# 2016 Kazakhstan Premier League

The 2016 Kazakhstan Premier League was the 25th season of the Kazakhstan Premier League, the highest football league competition in Kazakhstan. Astana were the defending champions having won their second league championship the previous year, and they successfully defended their title this season. The season began on 12 March 2016 and concluded on 29 October 2016; the relegation play-off took place on 5 November 2016.

## Teams

FC Kaisar was relegated at the end of the 2015 season, and was replaced by Akzhayik.

### Team overview

| Team | Location | Venue | Capacity |
| Aktobe | Aktobe | Aktobe Central Stadium | 15,000 |
| Akzhayik | Oral | Petr Atoyan Stadium | 8,320 |
| Astana | Astana | Astana Arena | 30,000 |
| Atyrau | Atyrau | Munaishy Stadium | 8,690 |
| Irtysh | Pavlodar | Pavlodar Central Stadium | 15,000 |
| Kairat | Almaty | Almaty Central Stadium | 25,057 |
| Okzhetpes | Kokshetau | Okzhetpes Stadium | 4,158 |
| Ordabasy | Shymkent | Kazhymukan Munaitpasov Stadium | 35,000 |
| Shakhter | Karaganda | Shakhter Stadium | 20,000 |
| Taraz | Taraz | Taraz Central Stadium | 11,525 |
| Tobol | Kostanay | Kostanay Central Stadium | 10,500 |
| Zhetysu | Taldykorgan | Zhetysu 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 |
| Aktobe | Yuri Utkulbayev | | Lotto | — |
| Akzhayik | Artur Avakyants | Predrag Govedarica | Adidas | Expo 2017 |
| Astana | Stanimir Stoilov | Tanat Nusserbayev | Adidas | Samruk-Kazyna |
| Atyrau | Stoycho Mladenov | Zhasur Narzikulov | Adidas | — |
| Irtysh | Dimitar Dimitrov | David Loria | Nike | ENRC |
| Kairat | Kakhaber Tskhadadze | Bauyrzhan Islamkhan | Nike | Expo 2017 |
| Okzhetpes | Vladimir Mukhanov | Alibek Buleshev | Adidas | Chempionat |
| Ordabasy | Bakhtiyar Bayseitov | Azat Nurgaliev | Adidas | TAU |
| Shakhter | Aleksei Yeryomenko | Maksat Baizhanov | Adidas | — |
| Taraz | Yuriy Maksymov | Dmitri Yevstigneyev | Adidas | — |
| Tobol | Omari Tetradze | Nurbol Zhumaskaliyev | Adidas | — |
| Zhetysu | Almas Kulshinbaev | Andrey Pasechenko | Adidas | — |

### Foreign players

The number of foreign players is restricted to eight per KPL team. A team can use only five 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 |
| Aktobe | Lassina Dao | Kouassi Kouadja | Nikita Bocharov | Dmitry Golubov | Marat Sitdikov | Sandro Tsveiba | Vuk Mitošević | Ilya Mikhalyov |
| Akzhayik | Saša Kolunija | Matías Rubio | Michael Odibe | Freddy Coronel | Miroslav Lečić | Danilo Nikolić | Srđan Ostojić | Predrag Govedarica |
| Astana | Igor Shitov | Marin Aničić | Roger Cañas | Junior Kabananga | Patrick Twumasi | Agim Ibraimi | Đorđe Despotović | Nemanja Maksimović |
| Atyrau | Aleksandr Makas | Guy Essame | Abdel Lamanje | Aleksandar Damčevski | Przemysław Trytko | Alexandru Curtean | Volodymyr Arzhanov | Vyacheslav Sharpar |
| Irtysh | Semir Kerla | Ignacio Herrera | Tomáš Jirsák | Ousman Jallow | Georgas Freidgeimas | Carlos Fonseca | Djiby Fall | |
| Kairat | Isael | Léandre Tawamba | Gerson Acevedo | Gerard Gohou | Andrey Arshavin | Žarko Marković | César Arzo | Anatoliy Tymoshchuk |
| Okzhetpes | Joseph Nane | Serge Bando N'Ganbe | Nicolás Canales | Daniil Chertov | Vitali Volkov | Risto Ristović | Saša Stamenković | Oleksandr Chyzhov |
| Ordabasy | Edin Junuzović | Gogita Gogua | Filip Kasalica | Dominic Chatto | Abdoulaye Diakate | Aleksandar Simčević | Branislav Trajković | Alexander Geynrikh |
| Shakhter | Robert Arzumanyan | Ivan Sadownichy | Nikola Vasiljević | Marko Simonovski | Desley Ubbink | Filip Serečin | Július Szöke | Štefan Zošák |
| Taraz | Ioan Mera | Anton Grigoryev | Malick Mané | Davron Ergashev | Oleksandr Aliyev | Oleksandr Pyschur | Andriy Yakovlyev | |
| Tobol | Tomáš Šimkovič | Fernander Kassaï | Denis Glavina | Artūras Žulpa | Dušan Savić | Ciprian Deac | Shamil Asildarov | Serhiy Yavorskyi |
| Zhetysu | Narek Beglaryan | Martin Klein | Mamadou Wague | Marko Đalović | Dejan Djermanović | Artem Kasyanov | | |
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 |
| Aktobe | Ioan Andone | Mutual consent | 10 November 2015 | Pre-season | Yuri Utkulbayev | 22 December 2015 |
| Taraz | Evgeny Yarovenko | Mutual consent | 11 November 2015 | Pre-season | Nurmat Mirzabayev | |
| Kairat | Vladimír Weiss | Mutual consent | 30 November 2015 | Pre-season | Aleksandr Borodyuk | 28 December 2015 |
| Shakhter | Ihor Zakhariak | | | Pre-season | Jozef Vukušič | 8 January 2016 |
| Tobol | Sergey Maslenov | | | Pre-season | Dmitriy Ogai | 23 December 2015 |
| Zhetysu | Ivan Azovskiy | | | Pre-season | Almas Kulshinbaev | 5 January 2016 |
| Kairat | Aleksandr Borodyuk | Resigned | 5 April 2016 | 9th | Kakhaber Tskhadadze | 7 April 2016 |
| Tobol | Dmitriy Ogai | Mutual consent | 28 April 2016 | 5th | | |
| Taraz | Nurmat Mirzabayev | | 15 May 2016 | 12th | Yuriy Maksymov | 15 May 2016 |
| Shakhter Karagandy | Jozef Vukušič | Resigned | 3 August 2016 | 11th | Aleksei Yeryomenko | 4 August 2016 |

## Regular season

In the regular season twelve teams played each other home-and-away in a round-robin format for a total of 22 matches per team. The top six teams advanced to the Championship round and the bottom six teams qualified for the Relegation round.

### Regular season table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Astana | 22 | 17 | 2 | 3 | 34 | 14 | +20 | 53 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 2 | Kairat | 22 | 14 | 4 | 4 | 50 | 22 | +28 | 46 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 3 | Irtysh Pavlodar | 22 | 12 | 5 | 5 | 37 | 18 | +19 | 41 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 4 | Okzhetpes | 22 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 33 | 23 | +10 | 37 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 5 | Ordabasy | 22 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 26 | 27 | −1 | 33 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 6 | Aktobe | 22 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 23 | 32 | −9 | 28 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 7 | Atyrau | 22 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 21 | 23 | −2 | 28 | Qualification for the relegation round |
| 8 | Tobol | 22 | 8 | 4 | 10 | 28 | 26 | +2 | 28 | Qualification for the relegation round |
| 9 | Zhetysu | 22 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 22 | 32 | −10 | 23 | Qualification for the relegation round |
| 10 | Shakhter Karagandy | 22 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 10 | 27 | −17 | 21 | Qualification for the relegation round |
| 11 | Taraz | 22 | 5 | 4 | 13 | 22 | 30 | −8 | 19 | Qualification for the relegation round |
| 12 | Akzhayik | 22 | 3 | 2 | 17 | 12 | 44 | −32 | 11 | Qualification for the relegation round |
* 1 2 3 Head-to-head record: Aktobe (7 points), Atyrau (5 points), Tobol (4 points).

### Regular season results

| Home \ Away | AKT | AKZ | AST | ATY | IRT | KRT | OKZ | ORD | SHA | TAR | TOB | ZHE |
| Aktobe | | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–6 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 2–2 | 0–1 | 3–2 |
| Akzhayik | 0–0 | | 1–5 | 0–4 | 0–3 | 2–1 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 0–5 | 1–2 |
| Astana | 1–0 | 2–0 | | 2–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 3–1 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| Atyrau | 1–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | | 0–1 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 2–2 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 |
| Irtysh Pavlodar | 4–1 | 0–0 | 2–2 | 3–0 | | 2–3 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 3–1 |
| Kairat | 3–0 | 3–2 | 1–0 | 5–2 | 1–0 | | 6–0 | 2–2 | 0–0 | 3–1 | 3–2 | 2–0 |
| Okzhetpes | 4–1 | 4–2 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 0–2 | 1–1 | | 2–0 | 3–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 2–0 |
| Ordabasy | 3–1 | 1–0 | 1–3 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 2–2 | | 2–0 | 0–3 | 2–2 | 0–1 |
| Shakhter Karagandy | 0–2 | 3–1 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 0–5 | 0–1 | 0–0 | | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–0 |
| Taraz | 1–1 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 1–3 | 1–2 | 1–2 | | 2–0 | 2–3 |
| Tobol | 1–2 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 3–2 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 | | 2–2 |
| Zhetysu | 1–1 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 0–3 | 1–1 | 1–4 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 0–1 | |

## Championship round

The top six teams from the regular season will participate in the Championship round where they will play each other home-and-away in a round-robin format for a total of 10 matches per team. In contrast to the previous season, teams will carry forward their entire regular season record, with no halving of points. After completion of the Championship round the winners will be the Champions of 2016 Kazakhstan Premier League and qualify for 2017–18 UEFA Champions League second qualifying round. The runners-up and third-placed team will qualify for Europa League first qualifying round and the fourth-placed team will also qualify for Europa League because one of the top three teams will win the 2016 Kazakhstan Cup.

### Championship round table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Astana (C) | 32 | 23 | 4 | 5 | 47 | 21 | +26 | 73 | Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round |
| 2 | Kairat | 32 | 22 | 5 | 5 | 75 | 30 | +45 | 71 | Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round |
| 3 | Irtysh Pavlodar | 32 | 14 | 7 | 11 | 52 | 36 | +16 | 49 | Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round |
| 4 | Ordabasy | 32 | 13 | 9 | 10 | 41 | 44 | −3 | 48 | Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round |
| 5 | Okzhetpes | 32 | 13 | 6 | 13 | 42 | 44 | −2 | 45 | |
| 6 | Aktobe | 32 | 9 | 9 | 14 | 37 | 52 | −15 | 36 | |
* ↑ Astana qualified for the Europa League first qualifying round by winning the 2016 Kazakhstan Cup. However, since they already qualified for European competition based on their league position, the spot awarded to the cup winners was passed down the league.

### Championship round results

| Home \ Away | AKT | AST | IRT | KRT | OKZ | ORD |
| Aktobe | | 1–2 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 2–2 | 4–4 |
| Astana | 1–0 | | 3–0 | 1–4 | 3–0 | 2–0 |
| Irtysh Pavlodar | 5–1 | 0–0 | | 1–3 | 0–2 | 1–2 |
| Kairat | 3–1 | 2–0 | 2–1 | | 5–0 | 1–1 |
| Okzhetpes | 0–3 | 0–0 | 1–4 | 1–3 | | 3–0 |
| Ordabasy | 2–1 | 0–1 | 3–3 | 2–1 | 1–0 | |

## Relegation round

The worst six teams from the regular season participated in the Relegation round where they played each other home-and-away in a round-robin format for a total of 10 matches per team. In contrast to the previous season, teams carried forward their entire regular season record, with no halving of points. After completion of the Relegation round the winners are considered the 7th-placed team of 2016 Kazakhstan Premier League, the runners-up being 8th and so on, with the last team being 12th. The 11th-placed team, Taraz, qualified for the relegation play-off against Altai Semey, the runners-up of 2016 Kazakhstan First Division, with the losing team being eliminated, and the 12th-placed team, Zhetysu, will be directly relegated to 2017 Kazakhstan First Division as the last-placed team.

### Relegation round table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Relegation |
| 7 | Tobol | 32 | 12 | 5 | 15 | 40 | 40 | 0 | 41 | |
| 8 | Atyrau | 32 | 10 | 9 | 13 | 35 | 39 | −4 | 39 | |
| 9 | Shakhter Karagandy | 32 | 10 | 6 | 16 | 25 | 40 | −15 | 36 | |
| 10 | Akzhayik | 32 | 11 | 2 | 19 | 27 | 50 | −23 | 35 | |
| 11 | Taraz | 32 | 10 | 5 | 17 | 33 | 42 | −9 | 35 | Qualification for the relegation play-offs |
| 12 | Zhetysu (R) | 32 | 8 | 7 | 17 | 37 | 53 | −16 | 31 | Relegation to the Kazakhstan First Division |
* 1 2 Head-to-head record; Taraz–Akzhayik 0–1, Akzhayik–Taraz 2–1, Akzhayik–Taraz 2–0, Taraz–Akzhayik 2–1.
* ↑ Despite finishing 11th and losing the relegation playoffs, Taraz were readmitted because only one team was given a license.

### Relegation round results

| Home \ Away | AKZ | ATY | SHA | TAR | TOB | ZHE |
| Akzhayik | | 3–1 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| Atyrau | 1–2 | | 2–0 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 3–3 |
| Shakhter Karagandy | 0–1 | 3–0 | | 1–0 | 2–3 | 4–1 |
| Taraz | 2–1 | 1–0 | 2–1 | | 2–1 | 3–2 |
| Tobol | 0–1 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 3–1 | | 3–2 |
| Zhetysu | 0–2 | 4–3 | 1–2 | 0–0 | 2–0 | |

## Relegation play-offs

Altai Semey are promoted to the 2017 Kazakhstan Premier League; Taraz are relegated to the 2017 Kazakhstan First Division.

## Statistics
### Top scorers

    As of matches played 29 October 2016
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| 1 | Gerard Gohou | Kairat | 22 |
| 2 | Roman Murtazayev | Irtysh Pavlodar | 18 |
| 3 | Bauyrzhan Islamkhan | Kairat | 17 |
| 4 | Malick Mané | Taraz | 13 |
| 5 | Dušan Savić | Zhetysu | 12 |
| 5 | Azat Nurgaliev | Ordabasy/Astana | 12 |
| 7 | Sergei Khizhnichenko | Tobol | 10 |
| 7 | Alexander Geynrikh | Ordabasy | 10 |
| 9 | Serge Bando N'Ganbe | Okzhetpes | 9 |
| 10 | Marat Khairullin | Okzhetpes | 8 |
| 10 | Đorđe Despotović | Astana | 8 |
| 10 | Andrey Arshavin | Kairat | 8 |
| 10 | Volodymyr Arzhanov | Atyrau | 8 |
| 10 | Tomáš Šimkovič | Tobol | 8 |
| 10 | Freddy Coronel | Akzhayik | 8 |

### Hat-tricks

| Player | For | Against | Result | Date |
| Dušan Savić | Zhetysu | Taraz | 3–2 | 15 June 2016 |
| Alexander Geynrikh | Ordabasy | Aktobe | 4–4 | 13 August 2016 |
| Malick Mané | Taraz | Zhetysu | 3–2 | 10 September 2016 |

### Scoring

* First goal of the season: Ulan Konysbayev for Atyrau against Zhetysu (12 March 2016)
* Fastest goal of the season: 1st minute,
** Raul Jalilov for Tobol against Zhetysu (23 April 2016)
* Latest goal of the season: 90+4th minute,
** Alassane N'Diaye for Tobol against Taraz (1 May 2016)
** Marat Khairullin for Okzhetpes against Zhetysu (10 May 2016)