Gabala is a football team playing in the championship of Azerbaijan.
Dossier
Gabala Professional Football Club was founded on July 3, 1995. Performs at the city stadium of the same name. The capacity of the arena is 8 thousand spectators. The club president is Tale Heydarov. Head coach - Roman Grigorchuk. The captain of the team is Javid Huseynov. Competition Status - Premier League. The main club colors are red and black. Rating - 541 place among all teams. Place in the current championship - 4.
History
Initially, the team was called "Gay Gel." The name was determined by the place (region) of the club. The first 10 years of performances passed without any particular results. In 2005, the club moved to the city of Gabala. From that moment he began to be called "Gilan." The holding had such a name that was the owner of the team. And after the club took the name of the city - “Gabala”.
Gabala (Azerbaijan) is a football club that is subordinate to the Gilan Holding concern. This is the largest structure of the country, uniting more than 300 enterprises and companies. The owner of the holding is the Heydarov family clan. Heydarov Sr. is also involved in politics. He holds the post of Minister of Emergency Situations of the country. Heydarov Jr. is responsible for the condition and success of the team, its financing and staffing. In addition to football affairs, the president of the club, Tale Heydarov, is engaged in education, publishing, and production activities. In general, this family is the second most influential in Azerbaijan.
Way to success
Gabala took part in the national championship as a team participating in the championship of the second division. Having won the competition right away, she entered the elite of clubs and has not left the top division to date.
As you know, where there is money, there is success. And the owners of the club did not spare money for a breakthrough in tournament results. And they did not keep themselves waiting. In the 2014/15 season, Russian coach Yuri Semin raises the team to third place in the national championship and brings it to the final of the National Cup. For the first time, the club takes part in Euro cup matches.
Wanting to improve the results of the team, the club management invites Ukrainian specialist Roman Grigorchuk.
And although in the domestic competition, “Gabala” only repeated last year’s achievement, new, quite real successes that the club owner, fans and all of Azerbaijan dreamed of came to the international arena. Gabala made it to the group stage of the Europa League tournament.
Assessing the result of the team’s performances in the Europa League international tournament, we’ll go through all the matches in which Gabala participated. In the first qualifying round, the Tbilisi Dynamo was defeated. Having lost in Tbilisi with a score of 1: 2, the Azerbaijani club managed to score two unanswered goals on its field. The next opponent was much more serious. It turned out to be the Serbian team Chukarichki. Having lost minimally in Belgrade, “Gabala” again defeats the Serbs in their native walls with a score of 2: 0. In the third round, they had to fight with the Apollo team from Cyprus. The election has a 1-1 guest draw, “Gabala” is scored by the only, he is victorious, ball and passes into the play-off round of the Europa League. Now all Azerbaijan is already on the ears. “Gabala” won a real opportunity to reach another football peak. Posters encouraged fans to football: Gabala (Azerbaijan) - Panathinaikos (Greece).
The first match was held in Baku and ended with the score 0-0. Naturally, the chances of Gabala for overall success were not high. But, having shown courage, endurance, patience and high dedication, the Azerbaijani team managed to withstand the onslaught of Panathinaikos.
The match ended in a draw 2: 2, which quite satisfied the guests. By the way, at the same time, another Azerbaijani club “Karabakh” defeated the Swiss “Young Boys” 3-0. This means that two teams will represent Azerbaijan in the group stage of the Europa League: Gabala and Karabakh.
In the group stage LE “Gabala” fought with the teams: “Krasnodar”, “Borussia D” and “PAOK”. At the end of the group stage, it became clear that the newcomer club did not have enough experience playing in a tournament of this level. Nevertheless, the two points earned testified that the “small" teams can compete with the regular clubs of the European Cup battles. The team performed with dignity, it played, but did not suffer, which means there is reason for all of Azerbaijan to be proud of it. “Gabala” has once again demonstrated that with proper personnel and financial club policies one can achieve certain, albeit local, results.
Well-known coaches and football players
They come to success in different ways. Some teams are betting on promising club youth and have been waiting for results for years. Others - (in the presence of a rich sponsor) invite famous coaches and players. This is a shorter path to success. In this way went FC “Gabala”.
Azerbaijan has always been famous for good footballers and, less often, highly qualified coaches. Therefore, the club management sought to attract specialists with a name who have experience in achieving the result. At different times, Tony Adams, Luis Aragones, Dorinel Munteanu, Yuri Semin, Roman Grigorchuk worked with the team.
Among the most famous players who played for the Gabala team in different years, there were: Deon Burton, John Collins, Nikola Valentich, Andrey Kristia, Marat Izmailov, Leonardo, Terry Cook, Alexei Gai and others.
In conclusion, a few words about the stadium in the city of Gabala. It is undergoing a reconstruction stage, including updating the lawn, installing two thousand additional plastic chairs, erecting a modern gym, locker rooms, and installing an electronic scoreboard. It is planned to build a reserve field with artificial grass.
Note that construction of a new football arena with a capacity of 13 thousand spectators is currently underway. In parallel, the construction of a new sports base and football academy is underway.