Domestic monopolies are a trend that covers much of the footballing world, especially in mid to lower-tier leagues where resources struggle to find parity way down the pecking order.
Central Asian football is no different, with a clear distance between those reigning champions (Pakhtakor in Uzbekistan, Altyn Asyr in Turkmenistan, Dordoi in Kyrgyzstan and Istiklol in Tajikistan) and the rest of the competing pack.
It’s even more distinct to find a situation where a team from outside the nations’ capital cities realistically compete for top honours regularly, outside isolated flash in the pan seasons before the club is ripped apart.
This has long fueled talks of a combined Central Asian super league, where the champions of those lesser funded nations could join the top teams in Uzbekistan to make a concerted effort to reflect national pride while improving the state of the game in the region as a whole.
The AFC Cup group stage offers a glimpse of what this could look like on a regular albeit small sample size, but with the expansion of the Champions League from next year, regional rivalries may start to take a back seat.
One initiative, regrettably postponed due to COVID-19, has been the expansion of the Uzbek Cup, to take in clubs from outside its borders. A tangible first step that would change Asian football considerably.
The rationale behind any suggested cooperation derives from a league that is dominated by one single club, often sucking up resources and influence without necessarily moving the league forward.
Each competition has morphed in its own way into becoming a development conveyor belt that feeds into the leaders’ hopes of continental exposure. Once the hierarchy has been established, it’s difficult to break down. Only brave, concerted effort to tackle the opposition head-on can bring with its results and change.
In that vein, the early weeks of the Tajik Higher League season have suggested hope. FC Khatlon, from its namesake’s region, based in the district capital Qurghonteppa are doing more than most to keep tabs and go toe-to-toe with the all-encompassing six times consecutive champions Istiklol.
Khatlon’s five-game unbeaten run, that left them level with Istiklol at the top of the table come the COVID-19 break, was the breath of fresh air Tajik football needed. A team that attacked with the same verve as its rivals, competed fiercely and formed tactics intelligent enough to flex in different situations.
Their 2-2 draw against Istiklol, in Dushanbe (the match was moved to the capital to favour TV audiences, another advantage the champions have benefited from regularly) was the defining point of the season so far, that validated any belief that the country’s top team can be stopped in their tracks.
If it wasn’t for a last-minute penalty from Manuchekhr Dzhalilov, Khatlon could’ve returned back South with all three points. For great periods of the match, the visitors were comfortably better, putting pressure on the opposition and forcing mistakes from their hosts in a breathless first half.
As the game wore on, holding onto a one-goal lead eventually took its toll. Despite an inspired keeping performance from Ghanian keeper Kuaye Godson, the pressure decidedly paid off and the champions equalised late on.
A draw nonetheless was a result of great significance, a feather in the cap of their club legend turned coach Asliddin Khabibullaev who has been an integral figure across the club’s rollercoaster of a history.
The club was one of the most formative clubs in Tajik football, first forming in the 1960s as a feeder club for the nation’s capital under the name of Pakhtakor (the “cotton-growers”, an industry widely celebrated in the Khatlon region), before going on to have domestic and continual success upon national independence under the guise of Vahsh Qurghonteppa.
Khabibullaev, a former goalkeeper and Tajik player of the year, went on to lift domestic titles as a player then coach before parting ways with the club early last decade with the club competing regularly at the top.
The subsequent years have seen the club slum to mid-table, even narrowly avoiding relegation on occasion, before going bankrupt two years ago, right when their current title rivals Istiklol grew from strength to strength, on the pitch and off it.
Now under the ownership of the local government, and their returning messiah-like coach, the rebranded FC Khatlon are becoming a well-run club again, built on a successful young squad, averaging below 25 regularly, fully appreciating their outsiders tag.
While the same could well be said of the majority of the league (Lokomotiv are in all but name the Tajik youth team nowadays), few have the holistic tactical approach taken by Khabibullaev’s side.
On the face of it, the Tajik coach resembles a relegation fighting, old school coach; a man mountain with a gruff demeanor, but he’s proven with his flexibility to adapt to the situation in front of him that he’s one of the best coaches in Tajikistan.
Khabibullaev is one mere cog of this successful unit. 20-year-old national team metronome Karomatullo Saidov avoided the pull of Istiklol over the winter, to continue to knit things together in the Khatlon midfield, while captain Umarjon Sharipov and chief goal getter Parviz Baki-Akhunov offer intelligent movement and a final product that has caused even the very best a headache.
Plain sailing then? Well, that was until their surprise weekend reversal to struggling CSKA-Pamir. If Khatlon buck the league wide trend in their tactical approach, their defending in this match (in the form of stand-in keeper Shahrom Ismoilov) epitomised an area all Tajik football needs to look at.
For Khatlon fans, this may well feel like a deja-vu, having seen their continental qualification chasing season collapse in the last five games of last term. While we’ve seen unerring consistency from the Yellows thus far, last weekend’s heavy blow up is a cause for reserved expectations.
While hopes are dented, the season is a long one. Currently three points off top spot, with the established top two of recent years (Istiklol & eternal bridesmaids Khujand) facing one another this coming weekend, there’s plenty still to run in this one. Khabibullaev and Khatlon will remain firmly on the coattails of Tajik royalty, on their way back to the domestic football big time.
