Sadygov kicks football into touch

Capped 40 times and a former international captain, Rashad Sadygov returned to Azerbaijan after a spell in Turkey with Kayersispor with the intention of signing for PFC Neftchi, but was denied the chance to join his new club by the rules on player registrations. The Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA) set a 20 August closing date for registrations, and while many leagues allow clubs to resubmit squads before 31 August, AFFA decreed that there would be no such exceptions this season - not even for Sadygov.

While he was offered the chance to play in the second division for Neftchi's reserve team, Sadygov instead chose to keep fit by playing basketball, scoring 14 points in his first game for BK NTD. However, it has not impressed the national-team selectors, who dropped him for the first time in five years.

Back in the league, FK Khazar Lenkaran lead the way with 16 points from their first six games. They dropped their first points of the season recently when drawing 0-0 against PFK Turan Tovuz but boast the league's most prolific striker in five-goal Zaur Ramazanov. Neftchi are at a low ebb without Sadygov. Player-turned-coach Gurban Gurbanov has struggled to string decent results together and the deposed champions recorded only their second win of the season when defeating FK Gilan 4-1 on 30 September.

Having become the only side to have taken points off Lenkoran this season, Turan were left reeling from a humiliating 7-1 league loss to FC Inter Baku in last week - their biggest defeat ever. The champions FK Baku are second in the table, three points adrift of Lenkoran, but have not been in startling form this season. They drew 0-0 at home against FK Karabakh last time out having lost 2-0 in their previous game against MKT Araz in Imishli.

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