The 31st round of the Misli Premier League has officially crushed Neftchi’s hopes of finishing the season with a medal.
The Baku-based club suffered a heavy 0–3 defeat to Qarabag in the Azerbaijan Derby, confirming that they will end the season outside the top three, Idman.biz reports.
With just 35 points after 31 matches, the Black and Whites trail third-place Araz-Nakhchivan by 18 points. Regardless of the outcomes in the final five rounds, the country’s most historic club will walk away empty-handed this season.
Despite still holding the record for the most medals in the Premier League, Neftchi will miss the podium for a second consecutive season. Last year, they finished fifth in the standings.
This marks the continuation of what has become a “chronic illness” for Neftchi in the 21st century. Whenever the team finishes a season without a medal, the trend tends to repeat the following year.
The first such streak came at the end of the 2000s, when Neftchi went three seasons without a single medal—from 2007/08 to 2009/10.
A longer dry spell followed shortly after, as the club had to wait four full seasons to earn even a bronze medal again after clinching three consecutive championships. Between 2013/14 and 2016/17, Neftchi finished each season outside the top three.
The third such streak began last season and has now extended to two years with this campaign’s results.
In total, Neftchi has finished 12 seasons without a medal. The club also went two consecutive seasons without silverware in 1993 and 1993/94. The only time a medal-less season didn’t stretch beyond a single year was in 1997/98.
For the record, Neftchi has claimed 9 gold, 5 silver, and 6 bronze medals in the history of the Azerbaijan Premier League.
Vugar Kheyrullayev
Idman.biz
