2015 Kazakhstan Premier League

Kazakhstan Premier League

Season	2015
Champions	Astana
Relegated	Kaisar
Champions League	Astana
Europa League	Kairat Aktobe Ordabasy
Matches played	192
Goals scored	418 (2.18 per match)
Top goalscorer	Gerard Gohou (22)
Biggest home win	Kairat 4–0 Tobol Kairat 4–0 Shakhter Astana 4–0 Tobol
Biggest away win	Shakhter 0–5 Kairat
Highest scoring	Astana 4–3 Kairat Kairat 5–2 Irtysh
← 2014 2016 → All statistics correct as of 8 November 2015.

The 2015 Kazakhstan Premier League is the 24th season of the Kazakhstan Premier League, the highest football league competition in Kazakhstan. The season began in March 2015 and is scheduled to finish in November. Astana were the defending champions having won their first league championship the previous year.

Teams

Spartak Semey was relegated at the end of the 2014 season, and were replaced by Okzhetpes.

Team overview

Aktobe

Atyrau

Irtysh

Kairat

Kaisar

Astana

Okzhetpes

Ordabasy

Shakhter

Taraz

Tobol

Zhetysu

Locations of teams in the 2015 Kazakhstan Premier League

Team	Location	Venue	Capacity
Aktobe	Aktobe	Aktobe Central Stadium	15,000
Astana	Astana	Astana Arena	30,000
Atyrau	Atyrau	Munaishy Stadium	8,690
Irtysh	Pavlodar	Pavlodar Central Stadium	15,000
Kairat	Almaty	Almaty Central Stadium	25,057
Kaisar	Kyzylorda	Gany Muratbayev Stadium	7,500
Okzhetpes	Kokshetau	Okzhetpes Stadium	4,158
Ordabasy	Shymkent	Kazhimukan Munaitpasov Stadium	35,000
Shakhter	Karagandy	Shakhter Stadium	20,000
Taraz	Taraz	Taraz Central Stadium	11,525
Tobol	Kostanay	Kostanay Central Stadium	010,500
Zhetysu	Taldykorgan	Zhetysu Stadium	04,000

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
Aktobe	Ioan Andone	Yuriy Logvinenko	Adidas	—
Astana	Stanimir Stoilov	Tanat Nusserbayev	Adidas	Samruk-Kazyna
Atyrau	Vladimir Nikitenko	Guy Essame	Nike	—
Irtysh	Dimitar Dimitrov	Samat Smakov	Nike	ENRC
Kairat	Vladimír Weiss	Bauyrzhan Islamkhan	Nike	KazRosGaz
Kaisar	Fyodor Shcherbachenko	Martin Klein	Nike	—
Okzhetpes	Vladimir Mukhanov	Alibek Buleshev	Adidas	—
Ordabasy	Viktor Kumykov	Kairat Ashirbekov	Adidas	TAU
Shakhter	Ihor Zakharyak	Aldin Đidić	Adidas	—
Taraz	Evgeny Yarovenko	Dmitri Yevstigneyev	Nike	—
Tobol	Sergey Maslenov	Nurbol Zhumaskaliyev	Joma	—
Zhetysu	Ivan Azovskiy	Andrey Pasechenko	Puma	—

Foreign players

The number of foreign players is restricted to eight per KPL team. A team can use only five foreign players on the field in each game.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	Player 6	Player 7	Player 8
Aktobe	Ciprian Deac	Marcos Pizzelli	Danilo Neco	Anderson Mineiro	Danilo	Artūras Žulpa	Dele Adeleye
Astana	Marin Aničić	Roger Cañas	Patrick Twumasi	Foxi Kéthévoama	Branko Ilić	Nemanja Maksimović	Denys Dedechko	Junior Kabananga
Atyrau	Michael Odibe	Anton Grigoryev	Ruslan Fomin	Guy Essame	Volodymyr Arzhanov	Abdoulaye Diakate	Dmitri Parkhachev	Ivan Ivanović
Irtysh	Alassane N'Diaye	Kostyantyn Dudchenko	Tomáš Jirsák	Carlos Fonseca	Fernander Kassaï	Evandro Roncatto	Ferreira	Mustapha Jarju
Kairat	Žarko Marković	Sito Riera	Isael	Gerard Gohou	Anatoliy Tymoshchuk	Djordje Despotović	Serginho	Bruno Soares
Kaisar	Martin Klein	Rimo Hunt	Sergei Strukov	Vuk Mitošević	Josip Knežević	Anton Matsveenka	Georgi Karaneychev
Okzhetpes	Alyaksandr Pawlaw	Vitali Volkov	Daniil Chertov	Oleksandr Chyzhov	Michal Smejkal	Luka Rotković	Ivan Cvetković	Dmitry Sychev
Ordabasy	Artem Kasyanov	Branislav Trajković	Kyrylo Petrov	Ivan Božić	Alexander Geynrikh	Aleksandar Simčević	Edin Junuzović
Shakhter	Nikola Vasiljević	Mihret Topcagić	Jan Vošahlík	Pedro Sass	Aubrey David	Desley Ubbink	Maksym Feshchuk	Plamen Dimov
Taraz	Jovan Golić	Denys Vasilyev	Oleksandr Yarovenko	Dmytro Bashlay	Ioan Mera	Oleksandr Pyschur	Izu Azuka	Alan Gatagov
Tobol	Serhiy Yavorskyi	Nenad Šljivić	Ognjen Krasić	Uche Kalu	Tomáš Šimkovič	Arūnas Klimavičius	Deivydas Matulevičius
Zhetysu	Davron Ergashev	Dušan Savić	Ruslan Galiakberov	Ilsur Samigullin	Aleksei Gerasimov	Elbeyi Guliyev	Bobir Davlatov	Mikhail Petrolay

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	Vardan Minasyan	Sacked	16 April 2015[1]	8th	Sergei Maslenov (caretaker)	16 April 2015[1]
Zhetysu	Askar Kozhabergenov	Resigned	20 April 2015[2]	12th	Ivan Azovskiy (caretaker)	20 April 2015[2]
Shakhter	Vladimir Cheburin	Resigned	6 May 2015[3]	12th	Yevgeni Sveshnikov (caretaker)	8 May 2015[3]
Irtysh	Dmitri Cheryshev	Sacked	8 May 2015[4]	10th	Sergey Klimov (caretaker)	8 May 2015[4]
Zhetysu	Ivan Azovskiy (caretaker)	End of caretaker role	28 May 2015	12th	Ivan Azovskiy	28 May 2015[5]
Irtysh	Sergey Klimov (caretaker)	End of caretaker role	1 June 2015	10th	Dimitar Dimitrov	1 June 2015[6]
Shakhter	Yevgeni Sveshnikov (caretaker)	End of caretaker role	5 June 2015[7]	12th	Ihor Zakharyak (caretaker)	5 June 2015[7]
Aktobe	Vladimir Gazzayev		20 July 2015	1st	Ioan Andone	20 July 2015[8]
Kaisar	Dmitriy Ogai	Resigned	23 July 2015[9]	12th	Fyodor Shcherbachenko	06 August 2015[10]

Regular season

In the regular season twelve teams played each other home-and-away in a round-robin format for a total of 22 matches per team. The top six teams advanced to the Championship round and the bottom six teams qualified for the Relegation round.^[11]

Regular season table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Kairat	22	13	5	4	43	14	+29	44	Qualification to Championship round
2	Aktobe	22	12	8	2	27	12	+15	44
3	Astana	22	12	7	3	40	19	+21	43
4	Atyrau	22	9	10	3	25	19	+6	37
5	Ordabasy	22	9	8	5	21	18	+3	35
6	Irtysh Pavlodar	22	7	9	6	26	23	+3	30
7	Okzhetpes	22	8	2	12	24	33	−9	26	Qualification to Relegation round
8	Tobol	22	7	4	11	22	32	−10	25
9	Taraz	22	7	3	12	17	25	−8	24
10	Shakhter Karagandy	22	5	3	14	16	38	−22	18
11	Zhetysu	22	4	5	13	17	32	−15	17
12	Kaisar	22	3	8	11	12	25	−13	17

Source: UEFA.com, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Matches won; 3) Head-to-head points; 4) Head-to-head matches won; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Head-to-head goals scored; 7) Head-to-head away goals scored; 8) Goal difference; 9) Goals scored; 10) Away goals scored; 11) Draw.^[12]

Championship round

The top six teams from Regular season will participate in the Championship round where they will play each other home-and-away in a round-robin format for a total of 10 matches per team. They will start this round with their points from Regular season halved, rounded upwards, and they will keep their Regular season record (matches won, draws, losses and goal differential). After completion of the Championship round the winners will be the Champions of 2015 Kazakhstan Premier League and qualify for 2016–17 UEFA Champions League second qualifying round. The runners-up and third-placed team will qualify for Europa League first qualifying round and the fourth placed team may also qualify for Europa League if they or one of the top three teams wins the 2015 Kazakhstan Cup.^[11]

Championship round table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Astana (C)	32	20	7	5	55	26	+29	46	Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round
2	Kairat	32	20	7	5	60	19	+41	45	Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round[lower-alpha 1]
3	Aktobe	32	15	9	8	35	25	+10	32
4	Ordabasy	32	12	10	10	32	31	+1	29
5	Atyrau	32	11	12	9	31	33	−2	27
6	Irtysh Pavlodar	32	10	10	12	37	39	−2	25

Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Play-off (only if deciding champion when two teams are tied); 3) Matches won; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head matches won; 6) Head-to-head goal difference; 7) Head-to-head goals scored; 8) Head-to-head away goals scored; 9) Goal difference; 10) Goals scored; 11) Away goals scored; 12) Play-off (only if deciding champion when three or teams are tied); 13) Draw.^[13]
(C) Champion.
Notes:

1. Kairat qualified for the UEFA Europa League first qualifying round by winning the 2015 Kazakhstan Cup.

Relegation round

The bottom six teams from Regular season will participate in the Relegation round where they will play each other home-and-away in a round-robin format for a total of 10 matches per team. They will start this round with their points from Regular season halved, rounded upwards, and they will keep their Regular season record (matches won, draws, losses and goal differential). After completion of the Relegation round the winners will be considered 7th-placed team of 2015 Kazakhstan Premier League, the runners-up will be 8th and so on, with the last team being 12th. The 11th-placed team will qualify for Relegation play-off against runners-up of 2015 Kazakhstan First Division, with the loser being eliminated, and the 12th-placed team will be directly relegated to 2016 Kazakhstan First Division as the last-placed team.^[11]

Relegation round table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Relegation
7	Tobol	32	12	6	14	32	42	−10	30
8	Okzhetpes	32	12	6	14	36	41	−5	29
9	Taraz	32	10	8	14	25	33	−8	26
10	Shakhter Karagandy	32	9	5	18	27	47	−20	23
11	Zhetysu (O)	32	8	6	18	28	46	−18	22	Qualification to Relegation play-offs
12	Kaisar (R)	32	4	12	16	20	36	−16	16	Relegation to Kazakhstan First Division

Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Matches won; 3) Head-to-head points; 4) Head-to-head matches won; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Head-to-head goals scored; 7) Head-to-head away goals scored; 8) Goal difference; 9) Goals scored; 10) Away goals scored; 11) Draw.^[14]
(O) Play-off winner; (R) Relegated.

Relegation play-off

Zhetysu v Vostok

14 November 2015	Zhetysu	1–0	Vostok	Astana
15:00 (UTC+6)	Shakhmetov  31'	Summary		Stadium: Astana Arena Attendance: 1,000 Referee: Igor Aleshin

Statistics

Top scorers

As of matches played by 8 November 2015^[15]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Gerard Gohou	Kairat	22
2	Luka Rotković	Okzhetpes	13
	Đorđe Despotović	Zhetysu/Kairat
4	Dušan Savić	Zhetysu	12
5	Tanat Nusserbayev	Astana	11
6	Sergei Khizhnichenko	Aktobe	9
	Oleksandr Pyschur	Taraz
8	Kostyantyn Dudchenko	Irtysh	8
	Roger Cañas	Astana
	Alibek Buleshev	Okzhetpes
	Edin Junuzović	Kaisar/Ordabasy

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Gerard Gohou	Kairat	Tobol	4–0	7 March 2015[16]
Nurbol Zhumaskaliyev	Tobol	Shakhter Karagandy	4–1	5 April 2015[17]
Uche Kalu	Tobol	Zhetysu	3–1	16 May 2015[18]
Kostyantyn Dudchenko	Irtysh	Kaisar	4–2	24 May 2015[19]
Gerard Gohou	Kairat	Okzhetpes	3–1	6 June 2015[20]
Sergei Khizhnichenko	Aktobe	Okzhetpes	4–2	5 July 2015[21]

Scoring

• First goal of the season: Ivan Božić for Ordabasy against Irtysh (7 March 2015)^[22]
• Fastest goal of the season: 2nd minute,
  • Grigori Sartakov for Irtysh against Tobol (21 March 2015)^[23]
• Latest goal of the season: 94th minute,
  • Gerard Gohou for Kairat against Tobol (7 March 2015)^[24]

References

1. Минасян отстранен от должности. fc-tobol.kz (in Russian). FC Tobol. 16 April 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
2. Аскар Кожабергенов подал в отставку. sports.kz (in Russian). sports.kz. 20 April 2015. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
3. Владимир Чебурин подал в отставку. shahter.kz (in Russian). Shakhter Karagandy. 6 May 2015. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
4. "Дмитрий Черышев отправлен в отставку". fcirtysh.kz (in Russian). FC Irtysh Pavlodar. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
5. "Ivan Azov approved by the head coach of Zhetysu". sports.kz (in Russian). sports.kz. 28 May 2015. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
6. "Димитар Димитров возглавил Иртыш". fcirtysh.kz (in Russian). FC Irtysh Pavlodar. 1 June 2015. Retrieved 1 July 2015.
7. "В ФУТБОЛЬНОМ КЛУБЕ ШАХТЕР НОВЫЙ ТРЕНЕР". shahter.kz (in Russian). FC Shakhter Karagandy. 5 June 2015. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
8. "Йоан Андоне представлен игрокам Актобе". sports.kz (in Russian). sports.kz. 20 July 2015. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
9. Кадровые изменения в ФК "Кайсар". fckaysar.kz (in Russian). Kaisar. 23 July 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
10. "Фёдор Щербаченко — новый главный тренер «Кайсара»". sports.kz (in Russian). sports.kz. 6 August 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
11. "Premier League 2015 - Regular season rules". Scoresway. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
12. "Premier League 2015 - Regular season rules". Scoresway. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
13. "Premier League 2015 - Season rules". Scoresway. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
14. "Premier League 2015 - Season rules". Scoresway. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
15. UEFA.com
16. "Kairat 4-0 Tobol". Soccerway. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
17. "Tobol 4-1 Shakhter Karagandy". Soccerway. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
18. "Tobol 3-1 Zhetysu". Soccerway. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
19. "Irtysh 4 - 2 Kaisar". Soccerway. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
20. "Okzhetpes 1-3 Kairat". Soccerway. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
21. "Aktobe 4-2 Okzhetpest". Soccerway. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
22. "Ordabasy 1-1 Irtysh". uk.soccerway.com. Soccerway. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
23. "Irtysh 1 - 1 Tobol". Soccerway. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
24. "Kairat 2-0 Zhetysu". soccer24.com. Soccer24. Retrieved 16 March 2015.