Shamakhi FK (, ) 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 ...

i professional

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

Shamakhi Shamakhi (, ) is a city in Azerbaijan and the administrative centre of the Shamakhi District. The city's estimated population was 31,704. It is famous for its traditional dancers, the Shamakhi Dancers, and also for perhaps giving its name to th ...

, that currently 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 club has won the Premier League title twice.

History

Early years (1997–2004)

The club has been functioning since 1997, initially as an amateur side that shared its name with

Khazar University Khazar University (, which directly translates as Caspian University) is a private university located in Baku, Azerbaijan. Campuses Khazar University owns four campuses in the city of Baku and two campuses in regions of Azerbaijan. Xəzər U ...

, the first private university in Azerbaijan, which founded the club. In 1999, Khazar University began to play in the

, finishing eleventh. In subsequent years, Inter finished in 7th place (2000/01 season) and 3rd place (2003–04 season). In the 2003–04 season, the team finished in fourth place, thereby qualifying for the

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

for the first time. In the first round of the

2004 UEFA Intertoto Cup The 2004 UEFA Intertoto Cup football finals (the summer football competition for European clubs that had not qualified for one of the two major UEFA competitions) were won by Lille, Schalke 04, and Villarreal. All three teams advanced to the UE ...

, they defeated

Bregenz Bregenz (; ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost states of Austria, state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switzerland in the wes ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

3–0 on a forfeiture in the first leg, and 2–1 in the second leg. In the second round, they played

Tampere United Tampere United is a Finnish football club from the city of Tampere. In the 2025 season, the club plays in Ykkönen, the third highest level of football in Finland. The club had a team in Veikkausliiga, the premier football league in Finland, ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, losing the first leg 0–3; winning the return leg, played in Baku, 1–0; but going out on aggregate 1–3.

The Double and Tskhadadze years (2004–2014)

In the summer of 2004, all rights of the Khazar University club were transferred to the newly created Inter Baku Professional Football Club, and the team participated in the 13th championship of the Azerbaijani Premier League under the name of Inter Baku. Later in 2004, certain structural changes were made in the club's management, and Inter Baku was renamed the Inter Professional Club, finishing the 2004–2005 season in seventh place. Inter's progression up the standings continued in the 14th iteration of the Azerbaijan Premier League when Inter finished in fourth place. The club finished fourth again in 2006–07, and first in 2007–08. Following its championship season, Inter qualified for its first-ever appearance in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

and advanced to the second qualifying round by defeating Rabotnički of the

Republic of Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

away goals The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

. 2009 saw Inter Baku retain the

title, securing it for the second time in the club's history. The club's Champions League campaign was less successful – losing to

Lech Poznań Kolejowy Klub Sportowy Lech Poznań S.A., commonly referred to as KKS Lech Poznań or simply Lech Poznań (), is a Polish professional football club based in Poznań and currently competing in the Ekstraklasa, the nation's highest division. ...

away on penalties. In 2011, Inter Baku also managed to win the

CIS Cup The Commonwealth of Independent States Cup () is a defunct annual regional association football tournament, recognized by FIFA. The tournament was initially established for football clubs of the former Soviet Union republics in 1993 (a year late ...

after defeating Shakhtyor Soligorsk in the final. In 2012, the club recorded an Azerbaijani record for the biggest win in a European competition by beating

Narva Trans Jalgpalliklubi Narva Trans, commonly known as Narva Trans or simply Trans, is an Estonian professional football club based in Narva that competes in the Meistriliiga, the top flight of Estonian football. Although the club's traditional home gro ...

5–0 in

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. The club had started the 2013–14 season with a three-game losing streak, setting a record for worst start to a season in its history. However, the team managed to clinch second spot in the league.

Downturn and financial difficulties of Inter Baku (2015–2017)

During the 2015–16 season, Inter started experiencing financial difficulties at the same time with its main sponsor, The International Bank of Azerbaijan. In December 2015, the club's president, Georgi Nikolov was replaced by Rashad Gasimov. On 31 March 2016, Inter Baku were banned from participating in the next UEFA club competition that they would qualify for in the next three seasons, covering the 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons. The situation continued during the 2016–17 season as Inter struggled to pay salaries to its players and make new transfers. Despite that, Inter was able to claim the bronze medal in the national championship and reach the semi-finals stage in the Cup. At the end of the season, IBA announced that it would no longer sponsor the club, and this led to new changes in the administration. Zaur Akhundov, former director of the National Futzal Federation, was appointed as the head of the supervisory board and Ramish Maliyev became the new executive director of the club. Despite the rumors about the liquidation, Inter was able to find sponsorship for the 2017–18 season and play in the Europe League, where it eliminated Serbian Mladost Lučani in the first qualifying round before getting eliminated by Fola Esch in the second round.

Keşla FK (2017–2022)

On 28 October 2017, Inter Baku PIK officially changed its name to Keşla FK. The club also replaced its logo and jersey colors. In its first match, Keşla lost 0–2 against Kapaz. The next day, the team's manager Zaur Svanadze was replaced by

Ramiz Mammadov Ramiz Mammadov (born 15 August 1968) is an Azerbaijani former football player. Sometimes he is confused with his Muscovite colleague Ramiz Mamedov. He played between 1992 and 2005, for teams such as FC Kapaz (Ganja), Garabag (Agdam), Kur (Ming ...

. On 25 December 2017, Keşla announced that Mammadov had become the club's Sporting Director, with Yuriy Maksymov coming in as the club's new manager. On 17 July 2018, Maksymov was sacked, and

Mladen Milinković Mladen Milinković (Serbian Cyrillic: Младен Милинковић; born 14 May 1968) is a Serbian football coach and former player. He played as midfielder for FK Loznica, FK Mačva Šabac, Drina Zvornik, Omonia Aradippou from Cyprus, FF ...

appointed the new manager on 25 July 2018. On 29 October 2018, Milinković was sacked as manager, with

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 ...

being appointed as his replacement on 30 October 2018. On 8 August 2020, Ahmadov left Keşla. On 16 August 2020, Keşla announced Yunis Huseynov's appointment as the new manager. On 24 January 2021, Huseynov resigned;

Sanan Gurbanov Sanan Gurbanov (, born 4 August 1980) is a retired Azerbaijani footballer and current manager of Keşla FK. Career Club He was born in Georgia on 4 August 1980. Moving to Baku with his family in his 1st year, Sanan began to his football life i ...

was appointed the club's new manager on 25 January 2021.

Shamakhi FK (2022–present)

On 6 April 2022, the

approved the name change of Keşla FK to Shamakhi FK.

Domestic history

European history

Stadium

Shamakhi's home ground is

Shamakhi City Stadium Shamakhi FK (, ) is an Azerbaijani professional association football, football club based in Shamakhi, that currently competes in the Azerbaijan Premier League. The club has won the Premier League title twice. History Early years (1997–2004) ...

, which has a capacity of 2,200.

Shirt sponsor and kit manufacturer

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

''For recent transfers, see List of Azerbaijan football transfers summer 2024 and List of Azerbaijan football transfers winter 2024–25.''

Club officials

Management

Coaching staff

Records

Top goalscorers

Notable managers

''Information correct as of match played 23 February 2019. Only competitive matches are counted.'' *Notes: P – Total of played matches W – Won matches D – Drawn matches L – Lost matches GS – Goal scored GA – Goals against
%W – Percentage of matches won Nationality is indicated by the corresponding FIFA country code(s).

Honours

National

* Azerbaijan League **Winners (2): 2007–08, 2009–10 *

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 (2): 2017–18,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Regional

**Winners (1):

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

References

External links

Official Shamakhi FK website

Inter Baku
at Weltfussball.de (archived)
Inter Baku
at Soccerway
Dynamicsport.eu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keşla FK Football clubs in Azerbaijan Association football clubs established in 1997 Football clubs in Baku 1997 establishments in Azerbaijan