Neftçi PFK
Also written as Neftci Baku.
The club
Neftçi Peşəkar Futbol Klubu were founded on 18 March 1937 as Neftyanik, in Baku, and adopted the Neftçi name in 1968. The name means "oilman" and the club is nicknamed Neftçilər, "the Oil Workers", as well as Flaqman, "the Flagship", and Xalqın komandası, "the Nation's Team". Neftçi are not to be confused with Qarabağ FK, the other major Azerbaijani club covered elsewhere in this corpus; Neftçi are the historic Baku club with Soviet-era pedigree, Qarabağ the club originally from Agdam. Neftçi and Qarabağ are the only two clubs to have played in every season of the Azerbaijan Premier League since it began.
Neftçi play at the Neftçi Arena, capacity 11,000, their home since the 2012/13 season. Before that they played at the much larger Tofiq Bahramov Stadium, capacity 31,200, built in 1951 by German prisoners of war in a distinctive "C" shape and renamed in 1993 after the Azerbaijani referee Tofiq Bahramov. The club's colours are black and white, adopted in 1937 in reference to the region's petroleum, "black gold", and cotton, "white gold", industries. Neftçi are owned by SOCAR, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, and the current chief executive is Cenk Sümer.
The head coach is Yuriy Vernydub. He succeeded Roman Hryhorchuk, appointed in June 2024 and sacked that October after five draws and four losses in nine league matches, and Adrian Mutu, in charge from July 2023 into 2024. Samir Abasov had an earlier spell from November 2020 to 2022, the period that included the club's most recent league title.
Recent seasons
Neftçi won the Azerbaijan Premier League in 2020/21, then finished second in 2021/22, third in 2022/23, fifth in 2023/24 and sixth in 2024/25. In 2025/26 they finished fourth. The 2026/27 season has started strongly: as of 23 August 2026 Neftçi led the table with six points from two matches, both wins, eight goals scored and only one conceded.
Honours and landmarks
Neftçi have won the Azerbaijan Premier League nine times, in 1992, 1995/96, 1996/97, 2003/04, 2004/05, 2010/11, 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2020/21, making them the country's most successful club by title count alongside Qarabağ's more recent run. They have won the Azerbaijan Cup six times, in 1994/95, 1995/96, 1998/99, 2003/04, 2012/13 and 2013/14, completing the domestic double in 1995/96 and 2012/13, and the Azerbaijan Supercup twice, in 1993 and 1995. In the Soviet era Neftçi took bronze in the 1966 USSR Top League, and the club also won the CIS Cup in 2006 and were joint runners-up in the 2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup.
Notable scorelines
Neftçi beat Speranța Nisporeni 9-0 in the 2019/20 European qualifying rounds before beating Arsenal Tula 4-0 and then losing 3-4 to Bnei Yehuda. In the 2011/12 Europa League play-off round they beat APOEL 4-2 on aggregate to become the first Azerbaijani club to reach the group stage of a European competition. Their overall UEFA competition record stands at 27 wins, 20 draws and 37 losses from 84 matches. The club's all-time domestic record win and record defeat were not established from the sources read here.
European record
Neftçi's landmark European campaign was 2012/13. Having beaten APOEL 4-2 on aggregate in the Europa League play-off round the previous season to reach the group stage for the first time, they returned to European group football and, in the 2012/13 Europa League group stage, drew home and away with Partizan, 1-1 and 0-0, and held Internazionale to a 2-2 draw away at the San Siro, finishing fourth in Group H with three points from six matches. In 2019/20 they advanced through three qualifying rounds, thrashing Speranța Nisporeni 9-0 and beating Arsenal Tula 4-0, before losing 3-4 to Bnei Yehuda. In 2026/27 Neftçi entered the Conference League second qualifying round against FC Dinamo Minsk of Belarus, losing the home leg 2-4 and winning away 1-0, going out 3-4 on aggregate.
Head-to-head notes
Neftçi and Qarabağ are the two clubs to have contested every Azerbaijan Premier League season; further head-to-head detail against Qarabağ, Qabala or Zira was not established from the sources read here.
Right now (2026/27)
Yuriy Vernydub is the head coach. Neftçi lead the Azerbaijan Premier League as of 23 August 2026 with two wins from two matches, six points, eight goals scored and one conceded; Breno Almeida is the league's leading scorer with two goals, both for Neftçi, with Ľubomír Tupta also on the scoresheet. The league's first-place finisher qualifies for the Champions League first qualifying round.
In Europe, Neftçi were eliminated from the 2026/27 Conference League in the second qualifying round by FC Dinamo Minsk, losing 2-4 at home and winning 1-0 away, out 3-4 on aggregate. Exact dates, goalscorers and attendances for those legs were not established from the sources read here.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neft%C3%A7i_PFK
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.