Ground Capacity 3,500 President Zaur Akhundov League Azerbaijan Premier League Location Baku, Azerbaijan Founded 1996 | Owner Jahangir Asgarov 2015–16 7th Manager Tarlan Ahmadov Ground AZAL Arena | |
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Full name AZAL Peşəkar Futbol Klubu Nickname(s) Təyyarəçilər (The Pilots) | ||
Fortuna sebail pfk azal pfk
AZAL PFK (Azerbaijani: AZAL Peşəkar Futbol Klubu) is an Azerbaijani football club based in Şüvəlan, Baku. The club competes in the Azerbaijan Premier League.
Contents
- Fortuna sebail pfk azal pfk
- Early years 19962006
- Abdullayev years 20062009
- Recent years 2009present
- European history
- Stadium
- Shirt sponsors and kit manufacturers
- Players
- Current squad
- Club
- Individual
- Top goalscorers
- Most appearances
- Notable managers
- Presidential history
- References
The club was renamed three times in its short history becoming Olimpik Baku, Olimpik-Shuvalan Baku and AZAL. UEFA is still recognizing the club as Olimpik-Shuvalan at European competitions.
The club is also a member of the European Club Association, an organization that replaced the previous G-14 which consists of major football clubs in Europe.
Early years (1996–2006)
The club were established in 1996 as a futsal club under the name of AMMK. It participated in national futsal league from the season 1996–97 till 2003–04. AMMK also represented Azerbaijan in UEFA Futsal Cup 2003/04 season.
AMMK became professional football team in 2004 and joined the Azerbaijan First Division. The first Azerbaijan Premier League season was not much successful for Olimpik Baku. Croatian manager Stjepan Čordaš worked just for a couple of month and was sacked after poor results. His place was taken by Serbian Petar Kurčubić, but he was also unable to achieve good results, and Olimpik Baku finished 12th. At that time, Olimpik was called 'The Club from Balkans', as there were a lot of players from Balkan countries such as Marko Mitrović, Srdjan Baljak, Rašo Babić, Saša Kovačević, Tomislav Višević and others.
Abdullayev years (2006–2009)
In June 2006, Asgar Abdullayev was appointed as a new head coach of Olimpik. He still remains as the most successful manager in clubs' history. Led by Abdullayev, Olimpik improved its results, ranked 6th in 2007 and 2nd in 2008. Olimpik came very closed to win 2007–08 league title, but the team was beaten by Qarabağ at last round game, although they only had to play a draw.
Olimpik's debut in European competitions was also not successful as they were eliminated in the 1st qualifying round of 2008–09 UEFA Cup by Serbian side Vojvodina. Roman Akhalkatsi became the first goalscorer of Olimpik in the European club tournaments.
Recent years (2009–present)
In 2009, the club moved from center to Shuvalan settlement and was renamed into Olimpik-Shuvalan PFC. In November 2009, Asgar Abdullayev completed his mission and he was changed by former Azerbaijani football star Nazim Suleymanov. At his debut season Suleymanov took the team over the Azerbaijan Cup quarter-final for a first time in its history. The club once again was renamed in 2010, this time to AZAL PFC due to sponsorship reasons from airline company Azerbaijan Airlines. In September 2010, the club management announced the construction of new AZAL Arena in Shuvalan.
The 2010-11 Azerbaijan Premier League season was a great for AZAL. The team finished 4th and entered UEFA Europa League 2011-12 season. Although the club was renamed into AZAL in 2010, it represented as Olimpik-Shuvalan in UEFA Europa League competitions due to UEFA's sponsorship regulations. Before the home game against Minsk, Suleymanov said that he would resign in case of defeat. AZAL lost to Minsk 2–3 in aggregate, and Suleymanov announced his resignation after second match in Minsk.
In July, club president Vaqif Gasymov invited Elkhan Abdullayev to AZAL and he signed a one-year contract. He started with a brilliance victory over Simurq (3:0), but resigned after 11 games, when AZAL came down to 11th position. The club sponsors made a decision to replace him by Rafig Mirzayev, Abdullayev's former assistant. Mirzayev started as a caretaker, winning 3 games consecutively and taking the team up to 7th place. In December 2011, Mirzayev signed a half-year contract with AZAL. In April, after the unsuccessful run, Mirzayev was sacked, and Azerbaijan national football team former manager Vagif Sadygov was appointed as a new head coach.
It was an ambiguous season for AZAL and its manager. The team won 16 games, scored 57 goals renewing own records, but for the second time consecutively did not enter Championship Group after Preliminary Round. The management recognized the season as unsuccessful despite the fact that the team has won 9 of the 10 matches in the relegation group. Brazilian striker Nildo scored 21 goals showing the best individual record in AZAL's history for the scorers in a single season and became one of the topscorers of the 2012–13 Azerbaijan Premier League.
The summer of 2013, saw more budget cuts and several big names as Nildo, Zouhir Benouahi, Usim Nduka, etc. leaving the club, but this time the main concern for fans was the very future of the club.
European history
As of 10 February 2013.
Stadium
AZAL Arena is a football stadium in Shuvalan settlement of Baku, Azerbaijan. It is currently used as club's home stadium and holds 3,500 people. The club plans to construct another tribune by increasing stadiums' capacity to 6000 in the upcoming years.
During 2005–2011 years AZAL played its home games at Shafa Stadium.
AZAL changed the crest four times during its short history. Between 1996–2004 years the crest was the same of AMMK's organisation logo. In 2005, as soon as AMMK was renamed into Olimpik Baku the logo was also modified. New logo was the form of circular blue shield with the Olympic flame in the middle.
In 2009, it was designed a new version of the crest with a white and blue stripes, and remained for a next season, however the club became AZAL PFK. Current logo seems like the older logo, but in the center of traditional blue circular shield is drawn an airliner
Shirt sponsors and kit manufacturers
Since its foundation AZAL's traditional home kit is completely blue. For the guest games the team usually wears an all white kit, except 2007–08 season, when Olimpic Baku has worn red-black striped jersey, black shorts and red socks. For the last three years the club's kits are manufactured by Umbro and sponsored by Silk Way Airlines.
Players
Azerbaijani teams are limited to nine players without Azerbaijani citizenship. The squad list includes only the principal nationality of each player; several non-European players on the squad have dual citizenship with an EU country.
Current squad
As of 22 February 2017Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
For recent transfers, see winter 2016 transfers and summer 2016 transfers.
Club
Individual
Lists of the players with the most caps and top goalscorers for AZAL.(players in bold signifies current AZAL player):
Top goalscorers
As of Match played 13 February 2016Most appearances
As of Match played 13 February 2016Notable managers
Information correct as of match played 20 July 2014. Only competitive matches are counted.
P – Total of played matches W – Won matches D – Drawn matches L – Lost matches GS – Goal scored GA – Goals against
%W – Percentage of matches won
Nationality is indicated by the corresponding FIFA country code(s).
Presidential history
AZAL was founded by former futsal player, currently FIFA licensed Football agent Kamil Mammadov. In 2005, he sold the club to Silk Way Airlines. Since the AZAL PFC has had just two presidents: former general officer Rasul Rasulov and the club's former vice-president Vaqif Gasymov. At the end of 2011, after Gasymov's resign Silk Way Airlines company chairman Zaur Akhundov became the AZAL PFC new president.