2025–26 Azerbaijan Premier League

Azerbaijan Premier League
Season2025–26
Dates15 August 2025 – 2026
Matches95
Goals238 (2.51 per match)
Top goalscorerJoy-Lance Mickels
(9 goals)
2026–27 →
All statistics correct as of 22 December 2025.

The 2025–26 Azerbaijan Premier League is the 34rd season of the Azerbaijan Premier League, the highest tier football league of Azerbaijan. The season started on 15 August 2025.

Starting from the 2025–26 season, the foreign player quota has been abolished. A mandatory fee will be applied to all foreign players. At the same time, teams that include local players in their line-ups will receive financial bonuses. These bonuses will be funded by the revenues collected from the foreign player fees.[1]

Beginning this season, the number of teams has been increased from 10 to 12.[2] At the end of 2025–26 season, the team that finishes in 11th place in the Premier League will face the runner-up of the First League in a play-off match held at the neutral venue. The winner of this match will earn a spot in the next season’s Premier League. The team that finishes last will be relegated to the First League, while the First League champion will be promoted to the Premier League, automatically.[3] Ahead of the new season, AFFA's Licensing Commission granted licenses to the following teams: Baku Sporting, Difai, İmişli, Karvan, Kəpəz, Qəbələ, Səbail, and Şamaxı.[4] The official draw ceremony for the 2025–26 season took place on 18 July at the Flame Towers complex.[5]

Teams

Team changes

Promoted from
2024–25 Azerbaijan First Division 		Relegated to
2025–26 Azerbaijan First Division
Gabala, Karvan, Imishli Sabail

Sabail relegated to First Division after eight years in top tier.

Gabala return to top tier after one year absence, Imishli return to top tier after eighteen years absence and Karvan return to top tier after sixteen years absence.

Locations of the 2025–26 Azerbaijan Premier League teams

Stadia and locations

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.
Team Year Established Location Venue Capacity[6]
Araz Naxçıvan 1967 Nakhchivan, Baku Dalga Arena 6,500
Gabala 2005 Qabala Gabala City Stadium 4,500
Imishli 2022 Imishli Heydar Aliyev Stadium 8,500
Kapaz 1959 Ganja, Tovuz Tovuz City Stadium 6,500
Karvan Yevlakh 2022 Yevlakh, Shamakhi Shamakhi City Stadium 2,200
Neftchi 1937 Baku Neftchi Arena 10,260
Qarabağ 1987 Aghdam, Baku Tofiq Bahramov Stadium 31,200
Sabah 2017 Absheron Bank Respublika Arena 8,600
Shamakhi 1997 Shamakhi Shamakhi City Stadium 2,200
Sumgayit 2010 Sumgait Mehdi Huseynzade Stadium 8,700
Turan Tovuz 2014 Tovuz Tovuz City Stadium 6,500
Zira 2014 Zira, Baku Zira Sport Complex 1,300

Managerial changes

Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Position in table Incoming manager Date of appointment
Neftçi Samir Abbasov Fired 24 November 2025[7] 7th Sanan Gurbanov (Acting) 24 November 2025[7]
Sanan Gurbanov (Acting) End of contract 9 December 2025[8] 8th Yuriy Vernydub 9 December 2025[8]
Araz-Naxçıvan Elmar Bakhshiyev Mutual Termination 25 December 2025[9] 5th Andriy Demchenko 4 January 2026[10]

Foreign players

Main articles: List of Azerbaijan football transfers summer 2025 and List of Azerbaijan football transfers winter 2025–26
Club Player 1 Player 2 Player 3 Player 4 Player 5 Player 6 Player 7 Player 8 Player 9 Player 10 Player 11 Player 12 Player 13 Player 14 Player 15 Player 16 Player 17 Left during the season
Araz-Naxçıvan Bruno Franco Ramon Machado Wanderson Maranhão Felipe Santos Issouf Paro Patrick Andrade Charles Boli Hamidou Keyta Ba-Muaka Simakala Bar Cohen Ayyoub Allach Cristian Avram Nuno Rodrigues
Gabala Paulo Guimbila Eduardo Kunde Domi Massoumou Ibrahim Sangaré Isaac Amoah Prince Owusu Adriel Ba Loua Ismahil Akinade Salihu Nasiru Jaime Sierra Seydina Keita Jeando Fuchs
İmişli Andrey Sinenko Juninho Ronaldo Rodrigues Diogo Rollo Rafael Viegas Edwin Banguera Ezekiel Morgan Yaw Moses Diogo Almeida Nikola Karaklajić
Kapaz Jefferson Bento Pachu Adama Fofana Otar Aptsiauri Donald Dongo Ryonosuke Ohori Mahamadou Ba Olawale Onanuga Kacper Rosa Pedro Gomes Diogo Verdasca Vitor Feijão
Karvan Moise Ngwisani Joy-Slayd Mickels Imani Barker Nika Chachashvili Shaquill Sno Olawale Doyeni Peter Kings Gavi Thompson Victor Rocha Pedro Mateus Kyle Spence Sam Durrant Saeed Irankhah
Neftçi Sessi D'Almeida Kenan Pirić Igor Ribeiro Vincent Aboubakar Jordan Rezabala Imad Faraj Bassala Sambou Alessio Curci Falaye Sacko Edvin Kuč Ifeanyi Mathew Luis Ortíz Cristian Costin Moustapha Seck Freddy Vargas
Qarabağ Pedro Bicalho Dani Bolt Kady Borges Matheus Silva Leandro Andrade Camilo Durán Kevin Medina Fabijan Buntić Abdellah Zoubir Emmanuel Addai Chris Kouakou Marko Janković Mateusz Kochalski Joni Montiel Oleksiy Kashchuk
Sabah Akim Zedadka Ygor Nogueira Andrey Santos Ivan Lepinjica Zinédine Ould Khaled Aaron Malouda Joy-Lance Mickels Steve Solvet Kaheem Parris Stas Pokatilov Jesse Sekidika Tymoteusz Puchacz Veljko Simić Pavol Šafranko Umarali Rakhmonaliev Bojan Letić
Njegoš Kupusović
Şamaxı César António Lara David Oliveira Abdullahi Shuaibu Ricardo Apolinario Diogo Balau Ricardo Fernandes Andrei Tîrcoveanu Karim Rossi Alphonce Msanga Vladyslav Veremyeyev
Sumgayit Abdoul Rachid Moumini Keffel Trésor Mossi Ronaldo Vásquez Rayan Senhadji Roi Kahat Masaki Murata Alexandre Ramalingom Easah Suliman Pedro Pinto Aleksa Janković Nikola Ninković Danylo Beskorovaynyi
Turan Tovuz Henrique Jô David Tavares Haiderson Hurtado Ibrahima Wadji Denis Marandici Roderick Miller Jorge Silva Sergei Samok Roberto Olabe Álex Serrano Oleg Baklov Emmanuel Hackman Alex Souza
Zira Yegor Bogomolsky Henrique Martins Júnior Ruan Renato Brahim Konaté Iron Gomis Leroy-Jacques Mickels Giorgi Papunashvili Davit Volkovi Stephane Acka Guima Issa Djibrilla Tiago Silva Ange Mutsinzi Abdul Aziz Batibie Eldar Kuliyev Vincent Thill

In italics:' Players that are on loan from another APL side.
In bold: Players that have been capped for their national team.

League table

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation
1 Sabah 25 19 5 1 60 17 +43 62 Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2 Qarabağ 24 16 4 4 48 18 +30 52 Qualification for the Conference League second qualifying round
3 Turan Tovuz 25 14 6 5 32 17 +15 48 Qualification for the Conference League first qualifying round
4 Zira 25 11 9 5 33 27 +6 42
5 Araz-Naxçıvan 25 11 6 8 34 43 −9 39
6 Neftçi 24 9 10 5 39 22 +17 37
7 Sumgayit 25 9 5 11 33 35 −2 32
8 Shamakhi 25 7 9 9 24 27 −3 30
9 Imishli 25 4 10 11 18 36 −18 22
10 Kapaz 25 6 3 16 21 48 −27 21
11 Gabala 25 4 4 17 23 42 −19 16 Qualification to Relegation Play-off
12 Karvan 25 1 5 19 16 49 −33 8 Relegation to Azerbaijan First Division
Updated to match(es) played on 21 March 2026. Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Matches won; 3) Goal difference; 4) Goals scored; 5) Head-to-head points; 6) Head-to-head goal difference; 7) Lower number of points based on yellow and red cards; 8) Draw.[11]

Results

Clubs play each other three times for a total of 33 matches each.

Home \ Away ARA GAB IMI KAP KRV NEF QAR SAB SHA SUM TUR ZIR
Araz-Naxçıvan 2–1 2–0 2–0 2–1 0–4 0–5 2–2 1–0 1–1 0–1
2 May 16 May 2–1 4 Apr 18 Apr 23 May
Gabala 2–1 3–2 3–0 1–1 0–2 1–2 0–1 0–1 0–2 0–3 1–2
25 Apr 11 Apr 1–3 9 May 23 May
Imishli 2–2 2–2 0–0 1–1 0–0 0–1 0–3 0–0 1–0 0–1 1–1
23 May 0–5 25 Apr 4 Apr 9 May
Kapaz 0–2 1–0 0–3 2–3 1–3 1–0 1–3 0–2 3–0 0–2 0–2
4 Apr 18 Apr 23 May 2 May 1–1
Karvan 0–2 1–1 0–3 1–2 1–2 0–2 0–2 0–3 0–2 1–2 2–3
1–1 0–1
Neftçi 2–2 2–3 5–1 0–0 0–0 1–1 2–2 0–1 0–0
6–0 0–1
Qarabağ 5–1 2–0 2–0 1–0 2–0 2–0 3–3 0–0 0–1 1–1
6–0 0–2
Sabah 4–1 1–0 0–1 1–0 4–1 2–0 2–1 0–0 1–1 2–0 3–0
7–1 3–1
Shamakhi 1–1 0–4 1–0 1–4 3–0 2–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 0–0 2–1
0–1 0–0
Sumgayit 3–2 0–0 1–0 3–0 4–1 0–2 2–4 1–3 1–1 0–3 2–3
0–1
Turan Tovuz 1–2 1–0 0–0 3–0 1–0 0–0 1–2 1–3 2–1 2–1 2–0
3–2
Zira 1–1 1–0 0–0 5–0 1–0 2–2 1–1 1–3 2–1 1–0 0–0
2–2
Updated to match(es) played on 21 March 2026. Source: soccerway.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of match played 4 March 2026
Rank Player Club Goals[12]
1 Joy-Lance Mickels Sabah 10
2 Veljko Simić Sabah 9
Bassala Sambou Neftçi
4 Karim Rossi Şamaxı 8
5 Toral Bayramov Qarabağ 7
Diogo Dos Santos İmişli
Emin Mahmudov Neftçi
Ba-Muaka Simakala Araz-Naxçıvan

Clean sheets

As of match played 22 December 2025
Rank Player Club Clean sheets
1 Stas Pokatilov Sabah 8
Oleg Baklov Turan Tovuz
3 Ricardo Fernandes Şamaxı 6
4 Kenan Pirić Neftçi 5
Shakhruddin Magomedaliyev Qarabağ
Cristian Avram Araz-Naxçıvan
Tiago Silva Zira
Andrey Sinenko İmişli
9 Mekhti Dzhenetov Sumgayit 4
10 Mateusz Kochalski Qarabağ 2

See also

Reference

  1. ^ "Azərbaycan Premyer Liqasında legioner limiti ləğv olunub". Report İnformasiya Agentliyi (in Azerbaijani). 2025-02-03. Archived from the original on 2025-02-09. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
  2. ^ "Azərbaycan Premyer Liqasında komanda sayı artırılacaq". Report İnformasiya Agentliyi (in Azerbaijani). 2025-02-03. Archived from the original on 2025-02-05. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
  3. ^ "2025/2026 mövsümündə Azərbaycan Premyer Liqası uğrunda pley-off oyunu olacaq". Report İnformasiya Agentliyi (in Azerbaijani). 2025-02-19. Archived from the original on 2025-02-20. Retrieved 2025-02-19.
  4. ^ "AFFA-nın Lisenziya Komissiyası "Qəbələ", "İmişli" və "Karvan"ın Premyer Liqada iştirakına rəsmən icazə verib". Report İnformasiya Agentliyi (in Azerbaijani). 2025-05-08. Retrieved 2025-05-08.
  5. ^ "Azərbaycan Premyer Liqası: 2025/2026 mövsümünün püşkatma mərasiminin vaxtı bəlli olub". Report İnformasiya Agentliyi (in Azerbaijani). 2025-07-07. Retrieved 2025-07-07.
  6. ^ Azərbaycan Peşəkar Liqası (in Azerbaijani)
  7. ^ a b ""Neftçi" PFK-nın məlumatı". neftchi.az (in Azerbaijani). Neftçi PFK. 24 November 2025. Retrieved 27 November 2025.
  8. ^ a b "Yuri Vernidub "Neftçi"nin yeni baş məşqçisidir". neftchi.az (in Azerbaijani). Neftçi PFK. 9 December 2025. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  9. ^ "Elmar Baxşıyevlə müqaviləyə xitam verilib". instagram.com/araznaxcivanpfc/ (in Azerbaijani). Araz-Naxçıvan PFK Instagram. 25 December 2025. Retrieved 30 December 2025.
  10. ^ "Andrey Demçenko ilə müqavilə imzalanıb". instagram.com/araznaxcivanpfc/ (in Azerbaijani). Araz-Naxçıvan PFK Instagram. 4 January 2026. Retrieved 5 January 2026.
  11. ^ "Regulation". pfl.az. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  12. ^ "Premier League – Top Scorers". soccer24.com. Soccer24.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.