Eskhata

Eskhata spent 2023 turning in a fourth-place finish that no other season of theirs has matched, closing 2024 and 2025 both in sixth. The run stretches back further than the table shows: in 2020 they took second place in the First League, with 16 wins from 22 games, and went up to the top flight the following year. In the Cup, they have made the last four twice, in 2021 and 2022, without going further.

Khujand gave the club its name — Eskhata is the old name for the city on the Syr Darya — and its home ground is Spartak, which holds 1,000 people.

None of Eskhata's league finishes have come with a trophy. What the club has produced instead is a run of forwards who arrive, score, and move on. Akobir Turaev, an Uzbek striker, finished the 2021 championship as its top scorer with seven goals and was named man of the match against Khujand. Bakhtiyor Zaripov matched that tally for Eskhata in 2023 as the club's leading scorer that year, then went on to be named best player in the 2025 Football Federation Cup final.