Teams, tales and tips – a guide to the local game
As a football destination, Azerbaijan’s second city of Sumgayit is a pleasant surprise. An easy, cheap train journey from Baku, it sits behind a wide length of beach and parkland. Sea-facing restaurants and alfresco bars abound, with impressive monuments dotting the well-planned cityscape.
The recently rebuilt home of Sumgayit FK, the Mehdi Huseynzade Stadium, sits next door to the smaller previous one, the Kapital Bank Arena. At the far end of an extensive city park, a corner kick from the Caspian Sea, it’s one of the loveliest settings for any stadium in Azerbaijan. Old men fish off the purpose-built pier nearby, the bay widening to take in memorable waterfront views.
Were it not for the oily surface of the water, wherein lie Azerbaijan’s riches, you could almost be in Split or La Coruña, with their match-day maritime backdrop.
But behind it all this lies a different story. Sumgayit FK, formed in 2010, are nicknamed Kimyaçilar, the Scientists. Pretty Sumgayit was the hub of Azerbaijan’s petro-chemical industry, one of the most polluted places in the whole Soviet Union, no idle boast.
It also housed a significant Armenian population, a violent uprising here in 1988 one of the main incidents that triggered the Nagorno-Karabakh war. The greenery was integral to post-industrial urban redevelopment, many monuments honouring victims of the conflict.
When Sumgayit gained promotion to the Premier League in 2011-12, they relied almost entirely on young Azerbaijani players, a show of national pride – but it took a while for the Scientists to find the right formula.
Two cup final defeats in 2019 and 2021, and recent finishes just below the top dogs in Azerbaijan’s ten-team top-flight Premyer Liqası, have raised the club’s profile and brought European football to this little-known stretch of the Caspian Sea.
It’s also where once fellow Soviets Dinamo Minsk set up camp for their Conference League games against Hearts, Larne and FC Copenhagen in 2024-25, after qualifying matches in Mezőkövesd, Hungary.
Unable to play in Belarus, these old Euro campaigners have not been afraid to find particularly obscure venues in the former Eastern bloc to challenge the most dedicated of travelling fan.
Getting Around
Arriving in town, local transport and tips
Travellers to Azerbaijan can obtain their visa fairly quickly thanks to an online service that costs $20 plus $5 service fee for single entry – if you need your faster than within three working days, then the three-hour service is $20 plus $40.
Baku Airport is 53km (33 miles) from Sumgayit, a journey of just over 2hrs by public transport if you time it right changing from the regular Aero Express bus into the capital (Baku Card 2AZN/€1, plus 1AZN/€0.50 per journey) to the train (40min) at Baku station. Cards should be available from the information desk or a machine at the airport terminal.
Trains run fairly frequently to Sumgayit – the ADV state-rail website is Azeri-only but the schedule on the homepage should be fairly easy to work out. A ticket should be around 2AZN/€1.
A taxi all the way should cost around 40AZN/€20. Sumgayit station is on the south-eastern edge of town, a 15-20min walk to the centre, 30mins to the stadium. Locals use plentiful taxis rather than infrequent buses – maxim can be booked by using the website.
A cab from Sumgayit station to the stadium shouldn’t be more than 6AZN/€3 and take ten minutes at most.
Where to Drink
The best pubs and bars for football fans
Bars and restaurants may operate summer-only, closing by mid-September.
Rare is the stadium in Azerbaijan surrounded by such a choice of pre-match drinking spots. The long park and promenade parallel to the Caspian Sea are the city’s main recreational areas, so family-friendly terrace bars and restaurants are dotted everywhere.
Some are quite smart, including the Turan by the outdoor summer theatre, with its rooftop terrace, and, alongside the park and the Nasimi monument, the Breeze club&lounge, its large screen tuned to music and fashion video rather than Neftçi’s domestic clash with Keşla. Outdoor seating is a plus, though.
The most suitable option stands alongside, the Russkiy Stol, announced with large, illuminated glass of Erdinger Weißbier by the front door, beckoning you into a small but friendly interior.
At the city end of the main park, StaRRooms and its wide terrace sit in shaded greenery, while further down the promenade towards the Regnum Hotel, Panorama offers a sea-view terrace at higher-than-average prices.
The Regnum’s Caspian-lapped Tandir is open to non-guests, too. Further along, at the beach, the Yelkan offers stylish shade from the burning seaside sun.
City-centre bars include a broom cupboard with a huge tap of beer – the Efes Pub (Nariman Narimanov 42-44) – and a large brewpub with a huge screen for beIN Sports, RePUBlic, where Nariman Narimanov meets A Guliyev. Near the station, on a central section of Uzeyir Hajibeyov, Xane provides leafy terrace for beer-sipping.
Where to stay
The best hotels for the stadium and city centre
Despite the beach, hotels are quite few and far between in Sumgayit, with Baku close at hand if need be. The Sumgayit Plaza is (17-19 Süth küc) is halfway between station and stadium, on the edge of the city centre, an upper three-star with a pool, sauna, restaurant and panoramic bar. Rooms start at around AZ130/€65.
For roughly the same price, the beachfront Regnum on Samad Verghun has sea-view rooms, a spa and lounge bar overlooking the waves, about 3.5km from the stadium.
The budget option is the Sumgait Olimpik SportComplex (ulitsa Kamal Axundrov 17 m/n), in no man’s land about 1.5km from the station, with a pool, gym and basic rooms from 60AZN/€30.
