2020 Kazakhstan Premier League

The 2020 Kazakhstan Premier League was the 29th season of the Kazakhstan Premier League, the highest football league competition in Kazakhstan. FC Astana were the defending champions after winning their sixth title the previous season.

Kazakhstan Premier League

Season	2020
Champions	Kairat
Relegated	Okzhetpes
Champions League	Kairat
Europa Conference League	Tobol Astana Shakhter Karagandy
Matches played	78
Goals scored	195 (2.5 per match)
Top goalscorer	João Paulo (11 goals)
Biggest home win	Kairat 5–0 Okzhetpes (11 March 2020)
Biggest away win	Tobol 0–4 Ordabasy (16 September 2020) Tobol 0–4 Kairat (26 October 2020) Okzhetpes 1–5 Astana (26 October 2020) Caspiy 0–4 Shakhter Karagandy (27 November 2020)
Highest scoring	Okzhetpes 3–3 Kairat (27 September 2020) Zhetysu 2–4 Kairat (18 October 2020) Okzhetpes 1–5 Astana (26 October 2020) Taraz 2–4 Shakhter Karagandy (8 November 2020)
Longest winning run	6 matches Kairat
Longest unbeaten run	15 matches Kairat
Longest winless run	7 matches Okzhetpes
Longest losing run	5 matches Okzhetpes Caspiy
← 2019 2021 → All statistics correct as of 23 December 2020.

Season events

COVID-19

On 13 March, the Football Federation of Kazakhstan announced all league fixtures would be played behind closed doors for the foreseeable future due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[1] On 16 March the Football Federation of Kazakhstan suspended all football until 15 April.^[2]

On 26 June, it was announced that the league would resume on 1 July, with no fans being permitted to watch the games.^[3] The league was suspended for a second time on 3 July, for an initial two weeks, due to an increase in COVID-19 cases in the country.^[4]

Irtysh Pavlodar

On 30 May, the Professional Football League of Kazakhstan announced that Irtysh Pavlodar had withdrawn from the league due to financial issues, with all their matches being excluded from the league results.^[5]

Teams

FC Aktobe and FC Atyrau were relegated at the end of the 2019 season, and were replaced by FC Kyzylzhar and FC Caspiy.

Team overview

 

 

Astana

 

Caspiy

 

Irtysh

 

Kairat

 

Kaisar

 

Kyzylzhar

 

Okzhetpes

 

Ordabasy

 

Shakhter

 

Taraz

 

Tobol

 

Zhetysu

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Locations of teams in the 2020 Kazakhstan Premier League

Team	Location	Venue	Capacity
Astana	Nur-Sultan	Nur-Sultan Arena	30,000
Caspiy	Aktau	Zhastar Stadium	5,000
Irtysh	Pavlodar	Pavlodar Central Stadium	15,000
Kairat	Almaty	Almaty Central Stadium	25,057
Kaisar	Kyzylorda	Gany Muratbayev Stadium	7,500
Kyzylzhar	Petropavl	Karasai Stadium	11,000
Okzhetpes	Kokshetau	Alisher Sagynbayev Stadium	4,158
Ordabasy	Shymkent	Kazhymukan Munaitpasov Stadium	20,000
Shakhter	Karaganda	Shakhter Stadium	20,000
Taraz	Taraz	Yerkebulan Babayev Stadium	11,525
Tobol	Kostanay	Bauyrzhan Sagintayev Stadium	10,500
Zhetysu	Taldykorgan	Samat Suyumbayev Stadium	4,000

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players and Managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Astana	Andrey Tikhonov	Dmitri Shomko	Adidas	Samruk-Kazyna
Caspiy	Srđan Blagojević	Ruslan Sakhalbaev	Nike	—
Irtysh	Samvel Babayan	Nikita Kalmykov	Puma	ENRC
Kairat	Talgat Baysufinov	Bauyrzhan Islamkhan	Nike	1xBet
Kaisar	Stoycho Mladenov	Maksat Baizhanov	Nike	—
Kyzylzhar	Veaceslav Rusnac	Shota Grigalashvili	Nike	—
Okzhetpes	Andrei Karpovich	Yaroslav Baginsky	Adidas	—
Ordabasy	Kakhaber Tskhadadze	Pablo Fontanello	Nike	Aysu Mineral Water
Shakhter	Konstantin Gorovenka	Evgeniy Tarasov	Nike	BTL Kazakhstan
Taraz	Vladimir Nikitenko	Ilya Vorotnikov	Nike	—
Tobol	Grigori Babayan	Azat Nurgaliev	Adidas	Polymetal
Zhetysu	Dmitriy Ogai	Almat Bekbaev	Adidas	—

Foreign players

The number of foreign players was restricted to eight per KPL team. A team could use only five foreign players on the field in each game. For the 2020 season, the KFF announced that players from countries of the Eurasian Economic Union would not be counted towards a club's foreign player limit.^[6]

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	Player 6	Player 7	Player 8	Player 9
Astana	Luka Šimunović	Marin Tomasov	Pieros Sotiriou	Rúnar Már Sigurjónsson	Žarko Tomašević	Dorin Rotariu	Uroš Radaković	Antonio Rukavina
Caspiy	Branko Čubrilo	Billal Sebaihi	Stefan Bukorac	Marko Milošević	Maksym Marusych
Irtysh
Kairat	Vágner Love	Dino Mikanović	Nebojša Kosović	Jacek Góralski	Konrad Wrzesiński	Rade Dugalić	Aderinsola Eseola
Kaisar	Aleksandar Kolev	Clarence Bitang	Alvin Fortes	Ivan Graf	Elguja Lobjanidze	Reginaldo	Aleksandar Stanisavljević
Kyzylzhar	Pablo Podio	Momodou Ceesay	Shota Grigalashvili	Moussa Koné	Vytautas Andriuškevičius	Mihai Plătică	Uroš Delić	Artem Baranovskyi	Maksym Drachenko
Okzhetpes	Gian	Artjom Dmitrijev	Vsevolod Nihaev	Marko Obradović	Darko Zorić	Aliyu Abubakar	Milan Stojanović	Taras Bondarenko
Ordabasy	Pablo Fontanello	Ziguy Badibanga	Mirzad Mehanović	João Paulo	Rúben Brígido	May Mahlangu	Abdoulaye Diakate	Aleksandar Simčević
Shakhter	Abdel Lamanje	Sergei Zenjov	Gideon Baah	Cédric Kouadio	Muhammed Usman	Ruslan Mingazow	Yevhen Tkachuk
Taraz	Toni Silva	Ovidijus Verbickas	Dejan Boljević	Jovan Čađenović	Goran Brkić	Bratislav Punoševac	Serge Nyuiadzi
Tobol	Nika Kvekveskiri	Jaba Kankava	Senin Sebai	Aleksa Amanović	Jérémy Manzorro	Carlos Fonseca
Zhetysu	Martin Toshev	David Mawutor	Donjet Shkodra	Artūras Žulpa	Pedro Eugénio	Nenad Adamović	Stefan Živković

In bold: Players that have been capped for their national team.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Tobol	Nurbol Zhumaskaliyev (Caretaker)	End of Caretaker Role	14 December 2019	Pre-Season	Grigori Babayan	14 December 2019^[7]
Shakhter Karagandy	Nikolay Kostov	End of Contract	30 December 2019		Vyacheslav Hroznyi	30 December 2019^[8]
Taraz	Nurken Mazbayev	End of Contract	31 December 2019		Vladimir Nikitenko	16 January 2020^[9]
Astana	Roman Hryhorchuk	Mutual Termination	13 January 2020^[10]		Michal Bílek	14 January 2020^[11]
Shakhter Karagandy	Vyacheslav Hroznyi	Mutual Termination	17 June 2020^[12]	8th	Konstantin Gorovenka	18 June 2020^[13]
Astana	Michal Bílek	Sacked	26 August 2020^[14]	2nd	Paul Ashworth (Caretaker)	26 August 2020^[14]
Astana	Paul Ashworth (Caretaker)	Mutual Termination	7 October 2020^[15]	2nd	Andrey Tikhonov	16 October 2020^[16]

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Kairat (C)	20	14	3	3	48	19	+29	45	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Tobol	20	12	2	6	26	16	+10	38	Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round
3	Astana	20	11	3	6	32	21	+11	36
4	Shakhter Karagandy	20	9	5	6	29	22	+7	32
5	Ordabasy	20	9	4	7	27	26	+1	31
6	Zhetysu	20	9	1	10	27	28	−1	28
7	Kaisar	20	6	6	8	20	23	−3	24
8	Taraz	20	5	8	7	19	23	−4	23
9	Kyzylzhar	20	6	5	9	15	24	−9	23
10	Caspiy	20	5	2	13	15	34	−19	17
11	Okzhetpes (R)	20	2	5	13	16	38	−22	11	Relegation to the Kazakhstan First Division
12	Irtysh Pavlodar (R, D, R, D)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Withdrawn, relegated to the Kazakhstan First Division

Source: UEFA, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Matches won; 4) Goals scored; 5) Away goals scored; 6) Head-to-head points; 7) Head-to-head matches won; 8) Head-to-head goal difference; 9) Head-to-head goals scored; 10) Head-to-head away goals scored; 11) Draw.^[17]
(C) Champions; (D) Disqualified; (R) Relegated

Results

Games 1–20

Home \ Away	AST	CAS	KRT	KSR	KYZ	OKZ	ORD	SHA	TAR	TOB	ZHE
Astana		1–2	0–1	3–1	4–0	2–0	1–1	1–1	1–1	1–0	3–0
Caspiy	2–3		0–3	1–0	1–1	2–1	1–2	0–4	0–2	0–1	0–2
Kairat	3–0	3–1		2–1	2–3	5–0	3–1	1–1	2–1	3–1	3–0
Kaisar	0–1	0–1	2–2		1–2	0–0	1–1	2–0	1–1	2–1	1–0
Kyzylzhar	0–1	1–0	0–1	0–0		3–1	0–0	1–3	1–0	0–1	2–1
Okzhetpes	1–5	2–2	3–3	0–1	2–1		1–3	1–1	0–0	0–2	0–1
Ordabasy	1–2	1–0	1–3	0–3	1–0	1–0		0–1	1–1	0–3	3–1
Shakhter Karagandy	3–1	2–1	1–0	0–1	0–0	2–1	0–1		1–1	1–0	1–2
Taraz	1–0	0–1	1–0	2–2	0–0	2–3	3–2	2–4		0–0	0–2
Tobol	2–0	2–0	0–4	3–0	2–0	1–0	0–4	3–1	2–0		2–0
Zhetysu	1–2	3–0	2–4	3–1	3–0	1–0	2–3	3–2	0–1	0–0

Source: Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Statistics

Scoring

• First goal of the season: Pieros Sotiriou for Astana against Kyzylzhar (7 March 2020)

Top scorers

^[18]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	João Paulo	Ordabasy	12
2	Abat Aimbetov	Kairat	10
3	Elguja Lobjanidze	Kaisar	8
4	Vágner Love	Kairat	7
5	Rúnar Már Sigurjónsson	Astana	6
	Pieros Sotiriou	Astana
	Aybar Zhaksylykov	Zhetysu
8	Artjom Dmitrijev	Okzhetpes	5
	Pedro Eugénio	Zhetysu
	Arsen Khubulov	Shakhter Karagandy
	Jérémy Manzorro	Tobol
	Azat Nurgaliev	Tobol
	Aydos Tattybaev	Shakhter Karagandy

Clean sheets

As of matches played on 4 October 2020.

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Aleksandr Zarutskiy	Kaisar	3
	Miroslav Lobantsev	Kyzylzhar
	Vladimir Plotnikov	Ordabasy
	Igor Shatskiy	Tobol
	Aleksandr Mokin	Tobol
	Almat Bekbaev	Zhetysu
	Stas Pokatilov	Kairat
8	Nenad Erić	Astana	2
	Dmytro Nepohodov	Astana
	Danil Ustimenko	Kairat
	Marsel Islamkulov	Kaisar
	Mukhammejan Seisen	Taraz
	Andrey Shabanov	Zhetysu

References

1. "KAZAKHSTAN FOOTBALL FEDERATION SUSPENDS SPORTING EVENTS". kff.kz/. Football Federation of Kazakhstan. 13 March 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
2. "ПФЛК о приостановке футбольных матчей". pflk.kz (in Russian). Kazakhstan Premier League. 16 March 2020. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
3. "OLIMPBET-Чемпионат Казахстана возобновляется 1 июля". pflk.kz/ (in Russian). Kazakhstan Premier League. 26 June 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
4. "OLIMPBET-Чемпионат Казахстана приостановлен". pflk.kz/ (in Russian). Kazakhstan Premier League. 3 July 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
5. "«ERTIS» уведомил ПФЛК о прекращении участия в OLIMPBET-Чемпионате Казахстана". pflk.kz/ (in Russian). Kazakhstan Premier League. 30 May 2020. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
6. "Кто из иностранцев больше не считается легионерами в Казахстане?". sports.kz/ (in Russian). Sports KZ. 30 November 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
7. . fctobol.kz/ (in Russian). FC Tobol. 14 December 2019. Archived from the original on 15 December 2019. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
8. "ВЯЧЕСЛАВ ГРОЗНЫЙ — ГЛАВНЫЙ ТРЕНЕР ФК ШАХТЕР". shakhter.kz/ (in Russian). FC Shakhter Karagandy. 30 December 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.^{[permanent dead link]}
9. . fctaraz.kz/ (in Russian). FC Taraz. 16 January 2020. Archived from the original on 22 January 2020. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
10. . fcastana.kz/ (in Russian). FC Astana. 13 January 2020. Archived from the original on 13 January 2020. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
11. . fcastana.kz/ (in Russian). FC Astana. 14 January 2020. Archived from the original on 14 January 2020. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
12. "ОФИЦИАЛЬНО: ВЯЧЕСЛАВ ГРОЗНЫЙ ПОКИДАЕТ ШАХТЕР". shakhter.kz/ (in Russian). FC Shakhter Karagandy. 17 June 2020. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
13. "КОНСТАНТИН ГОРОВЕНКО — ГЛАВНЫЙ ТРЕНЕР ФК ШАХТЕР". shakhter.kz/ (in Russian). FC Shakhter Karagandy. 18 June 2020. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
14. "Михал Билек покинул свой пост". fcastana.kz/ (in Russian). FC Astana. 26 August 2020. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
15. "Пол Эшуорт покинул Астану". fcastana.kz/ (in Russian). FC Astana. 7 October 2020. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
16. "Возвращение капитана". fcastana.kz/. FC Astana. 16 October 2020. p. Russian. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
17. "РЕГЛАМЕНТ ЧЕМПИОНАТА РЕСПУБЛИКИ КАЗАХСТАН ПО ФУТБОЛУ СРЕДИ КЛУБОВ ПРЕМЬЕР-ЛИГИ НА 2018 год" [Regulations of the Championship of the Republic of Kazakhstan on football among clubs of the prime league for 2018] (PDF). Kazakhstan Premier League (in Russian). Retrieved 11 November 2018.
18. UEFA.com

External links

• Official website (in Kazakh and Russian)