The 2016 Kazakhstan Premier League was the 25th season of the Kazakhstan Premier League, the highest football league competition in Kazakhstan. Astana were the defending champions having won their second league championship the previous year, and they successfully defended their title this season. The season began on 12 March 2016 and concluded on 29 October 2016; the relegation play-off took place on 5 November 2016.
Teams FC Kaisar was relegated at the end of the 2015 season, and was replaced by Akzhayik.
Team overview
Team Location Venue Capacity Aktobe Aktobe Aktobe Central Stadium 15,000 Akzhayik Oral Petr Atoyan Stadium 8,320 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 Okzhetpes Kokshetau Okzhetpes Stadium 4,158 Ordabasy Shymkent Kazhymukan Munaitpasov Stadium 35,000 Shakhter Karaganda Shakhter Stadium 20,000 Taraz Taraz Taraz Central Stadium 11,525 Tobol Kostanay Kostanay Central Stadium 10,500 Zhetysu Taldykorgan Zhetysu 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 sponsorAktobe Yuri Utkulbayev Lotto —Akzhayik Artur Avakyants Predrag Govedarica Adidas Expo 2017Astana Stanimir Stoilov Tanat Nusserbayev Adidas Samruk-KazynaAtyrau Stoycho Mladenov Zhasur Narzikulov Adidas —Irtysh Dimitar Dimitrov David Loria Nike ENRCKairat Kakhaber Tskhadadze Bauyrzhan Islamkhan Nike Expo 2017Okzhetpes Vladimir Mukhanov Alibek Buleshev Adidas ChempionatOrdabasy Bakhtiyar Bayseitov Azat Nurgaliev Adidas TAUShakhter Aleksei Yeryomenko Maksat Baizhanov Adidas —Taraz Yuriy Maksymov Dmitri Yevstigneyev Adidas —Tobol Omari Tetradze Nurbol Zhumaskaliyev Adidas —Zhetysu Almas Kulshinbaev Andrey Pasechenko Adidas —
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.
ClubPlayer 1Player 2Player 3Player 4Player 5Player 6Player 7Player 8 Aktobe Lassina Dao Kouassi Kouadja Nikita Bocharov Dmitry Golubov Marat Sitdikov Sandro Tsveiba Vuk Mitošević Ilya Mikhalyov Akzhayik Saša Kolunija Matías Rubio Michael Odibe Freddy Coronel Miroslav Lečić Danilo Nikolić Srđan Ostojić Predrag Govedarica Astana Igor Shitov Marin Aničić Roger Cañas Junior Kabananga Patrick Twumasi Agim Ibraimi Đorđe Despotović Nemanja Maksimović Atyrau Aleksandr Makas Guy Essame Abdel Lamanje Aleksandar Damčevski Przemysław Trytko Alexandru Curtean Volodymyr Arzhanov Vyacheslav Sharpar Irtysh Semir Kerla Ignacio Herrera Tomáš Jirsák Ousman Jallow Georgas Freidgeimas Carlos Fonseca Djiby Fall Kairat Isael Léandre Tawamba Gerson Acevedo Gerard Gohou Andrey Arshavin Žarko Marković César Arzo Anatoliy Tymoshchuk Okzhetpes Joseph Nane Serge Bando N'Ganbe Nicolás Canales Daniil Chertov Vitali Volkov Risto Ristović Saša Stamenković Oleksandr Chyzhov Ordabasy Edin Junuzović Gogita Gogua Filip Kasalica Dominic Chatto Abdoulaye Diakate Aleksandar Simčević Branislav Trajković Alexander Geynrikh Shakhter Robert Arzumanyan Ivan Sadownichy Nikola Vasiljević Marko Simonovski Desley Ubbink Filip Serečin Július Szöke Štefan Zošák Taraz Ioan Mera Anton Grigoryev Malick Mané Davron Ergashev Oleksandr Aliyev Oleksandr Pyschur Andriy Yakovlyev Tobol Tomáš Šimkovič Fernander Kassaï Denis Glavina Artūras Žulpa Dušan Savić Ciprian Deac Shamil Asildarov Serhiy Yavorskyi Zhetysu Narek Beglaryan Martin Klein Mamadou Wague Marko Đalović Dejan Djermanović Artem Kasyanov 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 Aktobe Ioan Andone Mutual consent 10 November 2015Pre-season Yuri Utkulbayev 22 December 2015 Taraz Evgeny Yarovenko Mutual consent 11 November 2015 Nurmat Mirzabayev Kairat Vladimír Weiss Mutual consent 30 November 2015 Aleksandr Borodyuk 28 December 2015 Shakhter Ihor Zakhariak Jozef Vukušič 8 January 2016 Tobol Sergey Maslenov Dmitriy Ogai 23 December 2015 Zhetysu Ivan Azovskiy Almas Kulshinbaev 5 January 2016 Kairat Aleksandr Borodyuk Resigned 5 April 2016 9th Kakhaber Tskhadadze 7 April 2016 Tobol Dmitriy Ogai Mutual consent 28 April 2016 5th Taraz Nurmat Mirzabayev 15 May 2016 12th Yuriy Maksymov 15 May 2016 Shakhter Karagandy Jozef Vukušič Resigned 3 August 2016 11th Aleksei Yeryomenko 4 August 2016
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.
Regular season table
Regular season results
Championship round The top six teams from the 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. In contrast to the previous season, teams will carry forward their entire regular season record, with no halving of points. After completion of the Championship round the winners will be the Champions of 2016 Kazakhstan Premier League and qualify for 2017–18 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 will also qualify for Europa League because one of the top three teams will win the 2016 Kazakhstan Cup.
Championship round table
Championship round results
Relegation round The worst six teams from the regular season participated in the Relegation round where they played each other home-and-away in a round-robin format for a total of 10 matches per team. In contrast to the previous season, teams carried forward their entire regular season record, with no halving of points. After completion of the Relegation round the winners are considered the 7th-placed team of 2016 Kazakhstan Premier League, the runners-up being 8th and so on, with the last team being 12th. The 11th-placed team, Taraz, qualified for the relegation play-off against Altai Semey, the runners-up of 2016 Kazakhstan First Division, with the losing team being eliminated, and the 12th-placed team, Zhetysu, will be directly relegated to 2017 Kazakhstan First Division as the last-placed team.
Relegation round table
Relegation round results
Relegation play-offs
Altai Semey are promoted to the 2017 Kazakhstan Premier League; Taraz are relegated to the 2017 Kazakhstan First Division.
Statistics
Top scorers UEFA.com RankPlayerClubGoals1 Gerard GohouKairat222 Roman MurtazayevIrtysh Pavlodar183 Bauyrzhan IslamkhanKairat174 Malick ManéTaraz135 Dušan SavićZhetysu12 Azat NurgalievOrdabasy/Astana7 Sergei KhizhnichenkoTobol10 Alexander GeynrikhOrdabasy9 Serge Bando N'GanbeOkzhetpes910 Marat KhairullinOkzhetpes8 Đorđe DespotovićAstana Andrey ArshavinKairat Volodymyr Arzhanov Atyrau Tomáš ŠimkovičTobol Freddy CoronelAkzhayik
Hat-tricks Player For Against Result Date Ref. Dušan SavićZhetysuTaraz 3–2 Alexander GeynrikhOrdabasyAktobe 4–4 Malick ManéTarazZhetysu 3–2
Scoring First goal of the season: Ulan Konysbayev for Atyrau against Zhetysu (12 March 2016) Fastest goal of the season: 1st minute, Raul Jalilov for Tobol against Zhetysu (23 April 2016) Latest goal of the season: 90+4th minute, Alassane N'Diaye for Tobol against Taraz (1 May 2016) Marat Khairullin for Okzhetpes against Zhetysu (10 May 2016) Awards Annual awards Award Winner Club Premier League Player of the Year Bauyrzhan Islamkhan Kairat Premier League Young Player of the Year Yerkebulan Tungyshbayev Ordabasy Premier League Manager of the Year Stanimir Stoilov Astana Team of the Year The Kazakhstan Premier League Team of the Year is a symbolic selection of the league's best-performing players for the season, based on votes from the league's club officials, coaches and captains. Goalkeepers Defenders Midfielders Forwards Nenad Erić Vladimir Plotnikov Dmitry Shomko Gafurzhan Suyumbayev Yuri Logvinenko Sergey Maliy Marin Aničić Žarko Marković Yeldos Akhmetov Abzal Beysebekov Andrey Arshavin Serikzhan Muzhikov Roger Cañas Anatoliy Tymoshchuk Bauyrzhan Islamkhan Nemanja Maksimović Isael Azat Nurgaliyev Gerard Gohou Sergey Khizhnichenko Roman Murtazayev Junior Kabananga
Attendances
# Club Average 1 Kairat 10,319 2 Irtysh 5,388 3 Aktobe 5,334 4 Ordabasy 4,563 5 Astana 4,266 6 Taraz 3,319 7 Tobol 2,856 8 Atyrau 2,781 9 Akzhaiyk 2,281 10 Shakhter 2,063 11 Okzhetpes 1,991 12 Zhetysu 1,631Source:
References
External links Official website