1937 → today
A history of Azerbaijani football
Oil-workers' teams in the Soviet Top League, a referee at Wembley, a war that took a club's home, two decades of institutional chaos, and a Champions League knockout tie.
Neftyanik Baku is founded
On 18 March 1937 the USSR Ministry of the Oil Industry creates a works team for Baku's oil workers. It plays its first official match on 24 May, a 1-0 Soviet Cup win over Dinamo Yerevan, and becomes Neftçi in 1968 — still the country's oldest major club.
Qarabağ founded in Agdam · the Republican Stadium opens
Qarabağ begins life as Məhsul after Agdam builds a city stadium. In Baku, the Republican Stadium — begun in 1939, interrupted by the war, and finished partly by German prisoners of war — opens on 16 September.
Third in the Soviet Union — and a linesman at Wembley
Neftçi finish third in the Soviet Top League, sealed by beating Spartak Moscow 3-0 on the final day. It remains the best result by any Azerbaijani club in Soviet football. Six weeks earlier, on 30 July, the Baku referee Tofiq Bahramov had signalled that Geoff Hurst's shot off the crossbar crossed the line in the World Cup final. He always maintained the ball had rebounded from the netting, not the bar. English newspapers called him "the Russian linesman."
The Banishevskiy years
Anatoliy Banishevskiy plays his entire career at Neftçi, scoring 136 Soviet top-flight goals, winning 51 caps and 20 goals for the USSR, and starting at the 1966 World Cup where the Soviets finished fourth. He is named Azerbaijan's UEFA Golden Player in 2003.
Independence, AFFA, and a first national league
AFFA is founded on 26 March 1992 and the first independent championship is played, with Neftçi the inaugural champions. Azerbaijan's first international, away to Georgia on 17 September, ends in a 6-3 defeat; the first win, 3-1 over the same opponents, follows in May 1993.
Agdam falls — and the longest exile in European football begins
Agdam was invaded by Armenian army on 23 July 1993 during the First Karabakh War and the Imarat Stadium is destroyed by shelling. Qarabağ relocates to Baku and has never played a home match in its own city since. In the same year the club wins the league and cup double. Tofiq Bahramov dies, and Baku's national stadium is renamed after him — the first stadium in the world named for a referee.
UEFA and FIFA membership
Azerbaijan is admitted as a provisional UEFA member in December 1993 and a full member in May 1994, with FIFA membership confirmed at the Chicago Congress in June. Kəpəz make the country's European debut in 1995 away to Austria Wien, where Yadigar Süleymanov scores the first goal by an Azerbaijani club in European competition.
The Invincible Armada
Kəpəz go through the entire season unbeaten — 26 matches, 22 wins, four draws, 67 goals for and 10 against — and win the cup as well. No Azerbaijani club has repeated an unbeaten title season. There is no Supercup in 1998, because having won the double there was no second club to play them.
The Premier League is created
The Azerbaijan Top Division, run since 1992, is reorganised as the Azerbaijan Premier League under a professional league structure. In 2009 AFFA opens the national Football Academy on Nobel Avenue in Baku.
Gurban Gurbanov takes over at Qarabağ
A former Azerbaijan striker is appointed in July 2008 and is still in the job eighteen years later — one of the longest tenures in European football. He rebuilds the club around possession football and a deliberate homegrown-player policy.
Neftçi reach a European group stage — a national first
Neftçi eliminate APOEL 4-2 on aggregate to become the first Azerbaijani club in a European group stage, drawing twice with Partizan and playing at Inter's San Siro. Qarabağ follow in 2014-15.
Gabala's moment
Qəbələ — a club from a town of 13,000, funded by Gilan Holding, and briefly managed by Tony Adams on a reported £1m a year in 2010-11 — win four consecutive European rounds including Panathinaikos to reach the Europa League group stage. They face Borussia Dortmund, Krasnodar and PAOK, taking two points from two goalless draws with PAOK. Every home match is played in Baku.
Baku becomes a host city
The Baku Olympic Stadium opens in March, seating close to 70,000, and stages the opening and closing ceremonies of the inaugural European Games in June.
Qarabağ reach the Champions League group stage
The first Azerbaijani club in the competition proper, drawn with Chelsea, Roma and Atlético Madrid. The goalless draw with Atlético in Baku, in front of a record 67,200 against Roma earlier in the campaign, remains the country's most celebrated European night.
A European final on the Caspian
Chelsea beat Arsenal 4-1 in the Europa League final at the Baku Olympic Stadium on 29 May.
Euro 2020 comes to Baku
Baku stages three Group A matches and a quarter-final in the delayed tournament. In November of the same year, Shamakhi City Stadium opens and a Baku club is relocated to the regions.
Qarabağ reach a Europa League round of 16
After beating Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 in Baku and eliminating Braga 6-5 on aggregate, Qarabağ become the first Azerbaijani club in a European last 16, losing to the eventual winners.
The league expands to 12
From 2025/26 the Premier League grows from ten clubs to twelve, moving to a 33-match triple round-robin — the biggest structural change since 2007. The foreign-player quota is abolished at the same time and replaced by a fee system that funds bonuses for clubs fielding local players.
A knockout tie, a new champion, and a new era
In February, Qarabağ become the first Azerbaijani club to reach a Champions League knockout tie, losing 9-3 to Newcastle United. In May, Sabah FK — founded 2017 — win the league and cup double and end twelve years of Qarabağ dominance. Şəfa return to the top flight after 21 years, and in October Azerbaijan will host the first FIFA U-15 Boys' World Cup.