
• Largest winning margin: 6 goals
  • Standard Baku 6–0 Karvan (9 May 2010)^[31]
• Highest scoring game: 7 goals
  • Mughan 1–6 Inter Baku (18 October 2010)^[32]
  • Standard Baku 3–4 Baku (5 December 2009)^[33]
• Most goals scored in a match by a single team: 6 goals
  • Standard Baku 6–0 Karvan (9 May 2010)^[31]
  • Mughan 1–6 Inter Baku (18 October 2010)^[32]
• Most goals scored in a match by a losing team: 3 goals
  • Standard Baku 3–4 Baku (5 December 2009)^[33]

Clean sheets

• Most clean sheets: 17
  • Neftchi Baku
• Fewest clean sheets: 5
  • Mughan

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Player of the Month
	Player	Club
October	Vagif Javadov[34]	FK Qarabağ
November	Mario Sergio[35]	Khazar Lankaran
December	Afran Ismayilov[36]	FK Qarabağ
January
February	Khagani Mammadov[37]	FK Karvan
March	Araz Abdullayev[37]	Neftchi Baku
April
May