Simurq PIK

The club was founded in 2005 and participated in the Azerbaijan First Division. The club's first season was very successful, and in the 2006–07 season, the club was participating in the Azerbaijan Premier League.^[1] After its debuting season in the Premier League of Azerbaijan, Simurq finished 9th out of 14 clubs.

The Azerbaijani magazine Football+ recognized Simurq as the "Surprise of the Year" of the 2006–07 season based on polling results.^[1] In 2007–08 season club has made another step forward, and finished the season at 7th place. The club gained third place in Azerbaijan Premier League 2008-09, by making the best indicator of the team in its history.

In 2009 the club's debut in European competitions was not very successful as they were eliminated in the 1st qualifying round of UEFA Europa League by Bnei Yehuda.^[2][3] The 2009–10 season for club was not successful, even though the team had good start before the winter break. After the winter, club began to fall in the standings and won only 8th place, while coach Roman Pokora dismissed after a string of poor results.

In June 2010, the club's executive director, former Azerbaijan national football team manager Gjoko Hadžievski became the club's new coach. However, due to financial problems Simurq could not sign big local and foreign players and coach staff was forced to take less experienced players and use from youth system. The 2010–11 season became the worst in club history as Simurq was relegated to the Azerbaijan First Division after finishing 11th place.^[4] However club is allowed participate in the next season to replace Mughan who had sponsorship problems.^[5][6]

On 18 July 2011, the club signed a contract with Sergey Yuran, former Ukrainian football player and association football coach.^[7] On 5 March 2012, after Sergey Yuran's resignation, Igor Getman became the first Azerbaijani manager to lead Simurq as caretaker until the end of the season.^[8] But after six days, the club announced Giorgi Chikhradze as their new coach. Simurq started 2012–13 season strongly, but after the start of the new year, team's form stumbled, hampering their European cup objective.

During the summer of 2015 the club folded due financial problems.^[9]

As of 29 May 2015:^[10][11]

Season	League									Azerbaijan Cup	Top goalscorer
	Div.	Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P		Name	League
2005–06	2nd	3	30	19	8	3	67	14	65	1st Round
2006–07	1st	9	24	6	7	11	27	33	25	1/8 Finals	Ramin Nasibov	9
2007–08	1st	7	26	9	9	8	31	25	36	1/8 Finals	Volodymyr Mazyar	10
2008–09	1st	3	26	16	5	5	39	20	53	Quarter-Finals	Volodymyr Mazyar	12
2009–10	1st	8	20	8	7	5	21	21	31	Quarter-Finals	Ruslan Hunchak Elshan Mammadov	7
2010–11	1st	11	32	4	7	21	20	52	19	1/8 Finals	Bachana Tskhadadze	5
2011–12	1st	9	32	8	10	14	27	41	34	First Round	Robertas Poškus	8
2012–13	1st	4	32	12	12	8	32	26	48	Quarter finals	Mario Božić	6
2013–14	1st	7	36	11	13	12	35	28	46	Second round	Dragan Ćeran	13
2014–15	1st	5	32	11	6	15	41	39	39	Semifinal	Dragan Ćeran	14

Season	Competition	Round	Country	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2009–10	UEFA Europa League	1Q		Bnei Yehuda	0–1	0–3	0–4

Zaqatala City Stadium

Location	Zaqatala, Azerbaijan
Owner	Simurq
Operator	Dynamic Resource
Capacity	3,500 seated
Construction
Broke ground	2006
Opened	August 2008
Construction cost	$12 million
Architect	"Khazar" center of scientific and technical creativity of youth
Tenants
Simurq (2008–present)

Zaqatala City Stadium is a football stadium in Zagatala, Azerbaijan. It is currently used as club's home stadium and holds 3,500 people.

Since the club's foundation, Simurq have had only one crest. It was officially adopted for the start of the 2006–07 season and based on a mythical sacred Phoenix firebird with castle background. It stems from the club's name Simurq, which means Phoenix in Azerbaijani language. The new home and away kits were unveiled in June 2013 for the 2013–2014 season. The home kit is black and yellow stripes and the away kit is white, with Joma being the kit manufacturer.

In 2013, the club unveiled an official crest, designed by Azerbaijani graphic designer Elnur Sharifli from Poland.^[12]

Simurq has a large fanbase in relation to its comparative lack of success on the pitch. Simurq supporters have played a vital role in the club's long term stay at Zaqatala.^[13][14]

As of Match played 28 February 2014

Name	Managerial Tenure	P	W	D	L	Win %
Anatoliy Piskovets	2005–2006	0	0	0	0	0
Viktor Pyshev	2006	0	0	0	0	0
Roman Pokora	2006 – 18 June 2010	124	51	35	38	41.13
Gjoko Hadžievski	18 June 2010 – 19 July 2011	33	4	8	21	12.12
Sergei Yuran	19 July 2011 – 5 March 2012	22	5	4	13	22.73
Igor Getman (caretaker)	5 March 2012 – 11 March 2013	2	0	1	1	0
Giorgi Chikhradze	11 March 2012 – June 2015	118	40	39	39	33.9

• Official website (archived 3 December 2013)