# 2015 Kazakhstan Premier League

The 2015 Kazakhstan Premier League is the 24th season of the Kazakhstan Premier League, the highest football league competition in Kazakhstan. The season began in March 2015 and finished in November. Astana were the defending champions having won their first league championship the previous year.

## Teams

Spartak Semey was relegated at the end of the 2014 season, and were replaced by Okzhetpes.

### Team overview

| Team | Location | Venue | Capacity |
| Aktobe | Aktobe | Aktobe Central Stadium | 15,000 |
| 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 |
| Kaisar | Kyzylorda | Gany Muratbayev Stadium | 7,500 |
| Okzhetpes | Kokshetau | Okzhetpes Stadium | 4,158 |
| Ordabasy | Shymkent | Kazhimukan Munaitpasov Stadium | 35,000 |
| Shakhter | Karagandy | Shakhter Stadium | 20,000 |
| Taraz | Taraz | Taraz Central Stadium | 11,525 |
| Tobol | Kostanay | Kostanay Central Stadium | 010,500 |
| Zhetysu | Taldykorgan | Zhetysu Stadium | 04,000 |

### 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 | Ioan Andone | Yuriy Logvinenko | Adidas | — |
| Astana | Stanimir Stoilov | Tanat Nusserbayev | Adidas | Samruk-Kazyna |
| Atyrau | Vladimir Nikitenko | Guy Essame | Nike | — |
| Irtysh | Dimitar Dimitrov | Samat Smakov | Nike | ENRC |
| Kairat | Vladimír Weiss | Bauyrzhan Islamkhan | Nike | KazRosGaz |
| Kaisar | Fyodor Shcherbachenko | Martin Klein | Nike | — |
| Okzhetpes | Vladimir Mukhanov | Alibek Buleshev | Adidas | — |
| Ordabasy | Viktor Kumykov | Kairat Ashirbekov | Adidas | TAU |
| Shakhter | Ihor Zakharyak | Aldin Đidić | Adidas | — |
| Taraz | Evgeny Yarovenko | Dmitri Yevstigneyev | Nike | — |
| Tobol | Sergey Maslenov | Nurbol Zhumaskaliyev | Joma | — |
| Zhetysu | Ivan Azovskiy | Andrey Pasechenko | Puma | — |

### 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 | Ciprian Deac | Marcos Pizzelli | Danilo Neco | Anderson Mineiro | Danilo | Artūras Žulpa | Dele Adeleye | |
| Astana | Marin Aničić | Roger Cañas | Patrick Twumasi | Foxi Kéthévoama | Branko Ilić | Nemanja Maksimović | Denys Dedechko | Junior Kabananga |
| Atyrau | Michael Odibe | Anton Grigoryev | Ruslan Fomin | Guy Essame | Volodymyr Arzhanov | Abdoulaye Diakate | Dmitri Parkhachev | Ivan Ivanović |
| Irtysh | Alassane N'Diaye | Kostyantyn Dudchenko | Tomáš Jirsák | Carlos Fonseca | Fernander Kassaï | Evandro Roncatto | Ferreira | Mustapha Jarju |
| Kairat | Žarko Marković | Sito Riera | Isael | Gerard Gohou | Anatoliy Tymoshchuk | Djordje Despotović | Serginho | Bruno Soares |
| Kaisar | Martin Klein | Rimo Hunt | Sergei Strukov | Vuk Mitošević | Josip Knežević | Anton Matsveenka | Georgi Karaneychev | |
| Okzhetpes | Alyaksandr Pawlaw | Vitali Volkov | Daniil Chertov | Oleksandr Chyzhov | Michal Smejkal | Luka Rotković | Ivan Cvetković | Dmitry Sychev |
| Ordabasy | Artem Kasyanov | Branislav Trajković | Kyrylo Petrov | Ivan Božić | Alexander Geynrikh | Aleksandar Simčević | Edin Junuzović | |
| Shakhter | Nikola Vasiljević | Mihret Topcagić | Jan Vošahlík | Pedro Sass | Aubrey David | Desley Ubbink | Maksym Feshchuk | Plamen Dimov |
| Taraz | Jovan Golić | Denys Vasilyev | Oleksandr Yarovenko | Dmytro Bashlay | Ioan Mera | Oleksandr Pyschur | Izu Azuka | Alan Gatagov |
| Tobol | Serhiy Yavorskyi | Nenad Šljivić | Ognjen Krasić | Uche Kalu | Tomáš Šimkovič | Arūnas Klimavičius | Deivydas Matulevičius | |
| Zhetysu | Davron Ergashev | Dušan Savić | Ruslan Galiakberov | Ilsur Samigullin | Aleksei Gerasimov | Elbeyi Guliyev | Bobir Davlatov | Mikhail Petrolay |
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 | Vardan Minasyan | Sacked | 16 April 2015 | 8th | Sergei Maslenov (caretaker) | 16 April 2015 |
| Zhetysu | Askar Kozhabergenov | Resigned | 20 April 2015 | 12th | Ivan Azovskiy (caretaker) | 20 April 2015 |
| Shakhter | Vladimir Cheburin | Resigned | 6 May 2015 | 12th | Yevgeni Sveshnikov (caretaker) | 8 May 2015 |
| Irtysh | Dmitri Cheryshev | Sacked | 8 May 2015 | 10th | Sergey Klimov (caretaker) | 8 May 2015 |
| Zhetysu | Ivan Azovskiy (caretaker) | End of caretaker role | 28 May 2015 | 12th | Ivan Azovskiy | 28 May 2015 |
| Irtysh | Sergey Klimov (caretaker) | End of caretaker role | 1 June 2015 | 10th | Dimitar Dimitrov | 1 June 2015 |
| Shakhter | Yevgeni Sveshnikov (caretaker) | End of caretaker role | 5 June 2015 | 12th | Ihor Zakharyak (caretaker) | 5 June 2015 |
| Aktobe | Vladimir Gazzayev | | 20 July 2015 | 1st | Ioan Andone | 20 July 2015 |
| Kaisar | Dmitriy Ogai | Resigned | 23 July 2015 | 12th | Fyodor Shcherbachenko | 06 August 2015 |

## 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 | Kairat | 22 | 13 | 5 | 4 | 43 | 14 | +29 | 44 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 2 | Aktobe | 22 | 12 | 8 | 2 | 27 | 12 | +15 | 44 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 3 | Astana | 22 | 12 | 7 | 3 | 40 | 19 | +21 | 43 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 4 | Atyrau | 22 | 9 | 10 | 3 | 25 | 19 | +6 | 37 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 5 | Ordabasy | 22 | 9 | 8 | 5 | 21 | 18 | +3 | 35 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 6 | Irtysh Pavlodar | 22 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 26 | 23 | +3 | 30 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 7 | Okzhetpes | 22 | 8 | 2 | 12 | 24 | 33 | −9 | 26 | Qualification for the relegation round |
| 8 | Tobol | 22 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 22 | 32 | −10 | 25 | Qualification for the relegation round |
| 9 | Taraz | 22 | 7 | 3 | 12 | 17 | 25 | −8 | 24 | Qualification for the relegation round |
| 10 | Shakhter Karagandy | 22 | 5 | 3 | 14 | 16 | 38 | −22 | 18 | Qualification for the relegation round |
| 11 | Zhetysu | 22 | 4 | 5 | 13 | 17 | 32 | −15 | 17 | Qualification for the relegation round |
| 12 | Kaisar | 22 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 12 | 25 | −13 | 17 | Qualification for the relegation round |

### Regular season results

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

## Championship round

The top six teams from 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. They will start this round with their points from Regular season halved, rounded upwards, and they will keep their Regular season record (matches won, draws, losses and goal differential). After completion of the Championship round the winners will be the Champions of 2015 Kazakhstan Premier League and qualify for 2016–17 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 may also qualify for Europa League if they or one of the top three teams wins the 2015 Kazakhstan Cup.

### Championship round table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Astana (C) | 32 | 20 | 7 | 5 | 55 | 26 | +29 | 46 | Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round |
| 2 | Kairat | 32 | 20 | 7 | 5 | 60 | 19 | +41 | 45 | Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round |
| 3 | Aktobe | 32 | 15 | 9 | 8 | 35 | 25 | +10 | 32 | Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round |
| 4 | Ordabasy | 32 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 32 | 31 | +1 | 29 | Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round |
| 5 | Atyrau | 32 | 11 | 12 | 9 | 31 | 33 | −2 | 27 | |
| 6 | Irtysh Pavlodar | 32 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 37 | 39 | −2 | 25 | |
* ↑ Kairat qualified for the UEFA Europa League first qualifying round by winning the 2015 Kazakhstan Cup.

### Championship round results

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

## Relegation round

The bottom six teams from Regular season will participate in the Relegation round where they will play each other home-and-away in a round-robin format for a total of 10 matches per team. They will start this round with their points from Regular season halved, rounded upwards, and they will keep their Regular season record (matches won, draws, losses and goal differential). After completion of the Relegation round the winners will be considered 7th-placed team of 2015 Kazakhstan Premier League, the runners-up will be 8th and so on, with the last team being 12th. The 11th-placed team will qualify for Relegation play-off against runners-up of 2015 Kazakhstan First Division, with the loser being eliminated, and the 12th-placed team will be directly relegated to 2016 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 | 6 | 14 | 32 | 42 | −10 | 30 | |
| 8 | Okzhetpes | 32 | 12 | 6 | 14 | 36 | 41 | −5 | 29 | |
| 9 | Taraz | 32 | 10 | 8 | 14 | 25 | 33 | −8 | 26 | |
| 10 | Shakhter Karagandy | 32 | 9 | 5 | 18 | 27 | 47 | −20 | 23 | |
| 11 | Zhetysu (O) | 32 | 8 | 6 | 18 | 28 | 46 | −18 | 22 | Qualification for the relegation play-off |
| 12 | Kaisar (R) | 32 | 4 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 36 | −16 | 16 | Relegation to the Kazakhstan First Division |

### Relegation round results

| Home \ Away | KSR | OKZ | SHA | TAR | TOB | ZHE |
| Kaisar | | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 3–1 |
| Okzhetpes | 2–1 | | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 1–1 |
| Shakhter Karagandy | 1–1 | 0–0 | | 3–0 | 1–2 | 3–1 |
| Taraz | 1–1 | 3–3 | 2–0 | | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| Tobol | 0–0 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 0–0 | | 1–3 |
| Zhetysu | 2–1 | 0–3 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | |

## Statistics
### Top scorers

    As of matches played by 8 November 2015
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| 1 | Gerard Gohou | Kairat | 22 |
| 2 | Luka Rotković | Okzhetpes | 13 |
| 2 | Đorđe Despotović | Zhetysu/Kairat | 13 |
| 4 | Dušan Savić | Zhetysu | 12 |
| 5 | Tanat Nusserbayev | Astana | 11 |
| 6 | Sergei Khizhnichenko | Aktobe | 9 |
| 6 | Oleksandr Pyschur | Taraz | 9 |
| 8 | Kostyantyn Dudchenko | Irtysh | 8 |
| 8 | Roger Cañas | Astana | 8 |
| 8 | Alibek Buleshev | Okzhetpes | 8 |
| 8 | Edin Junuzović | Kaisar/Ordabasy | 8 |

### Hat-tricks

| Player | For | Against | Result | Date |
| Gerard Gohou | Kairat | Tobol | 4–0 | 7 March 2015 |
| Nurbol Zhumaskaliyev | Tobol | Shakhter Karagandy | 4–1 | 5 April 2015 |
| Uche Kalu | Tobol | Zhetysu | 3–1 | 16 May 2015 |
| Kostyantyn Dudchenko | Irtysh | Kaisar | 4–2 | 24 May 2015 |
| Gerard Gohou | Kairat | Okzhetpes | 3–1 | 6 June 2015 |
| Sergei Khizhnichenko | Aktobe | Okzhetpes | 4–2 | 5 July 2015 |

### Scoring

* First goal of the season: Ivan Božić for Ordabasy against Irtysh (7 March 2015)
* Fastest goal of the season: 2nd minute,
** Grigori Sartakov for Irtysh against Tobol (21 March 2015)
* Latest goal of the season: 94th minute,
** Gerard Gohou for Kairat against Tobol (7 March 2015)