Ex-Turkmen president’s pet football club wins national championship

Former Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov’s pet football club has secured an early victory in the national championship after winning all 20 matches it has played so far.

Turkmen football fans, however, allege unfair play behind Arkadag’s success.

Berdimukhamedov, who in 2022 handed over the presidency to his son Serdar and is currently the speaker of parliament, created the club in April.

Arkadag, the club’s name, is Berdimukhamedov’s official title, which means ‘protector’ or ‘guardian’. The club’s logo and kit were designed personally by the ex-president. The team is made up entirely of footballers who play for Turkmenistan’s national team.

The club represents the town of Arkadag — another of Gurbaguly Berdimukhamedov’s pet projects that he officially inaugurated in June. The town, 30 km from the capital Ashgabat, was built in five years.

On 3 December Arkadag won its 20th match in a row in the national championship. Each team still has four matches to play, but Arkadag’s nearest rivals, Altyn Asar, are 16 points behind and can’t catch up with them even if they win all four of their remaining matches.

It means, the Turkmen football federation said, that Arkadag are this year’s national champions.

The Europe-based Hronika Turkmenistana website said that Turkmen football fans allege that Arkadar gets help from the referees.

For instance, in a match against Shagadam the score was 0:0 right at the end. The referee then “unfairly” awarded a penalty to Arkadag in injury time, which allowed it to win the match 1:0, fans told the website on condition of anonymity.

Fans also complain that Arkadag’s participation in the national football league puts them off following the championship at all as “takes away the intrigue”, the website said.

Arkadag’s success is reminiscent of Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov’s own wins in various sports competitions during his presidency, like cycling, horse-racing and motor racing.

Berdimukhamedov senior also actively promoted sport among citizens and government officials. He led mass runs, walks and cycles rides. On several occasions he demonstrated various fitness exercises to his government officials, including lifting a golden crossbar.

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