# 2020 Kazakhstan Premier League

The 2020 Kazakhstan Premier League was the 29th season of the Kazakhstan Premier League, the highest football league competition in Kazakhstan. FC Astana were the defending champions after winning their sixth title the previous season.

## Season events
### COVID-19

On 13 March, the Football Federation of Kazakhstan announced all league fixtures would be played behind closed doors for the foreseeable future due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 16 March the Football Federation of Kazakhstan suspended all football until 15 April.
On 26 June, it was announced that the league would resume on 1 July, with no fans being permitted to watch the games. The league was suspended for a second time on 3 July, for an initial two weeks, due to an increase in COVID-19 cases in the country.

### Irtysh Pavlodar

On 30 May, the Professional Football League of Kazakhstan announced that Irtysh Pavlodar had withdrawn from the league due to financial issues, with all their matches being excluded from the league results.

## Teams

FC Aktobe and FC Atyrau were relegated at the end of the 2019 season, and were replaced by FC Kyzylzhar and FC Caspiy.

### Team overview

| Team | Location | Venue | Capacity |
| Astana | Nur-Sultan | Nur-Sultan Arena | 30,000 |
| Caspiy | Aktau | Zhastar Stadium | 5,000 |
| Irtysh | Pavlodar | Pavlodar Central Stadium | 15,000 |
| Kairat | Almaty | Almaty Central Stadium | 25,057 |
| Kaisar | Kyzylorda | Gany Muratbayev Stadium | 7,500 |
| Kyzylzhar | Petropavl | Karasai Stadium | 11,000 |
| Okzhetpes | Kokshetau | Alisher Sagynbayev Stadium | 4,158 |
| Ordabasy | Shymkent | Kazhymukan Munaitpasov Stadium | 20,000 |
| Shakhter | Karaganda | Shakhter Stadium | 20,000 |
| Taraz | Taraz | Yerkebulan Babayev Stadium | 11,525 |
| Tobol | Kostanay | Bauyrzhan Sagintayev Stadium | 10,500 |
| Zhetysu | Taldykorgan | Samat Suyumbayev Stadium | 4,000 |

### Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players and Managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| Team | Manager | Captain | Kit manufacturer | Shirt sponsor |
| Astana | Andrey Tikhonov | Dmitri Shomko | Adidas | Samruk-Kazyna |
| Caspiy | Srđan Blagojević | Ruslan Sakhalbaev | Nike | — |
| Irtysh | Samvel Babayan | Nikita Kalmykov | Puma | ENRC |
| Kairat | Talgat Baysufinov | Bauyrzhan Islamkhan | Nike | 1xBet |
| Kaisar | Stoycho Mladenov | Maksat Baizhanov | Nike | — |
| Kyzylzhar | Veaceslav Rusnac | Shota Grigalashvili | Nike | — |
| Okzhetpes | Andrei Karpovich | Yaroslav Baginsky | Adidas | — |
| Ordabasy | Kakhaber Tskhadadze | Pablo Fontanello | Nike | Aysu Mineral Water |
| Shakhter | Konstantin Gorovenka | Evgeniy Tarasov | Nike | BTL Kazakhstan |
| Taraz | Vladimir Nikitenko | Ilya Vorotnikov | Nike | — |
| Tobol | Grigori Babayan | Azat Nurgaliev | Adidas | Polymetal |
| Zhetysu | Dmitriy Ogai | Almat Bekbaev | Adidas | — |

### Foreign players

The number of foreign players was restricted to eight per KPL team. A team could use only five foreign players on the field in each game. For the 2020 season, the KFF announced that players from countries of the Eurasian Economic Union would not be counted towards a club's foreign player limit.
| Club | Player 1 | Player 2 | Player 3 | Player 4 | Player 5 | Player 6 | Player 7 | Player 8 | Player 9 |
| Astana | Luka Šimunović | Marin Tomasov | Pieros Sotiriou | Rúnar Már Sigurjónsson | Žarko Tomašević | Dorin Rotariu | Uroš Radaković | Antonio Rukavina | |
| Caspiy | Branko Čubrilo | Billal Sebaihi | Stefan Bukorac | Marko Milošević | Maksym Marusych | | | | |
| Irtysh | | | | | | | | |
| Kairat | Vágner Love | Dino Mikanović | Nebojša Kosović | Jacek Góralski | Konrad Wrzesiński | Rade Dugalić | Aderinsola Eseola | | |
| Kaisar | Aleksandar Kolev | Clarence Bitang | Alvin Fortes | Ivan Graf | Elguja Lobjanidze | Reginaldo | Aleksandar Stanisavljević | | |
| Kyzylzhar | Pablo Podio | Momodou Ceesay | Shota Grigalashvili | Moussa Koné | Vytautas Andriuškevičius | Mihai Plătică | Uroš Delić | Artem Baranovskyi | Maksym Drachenko |
| Okzhetpes | Gian | Artjom Dmitrijev | Vsevolod Nihaev | Marko Obradović | Darko Zorić | Aliyu Abubakar | Milan Stojanović | Taras Bondarenko | |
| Ordabasy | Pablo Fontanello | Ziguy Badibanga | Mirzad Mehanović | João Paulo | Rúben Brígido | May Mahlangu | Abdoulaye Diakate | Aleksandar Simčević | |
| Shakhter | Abdel Lamanje | Sergei Zenjov | Gideon Baah | Cédric Kouadio | Muhammed Usman | Ruslan Mingazow | Yevhen Tkachuk | | |
| Taraz | Toni Silva | Ovidijus Verbickas | Dejan Boljević | Jovan Čađenović | Goran Brkić | Bratislav Punoševac | Serge Nyuiadzi | | |
| Tobol | Nika Kvekveskiri | Jaba Kankava | Senin Sebai | Aleksa Amanović | Jérémy Manzorro | Carlos Fonseca | | | |
| Zhetysu | Martin Toshev | David Mawutor | Donjet Shkodra | Artūras Žulpa | Pedro Eugénio | Nenad Adamović | Stefan Živković | | |
In bold: Players that have been capped for their national team.

### Managerial changes

| Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Position in table | Incoming manager | Date of appointment |
| Tobol | Nurbol Zhumaskaliyev (Caretaker) | End of Caretaker Role | 14 December 2019 | Pre-Season | Grigori Babayan | 14 December 2019 |
| Shakhter Karagandy | Nikolay Kostov | End of Contract | 30 December 2019 | Pre-Season | Vyacheslav Hroznyi | 30 December 2019 |
| Taraz | Nurken Mazbayev | End of Contract | 31 December 2019 | Pre-Season | Vladimir Nikitenko | 16 January 2020 |
| Astana | Roman Hryhorchuk | Mutual Termination | 13 January 2020 | Pre-Season | Michal Bílek | 14 January 2020 |
| Shakhter Karagandy | Vyacheslav Hroznyi | Mutual Termination | 17 June 2020 | 8th | Konstantin Gorovenka | 18 June 2020 |
| Astana | Michal Bílek | Sacked | 26 August 2020 | 2nd | Paul Ashworth (Caretaker) | 26 August 2020 |
| Astana | Paul Ashworth (Caretaker) | Mutual Termination | 7 October 2020 | 2nd | Andrey Tikhonov | 16 October 2020 |

## Regular season
### League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Kairat (C) | 20 | 14 | 3 | 3 | 48 | 19 | +29 | 45 | Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round |
| 2 | Tobol | 20 | 12 | 2 | 6 | 26 | 16 | +10 | 38 | Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round |
| 3 | Astana | 20 | 11 | 3 | 6 | 32 | 21 | +11 | 36 | Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round |
| 4 | Shakhter Karagandy | 20 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 29 | 22 | +7 | 32 | Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round |
| 5 | Ordabasy | 20 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 27 | 26 | +1 | 31 | |
| 6 | Zhetysu | 20 | 9 | 1 | 10 | 27 | 28 | −1 | 28 | |
| 7 | Kaisar | 20 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 20 | 23 | −3 | 24 | |
| 8 | Taraz | 20 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 19 | 23 | −4 | 23 | |
| 9 | Kyzylzhar | 20 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 15 | 24 | −9 | 23 | |
| 10 | Caspiy | 20 | 5 | 2 | 13 | 15 | 34 | −19 | 17 | |
| 11 | Okzhetpes (R) | 20 | 2 | 5 | 13 | 16 | 38 | −22 | 11 | Relegation to the Kazakhstan First Division |
| 12 | Irtysh Pavlodar (R, D, R, D) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Withdrawn, relegated to the Kazakhstan First Division |

### Results
#### Games 1–20

| Home \ Away | AST | CAS | KRT | KSR | KYZ | OKZ | ORD | SHA | TAR | TOB | ZHE |
| Astana | | 1–2 | 0–1 | 3–1 | 4–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 3–0 |
| Caspiy | 2–3 | | 0–3 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 0–4 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 0–2 |
| Kairat | 3–0 | 3–1 | | 2–1 | 2–3 | 5–0 | 3–1 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 3–0 |
| Kaisar | 0–1 | 0–1 | 2–2 | | 1–2 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 1–0 |
| Kyzylzhar | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | | 3–1 | 0–0 | 1–3 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 2–1 |
| Okzhetpes | 1–5 | 2–2 | 3–3 | 0–1 | 2–1 | | 1–3 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 0–1 |
| Ordabasy | 1–2 | 1–0 | 1–3 | 0–3 | 1–0 | 1–0 | | 0–1 | 1–1 | 0–3 | 3–1 |
| Shakhter Karagandy | 3–1 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 0–1 | | 1–1 | 1–0 | 1–2 |
| Taraz | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 2–2 | 0–0 | 2–3 | 3–2 | 2–4 | | 0–0 | 0–2 |
| Tobol | 2–0 | 2–0 | 0–4 | 3–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–4 | 3–1 | 2–0 | | 2–0 |
| Zhetysu | 1–2 | 3–0 | 2–4 | 3–1 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 2–3 | 3–2 | 0–1 | 0–0 | |

## Statistics
### Scoring

* First goal of the season: Pieros Sotiriou for Astana against Kyzylzhar (7 March 2020)

### Top scorers

| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| 1 | João Paulo | Ordabasy | 12 |
| 2 | Abat Aimbetov | Kairat | 10 |
| 3 | Elguja Lobjanidze | Kaisar | 8 |
| 4 | Vágner Love | Kairat | 7 |
| 5 | Rúnar Már Sigurjónsson | Astana | 6 |
| 5 | Pieros Sotiriou | Astana | 6 |
| 5 | Aybar Zhaksylykov | Zhetysu | 6 |
| 8 | Artjom Dmitrijev | Okzhetpes | 5 |
| 8 | Pedro Eugénio | Zhetysu | 5 |
| 8 | Arsen Khubulov | Shakhter Karagandy | 5 |
| 8 | Jérémy Manzorro | Tobol | 5 |
| 8 | Azat Nurgaliev | Tobol | 5 |
| 8 | Aydos Tattybaev | Shakhter Karagandy | 5 |

### Clean sheets

    As of matches played on 4 October 2020.
| Rank | Player | Club | Clean sheets |
| 1 | Aleksandr Zarutskiy | Kaisar | 3 |
| 1 | Miroslav Lobantsev | Kyzylzhar | 3 |
| 1 | Vladimir Plotnikov | Ordabasy | 3 |
| 1 | Igor Shatskiy | Tobol | 3 |
| 1 | Aleksandr Mokin | Tobol | 3 |
| 1 | Almat Bekbaev | Zhetysu | 3 |
| 1 | Stas Pokatilov | Kairat | 3 |
| 8 | Nenad Erić | Astana | 2 |
| 8 | Dmytro Nepohodov | Astana | 2 |
| 8 | Danil Ustimenko | Kairat | 2 |
| 8 | Marsel Islamkulov | Kaisar | 2 |
| 8 | Mukhammejan Seisen | Taraz | 2 |
| 8 | Andrey Shabanov | Zhetysu | 2 |