# 2008–09 Azerbaijan Premier League

The 2008–09 Azerbaijan Premier League is the 17th season of Azerbaijan Premier League, the Azerbaijani professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992. Inter Baku were the defending champions, having won the previous season.

## Teams

FK Gänclärbirliyi Sumqayit and ABN Bärdä were relegated after finishing the previous season in 13th and 14th place, respectively. They were replaced by the champions of the two groups in the Azerbaijan First Division, Bakılı Baku and MOIK Baku.
On 8 July 2008, FK Masallı withdrew their participation from the league, citing competitional and financial problems as reasons. Although it was unclear as of 21 July if the Azerbaijan Football Federation would be naming a substitute or if the championship would start with just 13 teams, shortly thereafter AFFA named FK NBC Salyan to replace Masallı in top league.
On 31 October 2008, FK NBC Salyan changed their name to FK Mughan.

### Stadia and locations

| Team | Venue | Capacity |
| Bakılı Baku | Shafa Stadium | 8,150 |
| FK Baku | Tofik Bakhramov Stadium | 29,858 |
| Inter Baku | Shafa Stadium | 8,150 |
| Karabakh | Guzanli Olympic Stadium$^1$ | 2,000 |
| Karvan | Yevlakh Stadium | 5,000 |
| Khazar Lankaran | Lankaran City Stadium | 15,000 |
| MOIK Baku | MOIK Stadium | 1,000 |
| Mughan | Salyany Olympic Sport Complex Stadium | 3,000 |
| Neftchi Baku | Tofik Bakhramov Stadium | 29,858 |
| Olimpik Baku | Shafa Stadium | 8,150 |
| FK Qäbälä | Gabala City Stadium | 2,000 |
| Simurq Zaqatala | Zaqatala City Stadium | 3,000 |
| Standard Baku | Shafa Stadium | 8,150 |
| Turan Tovuz | Tovuz City Stadium | 6,000 |
$^1$Karabakh played their home matches at Surakhani Stadium in Baku before moving to their current stadium on 3 May 2009.

### Personnel

| Team | Head coach | Team captain | Club chairman |
| Bakılı Baku | Bakhtiyar Gulamov | Vasif Aliyev | Misir Abilov |
| FK Baku | Gjoko Hadžievski | Rafael Amirbekov | Hafiz Mammadov |
| Inter Baku | Valentin Khodukin | Khagani Mammadov | Georgi Nikolov |
| Karabakh | Gurban Gurbanov | Farhad Veliyev | Abdulbari Goozal |
| Karvan | vacant | Ilham Yadullayev | Javanshir Shiraliyev |
| Khazar Lankaran | Igor Ponomarev | Dmitry Kramarenko | Mübariz Mensimov |
| MOIK Baku | Akif Ibadov | Ismail Mammadov | Safar Abiyev |
| Mughan | Vladislav Gadyrov | Tarlan Khalilov | Fizuli Aliyev |
| Neftchi Baku | Boyukaga Agaev | Zaur Tagizade | Akper Hajiyev |
| Olimpik Baku | Asker Abdullayev | Tarlan Akhmedov | Rasul Rasulov |
| FK Qäbälä | Ramiz Mammadov | Kanan Karimov | Taleh Heydarov |
| Simurq Zaqatala | Roman Pokora | Mykhailo Starostyak | Zaur Mammadov |
| Standard Baku | Rafik Mirzoyev | Huseyn Mahammadov | Emin Babayev |
| Turan Tovuz | Etimad Gurbanov | Asaf Gadiri | Rashid Maherramov |

### Managerial changes

| Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Replaced by | Date of appointment |
| Standard Baku | Badri Kvaratskhelia | Resigned | 20 April 2009 | Rafik Mirzoyev | 20 April 2009 |
| Mughan | Nadir Gasymov | Sacked | 5 May 2009 | Vladislav Gadirov | 20 April 2009 |

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Baku (C) | 26 | 20 | 2 | 4 | 54 | 13 | +41 | 62 | Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round |
| 2 | Inter Baku | 26 | 18 | 7 | 1 | 54 | 16 | +38 | 61 | Qualification for Europa League first qualifying round |
| 3 | Simurq | 26 | 16 | 5 | 5 | 39 | 20 | +19 | 53 | Qualification for Europa League first qualifying round |
| 4 | Khazar Lankaran | 26 | 15 | 5 | 6 | 49 | 21 | +28 | 50 | |
| 5 | Qarabağ | 26 | 14 | 7 | 5 | 35 | 22 | +13 | 49 | Qualification for Europa League second qualifying round |
| 6 | Olimpik Baku | 26 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 32 | 18 | +14 | 44 | |
| 7 | Standard Baku | 26 | 12 | 3 | 11 | 30 | 31 | −1 | 39 | |
| 8 | Neftçi Baku | 26 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 30 | 21 | +9 | 36 | |
| 9 | Karvan | 26 | 10 | 4 | 12 | 28 | 33 | −5 | 34 | |
| 10 | Gabala | 26 | 9 | 6 | 11 | 28 | 21 | +7 | 33 | |
| 11 | Turan | 26 | 5 | 5 | 16 | 19 | 45 | −26 | 20 | |
| 12 | Mughan | 26 | 4 | 2 | 20 | 19 | 53 | −34 | 14 | |
| 13 | Bakili (R) | 26 | 3 | 3 | 20 | 14 | 65 | −51 | 12 | Relegation to Azerbaijan First Division |
| 14 | MOIK Baku (R) | 26 | 1 | 2 | 23 | 12 | 64 | −52 | 5 | Relegation to Azerbaijan First Division |
* ↑ Karabakh won the 2008–09 Azerbaijan Cup and therefore qualified for the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.

## Results

| Home \ Away | BKL | BAK | INT | QAR | KAR | KHA | MOI | MUG | NEF | OLI | GAB | SIM | STA | TUR |
| Bakili | | 0–7 | 1–5 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 1–3 | 1–0 | 3–2 | 0–2 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0–2 | 0–2 |
| Baku | 3–1 | | 0–0 | 2–0 | 0–3 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 4–0 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 7–0 |
| Inter Baku | 4–0 | 0–1 | | 1–1 | 4–0 | 2–2 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 2–2 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 3–0 | 3–0 |
| Qarabağ | 3–0 | 0–2 | 1–1 | | 3–2 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 3–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 4–2 |
| Karvan | 2–0 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 0–0 | | 1–0 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 1–3 | 3–1 | 1–1 |
| Khazar Lankaran | 5–0 | 3–0 | 2–4 | 1–3 | 0–0 | | 2–0 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 3–1 | 4–0 | 5–0 |
| MOIK Baku | 1–1 | 0–3 | 0–3 | 0–1 | 0–3 | 0–4 | | 1–3 | 0–5 | 1–6 | 0–3 | 2–4 | 1–2 | 2–0 |
| Mughan | 1–0 | 0–4 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 1–3 | 1–1 | | 0–3 | 0–1 | 0–4 | 1–2 | 1–3 | 2–1 |
| Neftçi Baku | 3–0 | 0–1 | 1–3 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 0–0 | | 1–2 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 1–1 |
| Olimpik Baku | 4–0 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 0–0 | | 1–0 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 3–0 |
| Gabala | 3–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 3–0 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 4–1 | 0–1 | 1–1 | | 0–0 | 2–1 | 0–1 |
| Simurq | 3–0 | 2–1 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 2–2 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 1–0 | | 3–1 | 3–1 |
| Standard Baku | 1–1 | 1–2 | 0–2 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 0–1 | | 4–1 |
| Turan | 1–1 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 4–0 | 0–1 | 3–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–2 | |

## Season statistics
### Top scorers

| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| 1 | Walter Guglielmone | Inter | 17 |
| 2 | Ivan Tsvetkov | Khazar | 15 |
| 3 | Volodymyr Mazyar | Simurq | 11 |
| 3 | Amiran Mujiri | Baku | 11 |
| 5 | Leandro Gomes | Olimpik Baku | 10 |
| 5 | Angel Gutierrez | Standard | 10 |
| 7 | Victor Igbekoyi | Qarabağ/Turan | 8 |
| 7 | Farzad Hatami | Gabala | 8 |
| 7 | Rômulo | Khazar | 8 |
| 10 | Bakhtiyar Soltanov | Baku | 7 |

### Hat-tricks

| Player | For | Against | Result | Date |
| Farzad Hatami | Gabala | MOIK | 3–0 | 17 August 2008 |
| Ivan Tsvetkov$^4$ | Khazar | MOIK | 4–0 | 26 September 2008 |
| Leandro Gomes | Olimpik Baku | Bakılı | 4–0 | 7 March 2009 |
| Bakhtiyar Soltanov | Baku | Bakılı | 3–1 | 21 March 2009 |
| Victor Igbekoi | Turan | Karvan | 4–0 | 12 April 2009 |
| Walter Guglielmone | Inter | MOIK | 3–0 | 12 April 2009 |
| Nariman Äzimov | Olimpik Baku | MOIK | 6–1 | 11 May 2009 |
* $^4$ Player scored 4 goals

### Scoring

* First goal of the season: Kanan Karimov for Gabala against NBC Salyan (9 August 2008)
* Fastest goal of the season: 1st minute,
** Angel Gutierrez for Standard Baku against Gabala (25 October 2008)
** Farzad Hatami for Gabala against Karvan (22 March 2009)
* Largest winning margin: 7 goals
** Bakılı Baku 0–7 Baku (28 September 2008)
** Baku 7–0 Turan Tovuz (22 November 2008)
* Highest scoring game: 7 goals
** Bakılı Baku 0–7 Baku (28 September 2008)
** Baku 7–0 Turan Tovuz (22 November 2008)
** MOIK Baku 1–6 Olimpik Baku (11 May 2009)
* Most goals scored in a match by a single team: 7 goals
** Bakılı Baku 0–7 Baku (28 September 2008)
** Baku 7–0 Turan Tovuz (22 November 2008)
* Most goals scored in a match by a losing team: 2 goals
** Bakılı Baku 3–2 NBC Salyan (9 November 2008)
** Khazar Lankaran 2–4 Inter Baku (9 November 2008)
** Karabakh 3–2 Karvan (29 November 2008)
** MOIK Baku 2–4 Simurq (1 March 2009)
** Karabakh 4–2 Turan Tovuz (5 April 2009)

### Clean sheets

* Most clean sheets: 19
** Baku
* Fewest clean sheets: 1
** Bakılı Baku
** MOIK Baku