"Champions grow on fields like these." The Yunus Rajabi neighborhood has renovated the field, which residents had been fighting for for several years.
The football field in the Yunus Rajabi mahalla, which residents spent four years defending against development in court, has been renovated. Sponsored funds were used to lay a new surface, install fencing, and install benches. However, the site has not yet been registered as a football field. Gazeta attended the opening match.
"Champions grow on fields like these." The Yunus Rajabi mahalla, which residents had been fighting over for several years, has been renovated.
In the evening, a crowd gathered in the courtyard of building No. 60 in the Yunus Rajabi mahalla in Tashkent's Yakkasaray district. Adults and children who live there, as well as residents of neighboring houses, gathered around the football field, waiting for the start of the match between the Yunus Rajabi children's teams and Santos Junior from the Yashnabad district.
Boys in numbered jerseys are warming up near the goal. Under their feet is new artificial turf with rubber crumb, and around the perimeter of the field and above it is a net, like on a full-size mini-football field.
Back in early June, the only soccer field in the entire mahalla, and therefore a popular spot for children, looked different. It was an uneven, trampled field without a surface or fence, on the site of which a five-story office building was planned. To preserve the field for the children and protect the courtyard from development, residents spent four years defending their position in the courts.
Gazeta followed the case throughout this time, publishing a total of 10 articles.
The story began in 2022, when residents of building No. 60 accidentally discovered a 0.0561-hectare inter-building area on the website e-auksion.uz. The plot, which included a soccer field and green space, was sold to an entrepreneur for the construction of an office building. The residents lost several court cases, but in December 2024, the audit board of the Tashkent City Administrative Court overturned the project's approval. In early 2026, the Prosecutor General's Office of Uzbekistan filed a protest against this decision, and the case reached the Supreme Court. On May 14, its panel finally sided with the residents.
While the residents were fighting to preserve the courtyard and field, local boys continued to kick a ball around, and the Tashkent Football Association has regularly held tournaments there since 2023, in part to draw attention to the problem of the development of courtyard football fields.
The last tournament, involving teams from four districts, took place in early June—shortly after the Supreme Court's decision—and became a symbol of victory for the residents. At the time, activists shared their hope that they would be able to officially register the site and add it to the Tashkent Football Association's register of football fields, allowing them to begin its improvement.
This opportunity arose earlier, when Carvon and Trest-12 approached the mahalla with a proposal to renovate the field.
"Even when I was the mahalla chairperson, we talked a lot about this field and tried to preserve it. Today, I am especially pleased to address you as a representative of the company, thanks to which our long-standing idea has finally become a reality. It is symbolic that this is happening in the year when the Uzbekistan national team qualified for the World Cup for the first time," said Asal Tashpulatova, head of social projects for the Carvon and Trest-12 group of companies, at the opening of the renovated field.
According to her, the work took about two weeks. A new rubber crumb surface was laid on the field, and fencing and netting were installed around the perimeter and on top, in accordance with futsal standards. A running track and benches for substitutes were installed around the field.
For the companies, this is a pilot social project timed to coincide with the 35th anniversary of Uzbekistan's independence. They plan to renovate football pitches in other districts of Tashkent in the future, and if successful, beyond the capital.
Vice President of the Tashkent Football Association and Honored Coach Azamat Abduraimov, who also helped residents defend the field, considers its opening day one of the happiest for the mahalla and Tashkent football as a whole.
"On pitches like these, boys grow into great players like the Shomurodovs and Kasymovs. This is our future. Even if they don't become champions or football stars, the most important thing is that they stay healthy," he says.
Abduraimov said that a section of the Tashkent Kids football program for boys from the mahalla and neighboring courtyards will begin operating on the field.
"Not everyone gets into Pakhtakor or Bunyodkor—they have selection processes. But if we help the kids who love football, teach them how to play, and stop them from staring at their phones, that will be our biggest victory," said Abduraimov.
Formally, the plot's status has not changed. It remains listed in the city's land reserve and is not registered with the cadastral register.
"Representatives of our mahalla have already submitted this request to the khokimiyat. We hope they will accommodate us," said Mukarram Bakhramkhodzhaeva, a resident of building no. 60 and activist.
Among the spectators at the match was Nilufar Allabergenova, khokim of the Yakkasaray district.
Asal Tashpulatova noted that companies are ready to assist with this matter as well. With the support of the city and district khokimiyats, she intends to have the field included in the register of football fields, and then to have the cadastral registration completed.
"It's important for us to formalize this document so that tomorrow, a year from now, and even 10 years from now, this field will be available for the children of the mahalla," she emphasized.