Turkmenistan's 'invincible' football team

Founded last year, FK Arkadag, named in honour of strongman former president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, has been unstoppable, notching up 36 consecutive domestic victories in a run still ongoing.
The side has not lost a single competitive match and swept to a league and cup double in their inaugural season - success unthinkable almost anywhere else. But in Turkmenistan, it could hardly have gone any other way.
The energy-rich country is one of the most closed on earth, rights groups say, with the Berdimuhamedows - father Gurbanguly and son, President Serdar Berdimuhamedow - exerting near total control over all aspects of society.
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, who built an intense personality cult during a 15-year spell as president, is now known by the title of "Arkadag," or hero-protector.
Despite handing the presidency to Serdar, Gurbanguly continues to rule in a de facto governing tandem with his son, and enjoys immense privileges as the official head of the Turkmen nation.
Arkadag, the football club named after him, play their home games at Arkadag Stadium in the freshly-built city of Arkadag - a mega project constructed in his honour at an official cost of $5 billion. The city's main landmark? A 43-metre monument with a gilded statue of Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow on horseback at the top.
Despite its record-breaking run, FK Arkadag has struggled to bring in the crowds. Around 200 spectators came to matches last month against Ahal and Altyn Asyr attended by 'AFP', dotted around the brand new 10,000-capacity stadium. Tickets had been offered for free.
Watching on, fan Begench Mukhadov waved the club's scarf, emblazoned with its official logo, an ice-blue and white crest featuring an Akhal-Teke horse, a Turkmen national symbol.
"Arkadag will definitely win every title going again this season. I'm happy that an invincible team has emerged and that football has become interesting," Mukhadov, an 18-year who works in a construction firm, said. Civil servant Shageldy Soyunov, 34, said he "closely follows all of Arkadag's matches" and likes the team's "dynamic play".
After securing the double last year, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow presented Arkadag's players with a photo of Serdar Berdimuhamedow signing a football with the club's logo.
The gift was "accepted with great pride and deep gratitude," reported Turkmen state media, which the regime exerts an extremely tight grip over. "He met our team and spurred us on to new victories," Didar Durdyev, the league's two-time top goalscorer, told 'AFP'.
After scoring 83 goals in 24 league games last year, FK Arkadag have maintained their attacking prowess, securing 25 in five outings this season. "We feel the support of our respected Hero-Protector Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow," the 30-year-old striker Durdyev said.
Sporting authorities have scrubbed references that question Arkadag's status as an invincible footballing force. There is no trace on the Turkmen Football Federation's website of two recent defeats against Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk and Dnipro-1 in friendly matches in February.
This is hardly surprising in a country where information is so closely controlled. Especially when it comes to a football club created in honour of the unquestionable father of the nation.
Later this year, the club - and its narrative of invincibility - will face their biggest test yet, when they play in the AFC Champions League 2, the Asian confederation's equivalent of the Europa League.
Unlike other countries in Central Asia, Turkmenistan has never been a footballing nation and has not made a mark internationally. That is despite strong financial support from the state, bankrolled by sales of its immense oil and gas reserves.
The national team, the backbone of which is made up of Arkadag players, has not won a game since June 2022. Turkmenistan languishes in the bottom echelons of the FIFA rankings, placed 143 of 210.
But officials say they are unfazed, hoping Arkadag's success can spur a turnaround. "It's good that the players know each other," an official from the state sport committee told 'AFP', speaking on condition of anonymity. "It strengthens their collective spirit to win."