2019–20 Azerbaijan Premier League

Azerbaijan Premier League
Season	2019–20
Dates	16 August 2019 – 10 May 2020
Champions	Qarabağ
Relegated	None
Champions League	Qarabağ
Europa League	Neftçi ; Keşla ; Sumgayit
Matches played	65
Goals scored	161 (2.48 per match)
Top goalscorer	Four Players ; (7 goals)
Biggest home win	Neftçi Baku 4–1 Gabala; (24 November 2019); Zira 4–1 Sabail; (8 December 2019)
Biggest away win	Zira 0–6 Qarabağ ; (15 February 2020)
Highest scoring	Zira 0–6 Qarabağ ; (15 February 2020)
Longest winning run	Qarabağ; (7 games)
Longest unbeaten run	Qarabağ; (11 games)
	← 2018–19 2020–21 → All statistics correct as of 15 February 2020.

The 2019–20 Azerbaijan Premier League was the 28th season of the Azerbaijan Premier League with Qarabağ being the defending champions. The season began on 16 August 2019,^[1] before being prematurely ended on 19 June 2020.

Season events

On 13 March 2020, the Azerbaijan Premier League was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2]

On 19 June 2020, the AFFA announced that the Azerbaijan Premier League was officially ended without the resumption of the remaining matches due to the escalating situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijan. As a result, Qarabağ were crowned champions for the seventh season in a row, whilst also qualifying for the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League, with Neftçi, Keşla and Sumgayit qualifying for the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League.^[3]

Teams

Keşla
Neftçi Baku
Sabail

Qarabağ

Locations of the 2019–20 Azerbaijan Premier League teams.
Team in italics is from a zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and is playing its home games in Baku.

Stadia and locations

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.

Team	Year Established	Location	Venue	Capacity^[4]
Gabala	1995^[5]^[6]	Qabala	Gabala City Stadium	4,500
Keşla	1997	Keshla	ASK Arena	5,300
Neftçi Baku	1937	Baku	Bakcell Arena	10,500
Qarabağ	1987	Baku	Azersun Arena	5,800
Sabah	2017	Masazır	Bank Respublika Arena	13,000
Sabail	2016	Sabail	ASCO Arena	3,200
Sumgayit	2010	Sumqayit	Kapital Bank Arena	1,400
Zira	2014	Zira	Zira Olympic Sport Complex Stadium	1,300

Stadiums

Gabala	Keşla	Qarabağ	Neftçi Baku
Gabala City Stadium	ASK Arena	Azersun Arena	Bakcell Arena
Capacity: 4,500	Capacity: 5,300	Capacity: 5,800	Capacity: 11,000

Sabah	Sabail	Sumgayit	Zira
Bank Respublika Arena	ASCO Arena	Kapital Bank Arena	Zira Olympic Sport Complex Stadium

Capacity: 13,000	Capacity: 3,200	Capacity: 1,400	Capacity: 1,300

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
Gabala	Elmar Bakhshiyev	Asif Mammadov	Joma	Milla
Keşla	Tarlan Ahmadov	Slavik Alkhasov	Joma	Samaya LTD
Neftçi Baku	Fizuli Mammedov	Emin Mahmudov	Nike	Turkish Airlines
Qarabağ	Gurban Gurbanov	Rashad Sadygov	Adidas	Azersun
Sabah	Željko Sopić	Javid Imamverdiyev	Macron	Bank Respublika
Sabail	Aftandil Hacıyev	Rahid Amirguliyev	Nike	AzTea
Sumgayit	Aykhan Abbasov	Vurğun Hüseynov	Jako	Pasha Insurance^{[broken anchor]}, Azərikimya
Zira	Zaur Hashimov	Javid Huseynov	Joma	Bakcell, Azfargroup

Foreign players

A team could use only six 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	Player 10
Gabala	Ivica Žunić	Merab Gigauri	Christian Kouakou	Clésio	Fernán Ferreiroa	Abdelrafik Gérard	Nicolas Rajsel
Keşla	Franco Flores	Stanislav Namașco	Mijuško Bojović	César Meza	Lorenzo Frutos	John Kamara	Shohrux Gadoyev	Alexander Christovão
Neftçi Baku	Dário	Bagaliy Dabo	Steeven Joseph-Monrose	Vangelis Platellas	Mamadou Kane	Soni Mustivar	Mamadou Mbodj	Vojislav Stanković	Saman Nariman Jahan
Qarabağ	Ailton	Vagner	Filip Ozobić	Abdellah Zoubir	Faycal Rherras	Magaye Gueye	Míchel	Owusu Kwabena
Sabah	Kévin Koubemba	Amadou Diallo	Filip Ivanović	Saša Stamenković	Dmytro Bezruk	Ulysse Diallo	Mario Marina	Marko Dević	Julio Rodríguez	Eugeniu Cociuc
Sabail	Erico	Michael Essien	Oleksandr Rybka	Hendrick Ekstein	Peyman Keshavarzi Nazarloo
Sumgayit	Amir Agayev	Peyman Babaei	Mehdi Sharifi	Dzhamaldin Khodzhaniyazov
Zira	Mpho Kgaswane	Chafik Tigroudja	Richard Gadze	Miloš Bakrač	Bojan Zogović	Álvaro Ampuero	Adrian Scarlatache	Alie Sesay	Davit Volkovi	Gheorghe Anton

In bold: Players that capped for their national team.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Gabala	Sanan Gurbanov	Resigned	31 August 2019^[7]	8th	Elmar Bakhshiyev (interim)	2 September 2019^[8]
Sabah	Elshad Ahmadov	Resigned	16 September 2019	7th	Igor Ponomaryov (interim)	19 September 2019
Zira	Samir Abbasov	Resigned	8 October 2019	6th	Zaur Hashimov	9 October 2019
Sabah	Igor Ponomaryov (interim)	End of interim role	26 November 2019	6th	Željko Sopić	26 November 2019^[9]
Neftçi	Roberto Bordin	Resigned	18 January 2020^[10]	3rd	Fizuli Mammedov	18 January 2020^[11]

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Qarabağ (C)	20	13	6	1	34	7	+27	45	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Neftçi Baku	20	10	7	3	33	14	+19	37	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
3	Keşla	20	8	6	6	27	21	+6	30
4	Sumgayit	20	6	5	9	24	32	−8	23
5	Zira	20	6	5	9	25	37	−12	23
6	Sabah	20	5	6	9	19	27	−8	21
7	Sabail	20	5	5	10	16	30	−14	20
8	Gabala	20	5	4	11	25	35	−10	19

Source: Soccerway
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 scored (only if two teams); 6) Goal difference; 7) Goals scored.^[12]
(C) Champions

Results

Clubs will play each other four times for a total of 28 matches each.

Matches 1–14

Home \ Away	GAB	KES	NEF	QAR	SAB	SEB	SUM	ZIR
Gabala		0–4	0–3	1–1	1–2	3–0	0–2	3–0
Keşla	2–1		2–1	0–1	1–1	1–2	2–1	2–0
Neftçi Baku	4–1	0–0		0–0	1–1	2–1	2–1	3–0
Qarabağ	3–0	2–2	2–0		2–0	1–0	2–0	1–1
Sabah	0–1	0–1	0–2	0–1		3–0	1–3	2–2
Sabail	1–1	0–0	0–0	0–4	1–3		0–2	1–0
Sumgayit	1–1	0–0	2–4	2–1	1–0	0–3		1–2
Zira	1–1	3–1	1–0	1–3	1–1	4–1	2–2

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

Matches 15–28

Home \ Away	GAB	KES	NEF	QAR	SAB	SEB	SUM	ZIR
Gabala		1–2	0–2				5–0
Keşla				0–2		0–1		4–0
Neftçi Baku		3–1			4–0	1–1	1–1
Qarabağ			0–0		0–0		1–0
Sabah	3–2					0–0
Sabail	3–1			0–1				1–3
Sumgayit		2–2			1–2			2–1
Zira	1–2			0–6	2–0

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

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of matches played 9 March 2020

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Peyman Babaei	Sumgayit	7
	Steeven Joseph-Monrose	Neftçi Baku
	Bagaliy Dabo	Neftçi Baku
	Mahir Emreli	Qarabağ
5	Lorenzo Frutos	Keşla	6
	Aghabala Ramazanov	Zira
	Davit Volkovi	Zira
8	Mehdi Sharifi	Sumgayit	5
	Magaye Gueye	Qarabağ
	Hendrick Ekstein	Sabail
	Abdellah Zoubir	Qarabağ

Clean sheets

As of match played 9 March 2020

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Shahruddin Mahammadaliyev	Qarabağ	9
2	Salahat Aghayev	Neftçi	7
2	Stanislav Namașco	Keşla	7
4	Asmir Begović	Qarabağ	6
5	Mehdi Jannatov	Sumgayit	4
5	Anar Nazirov	Gabala	4

Scoring

First goal of the season: Ismayil Ibrahimli for Qarabağ against Keşla on 16 August 2019.

References

^ "pfl.az". Retrieved 10 September 2019.
^ "Официально: Остановлены матчи Премьер-лиги". azerifootball.com/ (in Russian). Azeri Football. 13 March 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
^ "Официально: Сезон 2019/20 завершен досрочно. Карабах - чемпион, Сумгаит впервые в истории попал в Еврокубки". azerifootball.com/ (in Russian). Azerifootball. 19 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
^ Azərbaycan Peşəkar Liqası (in Azerbaijani)
^ "Qəbələ – 10". gabalafc.az (in Azerbaijani). Gabala FK. 1 September 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
^ Establishment of SC Qabala Archived 23 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
^ "AÇIQLAMA". gabalafc.az/ (in Azerbaijani). Gabala FK. 31 August 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
^ "AÇIQLAMA". gabalafc.az/ (in Azerbaijani). Gabala FK. 2 September 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
^ ""SABAH" FK-DA YENİ BAŞ MƏŞQÇİ". sabahfc.az/ (in Azerbaijani). Sabah FC. 26 November 2019. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
^ "Neftçi Terminates Bordin's Contract". neftchipfk.com. Neftçi PFK. 18 January 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
^ "Neftçi Terminates Bordin's Contract". neftchipfk.com. Neftçi PFK. 18 January 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
^ "Premyer Liqa". Soccerway. Retrieved 7 February 2020.