Aktobe

Aktobe is the largest city in western Kazakhstan, an industrial centre built on chromium and oil, and its football club has been the region's fixed point since 1967, when it started out under the name Aktyubinets. The club went through a string of names over the following decades — Aktobemunai, then Aktobe, then Aktobe-Lento — and in 1998 it dropped out of the league entirely for financial reasons, sitting out until 2000.

Home matches are played at the Kobylandy Batyr Central Stadium, which holds 12,800. The club plays in red and white and is known to supporters simply as the Red and Whites.

Between 2007 and 2009, under Vladimir Mukhanov, Aktobe won three league titles and the national cup. Two more championships came either side of it, in 2005 under Ravil Ramazanov and in 2013 under Vladimir Nikitenko, giving the club five titles in total, alongside two Kazakhstan Cups and three Super Cups. The fixture against Atyrau, billed as the western Kazakhstan derby, remains the one that matters most to the city.

For most of its history the club belonged to the state, run through the Aktobe regional finance department, until 2025, when construction magnate Nurlan Artykbayev bought it through his company Qazaq Stroy Properties.

Yuriy Logvinenko made 330 appearances for Aktobe, a club record, and won four championships in the shirt he came up in.