text: That was before Qarabag provided a shining example of how an Azeri club can succeed. Owned by the head of food conglomerate Azersun, Abdulbari Gözel, himself a one-man success story of modern-day Azerbaijan, the four-time Azeri champions from 2014 to 2017 have claimed impressive European scalps. Opposition vanquished at home includes Anderlecht, IFK Gothenburg (3-0!), Red Bull Salzburg, Bruges, and, granting access to the 2017-18 Champions League, FC Copenhagen.
  Riding an unprecedented wave of success, Qarabag have also opened their own stadium, the Azersun Arena, at Yeni Surakhani, close to Baku’s airport north-east of town.
  Bakhramov himself started out as a player for the city’s flagship club, Neftchi (‘Oil’), around the time the stadium later named after him was being built. Both club and ground have their roots in Stalinism; as an agitator under the code name of Koba, Stalin had caused political unrest among the oil workers in the early 1900s. Neftchi, who still feature a towering derrick on their club crest, were founded as Netftyanik (‘Oil Worker’) at the height of Stalinism in 1937.