Familiar referees appointed for the "Qarabağ" - "Sabah" match: The brigade has also worked in previous matches of the teams

The central match of the 28th round of the Azerbaijan Premier League - "Qarabağ" - "Sabah", which will be held on Saturday, April 18, will be managed by the same team of referees who managed the previous matches of the teams in the current season.

Idman.Biz reports that the chief referee of the upcoming game will be FIFA referee Elchin Masiyev.

He will be assisted by Elshad Abdullayev and Parvin Talibov. Inqilab Mammadov has been appointed as the fourth referee. VAR referee will be Tural Gurbanov, and VAR assistant will be Jamil Guliyev.

The appointment of this brigade is remarkable because its members have already worked in the head-to-head matches of the teams in the current season. In the postponed 1st round game in December, Masiyev was the chief referee, and Gurbanov was the VAR referee. In the second-round meeting in March, the roles changed: Gurbanov was the chief referee, and Masiyev was the VAR referee. Abdullayev, Talibov and Guliyev also participated in those games.

It should be noted that in the previous two matches of the teams in the current season, Gurban Gurbanov's team could not win: in the December game, Valdas Dambrauskas' team won 2:1, and the second meeting ended in a 3:3 draw.

By the way, familiar faces were also present in the "Qarabağ" and "Sabah" match in the first game of the semi-final stage of the Azerbaijan Cup, which was held on April 3. In that match, Elshad Abdullayev, Parvin Talibov and Inqilab Mammadov assisted the chief referee Rauf Jabbarov. Aghdam's representative could not win that game either - 2:2.

If we look at the appointments for the games of "Qarabağ" and "Sabah" with other rivals in the Premier League of the 2025/26 season, we can see that the names of some referees in the current brigade are repeated frequently.

The referee who has been appointed the most times in the championship games of these teams is Tural Gurbanov - 12 times. He worked in various roles - chief referee, VAR, AVAR and fourth referee. Elshad Abdullayev has been appointed to such games eight times.

Parvin Talibov and Inqilab Mammadov participated in four matches of "Qarabağ" and "Sabah" with other rivals, Elchin Masiyev three times, and Jamil Guliyev two times.

Let us add that on the eve of the 28th round, "Sabah" leads the tournament table with 66 points. "Qarabağ" is in the second place with 10 points behind and has one game in hand. Today's victory of the Aghdam club will preserve the intrigue in the championship race, and the success of "Sabah" will practically clarify all questions regarding the champion of the 2025/26 season.