Idman.biz
The appointment of Ukrainian specialist Andriy Demchenko as head coach of the "Araz-Nakhchivan" club has created a unique situation in Azerbaijani football for the last decade.
İdman.Biz reports that for the first time in 12 years, the number of foreign head coaches in the Azerbaijan Premier League will exceed the number of local specialists in the 2025/2026 season.
After Demchenko's arrival, the ratio of coaches in the country's elite division has shaped up as seven foreign and five local specialists. Before this appointment, the league maintained a balance - six local and six foreign coaches. It was Elmar Bakhshiyev's replacement with Andriy Demchenko at "Araz-Nakhchivan" that tipped the scales in favor of foreign specialists.
Currently, local coaches lead "Qarabag" (Gurban Gurbanov), "Zira" (Rashad Sadigov), "Shamakhi" (Aykhan Abbasov), "Kapaz" (Azer Bagirov), and "Karvan-Yevlakh" (Fuzuli Mammadov).
Other teams have entrusted foreign specialists: Lithuanian Valdas Dambrauskas at "Sabah", Ukrainian Yuri Vernidub at "Neftchi", Turkmenistan and Russian citizen Kurban Berdyev at "Turan-Tovuz", Serbian Sasa Ilic at "Sumgayit", Ukrainian Andriy Demchenko at "Araz-Nakhchivan", Portuguese Jorge Casquilha at "Imishli", and Georgian specialist Kakhaber Tskhadadze at "Gabala".
The last time foreign coaches dominated the Azerbaijani championship was in the 2013/2014 season. During that period, the league was going through an active investment phase, and clubs featured international-level coaches such as Yuri Semin, John Toshack, Mustafa Denizli, and Milinko Pantic. That season, the ratio was six foreign and four local coaches.
After 2014, against the backdrop of financial difficulties and the cessation of activities of clubs such as "Baku", "Khazar-Lankaran", and "Simurq", a long-term period of dominance by local personnel began in the league. In some seasons, the number of foreign coaches decreased to zero or one or two.
The current trend can be explained by the expansion of the Misli Premier League to 12 teams in the 2025/2026 season, the increasing ambitions of some clubs, and the desire of others to change the current situation.
