Kapaz PFK (, ), is an

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Ganja ''Ganja'' (, ; ) is one of the oldest and most commonly used synonyms for cannabis flower, specifically marijuana or hashish. Its usage in English dates to before 1689. Etymology ''Ganja'' is borrowed from Hindi (, IPA: �aːɲd͡ʒa� ...

, which competes in the

Azerbaijan Premier League The Azerbaijan Premier League (), also known as Misli Premyer Liqası for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Azerbaijan and the highest level of the Azerbaijani football league system. It is contested by twelve ...

, the highest tier of Azerbaijan football. The club was founded as Toxucu in 1959. They have won the Azerbaijani Championship 3 times and the Azerbaijani Football Cup 4 times. The team's colours are yellow and blue. The club plays at

Ganja City Stadium Ganja City Stadium is located in Ganja, Azerbaijan, Ganja, Azerbaijan. It is used by Kapaz PFC, Kapaz football club, and has a capacity of 15,000. In the 2016-17 domestic league season, tenants Kapaz PFK drew the highest average home attendance ( ...

which has a capacity of 26,120.

History

Soviet era (1959–1991)

Kapaz PFC was founded in 1959 as ''Toxucu'' and played in the

Soviet First League The Soviet First League in football () was the second highest division of Soviet football,Evgeni Kazakov. The Soviet First Football League (Первая лига СССР по футболу)''. History of Soviet football championships. Volume 1 ...

. However, the team were promoted to the

Soviet Top League The Soviet Top League, known after 1970 as the Higher League (), served as the top division (tier) of Soviet Union football from 1936 until 1991. The league's name was a conditional designation used for brevity since being completely owned and g ...

in 1968 as Dinamo Kirovobad after finishing first in the Soviet First League the previous season. The club has been known as ''Taraggi'' and ''Toxucu'' during its history, however it became famous in more modern times as ''Kapaz'' when it was renamed in 1982.

Post-Soviet era (1993–1999)

In 1991, the club was once again renamed as Kapaz after

's independence from the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and won the

title three times. At the end of the 1997–98 season, Kapaz finished the season unbeaten. Out of 26 games, the club's final record for the 1997–1998 league campaign stood at 22 wins, 4 draws and 0 losses. To date this has not been matched by any team in a single season in an Azerbaijani league division. Azerbaijan's longest league winning run belongs to Kapaz PFC. Kapaz PFC remain the only team to win the league undefeated and, for ten months until 23 September 1998, opponents could not even take a point off them. Two of the 22 matches were technical victories awarded to Kapaz.

Financial struggles (2002–present)

Kapaz, one of the most prominent football clubs in Azerbaijan, entered financial difficulties during the late 2000s. Since 2002, the club has found themselves slipping further and further down the table, which has been influenced by financial difficulties. The financial collapse of Kapaz resulted in a great deal of discussion within Azerbaijani football. Major Azerbaijani companies, reportedly "concerned at the current uncertainty about the club's future and its backers" declined to provide Kapaz with the corporate banking facilities it needed. In 2005, the club's new owners decided to rename the club ''Ganja'' despite facing criticism from the club's fans. In 2007, the club was excluded from

due to financial struggles. However, after help from the AFFA and local communities, the club participated in the

Azerbaijan First Division The Azerbaijan First League () is the second highest professional division in Azerbaijani professional football. The league is run by AFFA. The winner promotes to Premier Division. History Due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, all Azerbai ...

during the 2009–10 season.“Gəncə”nin növbəti mövsüm I divizionda çıxış etməsi dəqiqləşdi
In 2010 they became champions of the

finishing the season with 47 points and promoted to the

. In 2011, it was decided that the club's name will be changed back to its old name of ''Kapaz PFC''. In April 2013, Kapaz were relegated to the

. The ended the season in 12th place in the Azerbaijan Premier League, the club's lowest ever league finish. The club's financial situation didn't improve, which caused a lot of players to leave the club. On 18 November 2017, Shahin Diniyev resigned as manager with

Yunis Hüseynov Yunis Huseynov (, born 1 February 1965) is an Azerbaijani football manager and former footballer. He is currently an assistant coach at Turan Tovuz. Huseynov made 33 appearances for the Azerbaijan national football team, scoring four goals. Ca ...

being appointed as his replacement on 20 November 2017. For the 2022/23 Azerbaijani Premier League season, an expansion of the league to 10 teams was implemented. As there are only five independent football clubs in the first division, and FK Zaqatala, Qaradag Lokbatan and MOIK Baku declined to play in the Premier league for financial reasons, Kapaz and Turan Tovuz were promoted for next season.

League and cup history

European history

Supporters

The club have one of the biggest number of supporters in

alongside Neftçi, Khazar Lankaran and Qarabağ. Amongst all Azerbaijani professional football clubs, Kapaz PFC have the highest average fan attendance at their home games. According to official statistics for the first half of 2015–16 season, Kapaz PFC ranked first in fan attendance at nearly 15,000 fans per home game. This was almost triple that of their nearest rival. The 2015–16 seasons attendance record was set in Ganja, as 20,400 Kapaz fans attended home game against Qarabag FC on February 14, 2016 The fanbase is large and generally loyal and like most major Azerbaijani football clubs, Kapaz have a number of domestic supporters' clubs, including the Khamsa Supporters Club, which works closely with the club and maintains a more independent line. The club's most popular celebrity supporters are the likes of Olympic wrestling champion Toghrul Asgarov.

Shirt sponsors and kit manufacturers

Honours

Azerbaijan

* Azerbaijan League **Champions (3): 1994–95, 1997–98, 1998–99 **Runners–up (1): 1999–00 *

Azerbaijan Cup The Azerbaijan Cup () is a major association football competition in Azerbaijan. In its original form, it started in 1936, when Azerbaijan was a republic of the Soviet Union and it was not disputed by Azerbaijani teams in the Soviet league pyramid ...

** Winners (4): 1993–94, 1996–97, 1997–98, 1999–00 *

**Champions (1): 2009–10

USSR

**Champions (1):

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

Soviet Second League The Soviet Second League (, Soviet football championship (Second League)) was the third highest division of Soviet Union, Soviet football (soccer), football, below the Soviet First League. The league was formed in 1971 in place of the Class A Se ...

**Champions (1):

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The First Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lynd ...

**Runners–up (1):

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

Soviet Cup The Soviet Cup, or USSR Cup (),, , , (Moldovan Cyrillic: Купа УРСС), , , . was the premier football cup competition in the Soviet Union conducted by the Football Federation of the Soviet Union. The 1991–92 season of the tournam ...

**Quarter-finalist (1):

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

Players

For a list of all former and current Kapaz PFC players with a Wikipedia article, see Kapaz PFC players. Azerbaijani teams are limited to nine players without Azerbaijani citizenship. The squad list includes only the principal nationality of each player; several non-European players on the squad have dual citizenship with an EU country.

Current squad

Out on loan

Managers

Managers in Soviet League

* Isay Abramashvili * Sabir Mammadov

Managers in modern history

* Şahmir Huseynov (1992) * Mubariz Zeynalov (1993) * Mehman Allahverdiyev (1993–2003) * Fuad Ismayilov (2003–2004) * Arzu Mirzayev (2003) * Shahin Diniyev (2005–06) * Fuad Ismayilov (2006) * Mehman Allahverdiyev (2011) * Mirbaghir Isayev (2011) * Fuad Ismayilov (2011–2012) * Mahmud Gurbanov (2012–2013) * Vidadi Rzayev (2013–2015) * Shahin Diniyev (2015–2017) * Yunis Huseynov (2017–2018) * Etibar Ibrahimov (2018–2019) * Yashar Vahabzade (2019–2022) *

Tarlan Ahmadov Tarlan Musa oglu Ahmadov (, born 17 November 1971) is an Azerbaijani football manager and former defender. Ahmadov had a lengthy club career with spells in Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine and Iran. He won 75 caps in 12 years for the Azerbaijani n ...

(2022–2023) * Adil Shukurov (2023–2024) * Azer Baghirov (2024–present)

Anniversary goals in the Azerbaijan Championship

On September 2, 2024, during their 651st match, "Kapaz" scored their 1000th goal in the Azerbaijani championships. This goal came in the 5th round of the 2024/2025 Azerbaijan Premier League season, in a match against "

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

" held at the Tovuz City Stadium. The goal was scored by Viktor Braga. In the same match, "Kapaz" also scored their 1001st goal, but the game ended with a 2:3 victory for "Sabah." With this goal, "Kapaz" became the third team in Azerbaijani championship history to score 1000 or more goals, joining " Qarabağ" and " Neftçi".

References

External links

Official website
(archived 11 June 2017) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kapaz PFC Football clubs in Azerbaijan Sport in Ganja, Azerbaijan Association football clubs established in 1959 1959 establishments in Azerbaijan Soviet Top League clubs Police association football clubs