Simurq PIK () was an

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in Zaqatala, that competed in the

Azerbaijan Premier League The Azerbaijan Premier League (), also known as Misli Premyer Liqası for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Azerbaijan and the highest level of the Azerbaijani football league system. It is contested by twelve ...

History

Early years (2005–2009)

The club was founded in 2005 and participated in the

Azerbaijan First Division The Azerbaijan First League () is the second highest professional division in Azerbaijani professional football. The league is run by AFFA. The winner promotes to Premier Division. History Due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, all Azerbai ...

. The club's first season was very successful, and in the 2006–07 season, the club was participating in the

.Zaqatala futbolu və “Simurq” PFK-nın tarixindən
After its debut season in the Premier League, Simurq finished 9th out of 14 clubs. The Azerbaijani magazine ''Football+'' recognized Simurq as the "Surprise of the Year" of the 2006–07 season based on polling results. The club finished the 2007–08 season in 7th place. The club gained third place in Azerbaijan Premier League 2008-09, by making the best indicator of the team in its history.

Recent years (2009–2015)

In 2009 the club's debut in European competitions was not very successful as they were eliminated in the 1st qualifying round of

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

by Bnei Yehuda. The 2009–10 season for club was not successful, even though the team had good start before the winter break. After the winter, club began to fall in the standings and won only 8th place, while coach Roman Pokora dismissed after a string of poor results. In June 2010, the club's executive director, former

Azerbaijan national football team The Azerbaijan national football team () is the national association football, football team of Azerbaijan and is controlled by Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan. It represents Azerbaijan in international football competitions. ...

manager Gjoko Hadžievski became the club's new coach. However, due to financial problems Simurq could not sign big local and foreign players and coach staff was forced to take less experienced players and use from youth system. The

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

season became the worst in club history as Simurq was relegated to the

after finishing 11th place. However club is allowed participate in the next season to replace

Mughan Mughan plain (, مغان دوزو; ) is a plain stretching from northwestern Iran to the southern part of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The highest density of irrigation canals is in the section of the Mughan plain which lies in the Republic of Aze ...

who had sponsorship problems. On 18 July 2011, the club signed a contract with Sergey Yuran, former Ukrainian football player and association football coach. On 5 March 2012, after Sergey Yuran's resignation, Igor Getman became the first

i manager to lead Simurq as caretaker until the end of the season. But after six days, the club announced Giorgi Chikhradze as their new coach. Simurq started 2012–13 season strongly, but after the start of the new year, team's form stumbled, hampering their European cup objective. During the summer of 2015 the club folded due financial problems.

Domestic

:''As of 29 May 2015:''

European

Stadium

Zaqatala City Stadium is a football stadium in Zagatala,

. It is currently used as club's home stadium and holds 3,500 people.

Crest and colours

Since the club's foundation, Simurq have had only one crest. It was officially adopted for the start of the 2006–07 season and based on a mythical sacred Phoenix firebird with castle background. It stems from the club's name Simurq, which means Phoenix in

Azerbaijani language Azerbaijani ( ; , , ) or Azeri ( ), also referred to as Azerbaijani Turkic or Azerbaijani Turkish (, , ), is a Turkic languages, Turkic language from the Oghuz languages, Oghuz sub-branch. It is spoken primarily by the Azerbaijanis, Azerbaij ...

. The new home and away kits were unveiled in June 2013 for the 2013–2014 season. The home kit is black and yellow stripes and the away kit is white, with

Joma Joma Sport, S.A. is a Spanish sports clothing and shoes brand. History Joma was founded in 1965 by Fructuoso López to produce shoes for general use. The brand name comes from the given name of Fructuoso's first born son (José Manuel). In 196 ...

being the kit manufacturer. In 2013, the club unveiled an official crest, designed by Azerbaijani graphic designer Elnur Sharifli from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Supporters

Simurq has a large fanbase in relation to its comparative lack of success on the pitch. Simurq supporters have played a vital role in the club's long term stay at Zaqatala.

Managers

References

External links

Official website
(archived 3 December 2013) Simurq Zaqatala Association football clubs established in 2005 2005 establishments in Azerbaijan Association football clubs disestablished in 2015 2015 disestablishments in Azerbaijan {{Azerbaijan Premier League