Azerbaijan national football team

In the early twentieth century, football began to become popular in Azerbaijan, which was then part of the Russian Empire. In 1912, Azerbaijani football players had their first "international match" and they won in Tbilisi, Georgia against the local "Sokol" team with 4:2. During 1912–1913, matches between Azerbaijani and Georgian football teams were organized, first in Tbilisi and then in Baku. In 1914, the Football Union was founded in Azerbaijan. The Football Union undertook the organization of official city championships and other competitions.[5]

The oldest records of football teams in Soviet Azerbaijan goes back to 1926–1927, when Trans-Caucasian Championship was organized in Tbilisi. Three South Caucasian countries participated: Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.[3] The Azerbaijan national football team held its first friendly matches against Georgia and Armenia in 1927 for the Trans-Caucasian Championship in Georgia.[3] Also in 1926, football players from Azerbaijan played three matches with Football team from Iran in Baku. In 1929, there were played three matches between these teams in Tehran. In all matches Azerbaijan players won.[6][7]

The 1960s is considered the Golden Age for Azerbaijani football as it produced great players like Anatoliy Banishevskiy, Alakbar Mammadov and the football referee Tofiq Bahramov, most famous for being the linesman who helped to award a goal for England in the 1966 World Cup Final between England and West Germany.

After Azerbaijan gained its independence in 1991, AFFA — Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan — was created. In 1992, renowned Azerbaijani footballer Alekper Mamedov became the first head coach of the Azerbaijani national football team, compiling a 3–1 record as coach that includes the first ever national team victory, over Georgia on May 25, 1993.[8][9] In 1994, the national team was accepted into FIFA and UEFA. The security issues, forced the team to play all of its home Euro 96 qualifiers in Trabzon, Turkey.[10]

Azerbaijani squad in 2008.

As of the early 2000s, AFFA started to integrate more players to the national team through FIFA's eligibility rules.[11] In February 2004, Carlos Alberto Torres, captain of the Brazil team that won the 1970 FIFA World Cup was appointed its national coach. Despite a poor start, a 0–6 defeat to Israel on February 18, Azerbaijan won their first ever away match, 3–2 against Kazakhstan on April 28. In June 2005, following a 3–0 defeat by Poland, Torres stood down from the position, to be replaced by former Neftchi coach Vagif Sadygov, his third spell as coach of Azerbaijan. Shahin Diniyev took over as manager in November 2005. He resigned on 31 October 2007, and Gjoko Hadzievski was named as care-taking coach of Azerbaijan.[12]

In April 2008, former German football player and coach Berti Vogts was appointed as a manager of Azerbaijan on a two-year contract.[13] Azerbaijan had a mixed qualifying campaign, finishing with 5 points, just missing out on a last place to Liechtenstein with 2 points.

In November 2009, AFFA extended Berti Vogts' contract a further two years, making him the first manager to manage Azerbaijani national team in two qualification cycles.[14][15]

In 2010, following a shock win over Turkey, the team reached 90th place in FIFA World Rankings, Azerbaijan's highest position ever in country's football history.[16][17] After victory over Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan also broke their scoring and points records by gaining 7 points and scoring 10 goals.[18][19]

In November 2011, AFFA extended Berti Vogts' contract a further two years, until the end of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification cycle.[20] Under Vogts, Azerbaijan had some poor results, not being able to defeat second-string sides. Vogts faced major criticism, protest and demonstration from local supporters and the media.[21][22] However, Azerbaijan managed to finish qualification cycle in fourth place, the team's best ever finish.[23] In December 2013, Vogts being granted a new two-year contract, with aim to lead Azerbaijan through EURO 2016 qualifying.[24] In July 2014, Azerbaijan beat its ranking record by reaching 73rd place in FIFA World Rankings. Following three straight losses, Vogts resigned from his post after spending six years in charge of Azerbaijan.[25][26]

Succeeding Vogts as full-time manager was former Croatia international Robert Prosinečki. He guided the Azerbaijani team to another record points haul (10) in 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying, but the team still finished fifth in the six-team Group C. Prosinečki resigned after deciding not to extend his contract with the Azerbaijan football federation.

Azerbaijan national football team in October 2013.

As of UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying round, Azerbaijan's home colours are all-red kit. The team wears an all-blue kit for away games. This combination of colours is traditional for the national team since their first game. At the beginning of 90s, the team wore a white shirt, but towards the end of the decade it was transformed into blue-white striped shirts. At the beginning of the 2000s, the kit was replaced by the white shirt with a vertical tricolour stripe, formed of the colors from the national flag of Azerbaijan on the chest. The kit was changed into blue shirts, red shorts and green socks only for the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying round. After the tournament, the national team went back to their usual combination of colours.

Azerbaijan national team's away colours were yellow-black striped shirts, black shorts and yellow socks until UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying round, when it was decided to abandon this kit in favor of the completely blue. During the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying round games the team has used an all red kit.

Since 2017, Azerbaijan's kit has been supplied by Nike. They took over from Puma who were Azerbaijan's kit suppliers between 2004 and 2006. Before that Umbro were Azerbaijan's kit suppliers between 2002 and 2004.

Azerbaijan is often referred to by the media and supporters as Milli (The National), which is the nickname associated with all of Azerbaijan's international sporting teams due to the team's utilization of the country's national colors.[27]

Azerbaijan's matches are presently covered by the public channel İTV.[28] 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification match rights were held by AZTV and Idman Azerbaijan TV.[29]

AZTV, Idman Azerbaijan TV and Lider TV are among other networks that have previously shown live fixtures.[30]

     Champions       Runners-up       Third place       Fourth place  

FIFA World Cup record										FIFA World Cup qualification record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
as Part of  Soviet Union										as Part of  Soviet Union
1930	Did not enter									Did not enter						—
1934																1934
1938																1938
1950																1950
1954																1954
1958	Quarter-finals	6th	5	2	1	2	5	6		4	3	0	1	16	3	1958
1962	Quarter-finals	6th	4	2	1	1	9	7		4	4	0	0	11	3	1962
1966	Fourth place	4th	6	4	0	2	10	6		6	5	0	1	19	6	1966
1970	Quarter-finals	5th	4	2	1	1	6	2		4	3	1	0	8	1	1970
1974	Withdrew[33]									4	3	0	1	5	2	1974
1978	Did not qualify									4	2	0	2	5	3	1978
1982	Second group stage	7th	5	2	2	1	7	4		8	6	2	0	20	2	1982
1986	Round of 16	10th	4	2	1	1	12	5		8	4	2	2	13	8	1986
1990	Group stage	17th	3	1	0	2	4	4		8	4	3	1	11	4	1990
as  Azerbaijan										as Part of  Azerbaijan
1994	Did not enter
1998	Did not qualify									8	1	0	7	3	22	5/5
2002										10	1	2	7	4	17	6/6
2006										10	0	3	7	1	21	6/6
2010										10	1	2	7	4	14	5/6
2014										10	1	6	3	7	11	4/6
2018										10	3	1	6	10	19	5/6
2022	To be determined
2026
Total									58	7	14	37	29	104	-75

     Champions       Runners-up       Third place       Fourth place  

UEFA European Championship record										Qualification record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA
as Part of  Soviet Union										as Part of  Soviet Union
1960	Champions	1st	2	2	0	0	5	1		2	2	0	0	4	1	1960
1964	Runners-up	2nd	2	1	0	1	4	2		4	2	2	0	7	3	1964
1968	Fourth Place	4th	2	0	1	1	0	2		8	6	0	2	19	8	1968
1972	Runners-up	2nd	2	1	0	1	1	3		8	5	3	0	16	4	1972
1976	Did not qualify									8	4	1	3	12	10	1976
1980										6	1	3	2	7	8	1980
1984										6	4	1	1	11	2	1984
1988	Runners-up	2nd	5	3	1	1	7	4	8	5	3	0	14	3	1988
as Part of  CIS
1992	Group stage	8th	3	0	2	1	1	4	8	5	3	0	13	2	1992
as  Azerbaijan									as  Azerbaijan
1996	Did not qualify								10	0	1	9	2	29	6/6
2000									10	1	1	8	6	26	5/6
2004									8	1	1	6	5	20	5/5
2008									12	1	2	9	6	28	8/8
2012									10	2	1	7	10	26	5/6
2016									10	1	3	6	7	18	5/6
2020									8	0	1	7	5	18	8/8
2024	To be determined
Total									61	6	10	52	41	165	-123

The following players were called up for matches against Wales and Slovakia on 16 and 19 November 2019.[34]
Caps and goals as of 19 November 2019 after the match against Slovakia.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	1GK	Salahat Aghayev	(1991-01-04) 4 January 1991	19	0	Neftçi
12	1GK	Emil Balayev	(1994-04-17) 17 April 1994	5	0	Zira
23	1GK	Mehdi Jannatov	(1992-01-26) 26 January 1992	0	0	Sumgayit
6	2DF	Badavi Huseynov	(1991-07-11) 11 July 1991	49	0	Qarabağ
21	2DF	Pavel Pashayev	(1988-01-04) 4 January 1988	21	0	Oleksandriya
19	2DF	Tamkin Khalilzade	(1993-08-06) 6 August 1993	17	3	Sabah
3	2DF	Shahriyar Rahimov	(1989-04-06) 6 April 1989	9	0	Sabail
18	2DF	Anton Krivotsyuk	(1998-08-20) 20 August 1998	7	0	Neftçi
4	2DF	Bahlul Mustafazade	(1997-02-27) 27 February 1997	6	0	Sabah
16	2DF	Abbas Huseynov	(1995-06-13) 13 June 1995	3	0	Qarabağ
15	2DF	Shahriyar Aliyev	(1992-12-25) 25 December 1992	0	0	Keşla
22	3MF	Javid Huseynov	(1988-03-09) 9 March 1988	58	2	Zira
2	3MF	Gara Garayev	(1992-10-12) 12 October 1992	56	0	Qarabağ
13	3MF	Dimitrij Nazarov	(1990-04-04) 4 April 1990	43	8	Erzgebirge Aue
7	3MF	Araz Abdullayev	(1992-04-18) 18 April 1992	38	3	Qarabağ
20	3MF	Richard Almeida	(1989-03-20) 20 March 1989	22	3	Baniyas
10	3MF	Aghabala Ramazanov	(1993-01-20) 20 January 1993	18	1	Zira
8	3MF	Emin Mahmudov	(1992-04-27) 27 April 1992	14	1	Neftçi
14	3MF	Eddi İsrafilov	(1992-08-02) 2 August 1992	13	0	Albacete
9	3MF	Vusal Isgandarli	(1995-11-03) 3 November 1995	1	0	Keşla
5	3MF	Elvin Jamalov	(1995-02-04) 4 February 1995	1	0	Zira
11	4FW	Ramil Sheydayev	(1996-03-15) 15 March 1996	26	4	Sabah
17	4FW	Renat Dadashov	(1999-05-17) 17 May 1999	6	0	Wolverhampton Wanderers

The following players have also been called up to the Azerbaijan squad within the last 12 months and are still available for selection.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club	Latest call-up
GK	Shahrudin Mahammadaliyev	(1994-06-12) 12 June 1994	0	0	Qarabağ	v.  Hungary, 13 October 2019
DF	Maksim Medvedev	(1989-09-29) 29 September 1989	60	3	Qarabağ	v.  Wales, 16 November 2019 INJ
DF	Omar Buludov	(1998-12-15) 15 December 1998	1	0	Neftçi	v.  Hungary, 13 October 2019
DF	Rahil Mammadov	(1995-11-24) 24 November 1995	9	0	Qarabağ	v.  Wales, 6 September 2019 INJ
MF	Namik Alaskarov	(1995-02-03) 3 February 1995	16	0	Neftçi	v.  Hungary, 13 October 2019
MF	Rashad Eyyubov	(1992-12-03) 3 December 1992	7	0	Sabah	v.  Hungary, 13 October 2019
FW	Rufat Dadashov	(1991-09-29) 29 September 1991	24	5	Phoenix Rising	v.  Wales, 16 November 2019 INJ
FW	Mahir Emreli	(1997-07-01) 1 July 1997	19	4	Qarabağ	v.  Bahrain, 9 October 2019 INJ

Notes

• ^INJ = Not part of the current squad due to injury.
• ^PRE = Preliminary squad
• ^RET = Retired from international football.