Residents of house No. 60 in the Yunus Rajabiy neighborhood in central Tashkent have been fighting for four years against private construction on a green area housing the only football field for the entire community. In the summer of 2022, residents accidentally discovered that a 0.0561-hectare plot was listed for sale on e-auksion.uz for the construction of an office building. According to a decision by the city mayor on May 16, 2022, an additional 30 sotix (approximately 0.3 hectares) of the courtyard land was transferred to the city reserve fund.

Activists filed a request with the Chilanzar Interdistrict Court to halt the auction, which the court granted, but the auction proceeded nonetheless. In September 2022, entrepreneur Doniyor Yusupov purchased the plot for 1.3 billion soums. Residents lost subsequent court battles, including appeals to the Tashkent City Court and the Supreme Court, while petitions to the Presidential Reception Office and district prosecutor's offices yielded no results.

In 2023, the Tashkent Football Association organized a children's tournament to preserve the only football field in the neighborhood, home to 7,000 people. Honored coach Azamat Abduraimov emphasized that "developing street football is crucial." In spring 2024, the People's Democratic Party supported the residents, calling such construction "restrictive of citizens' rights."

In December 2024, the supervisory panel of the Tashkent City Administrative Court ruled in favor of the residents, overturning previous court decisions and a conclusion by the Main Construction Department dated April 30, 2023. However, on February 27, 2026, the General Prosecutor's Office submitted a protest to the judicial panel of the Supreme Court, demanding the reversal of the December court ruling.

The protest argues that the project has been modified, the inclusion of a parking garage within the office building does not violate urban planning norms, tree removal was conducted legally, and the 50-meter distance rule applies only to industrial facilities. The prosecutor's office also cites the principle of precedent, asserting that the legality of the disputed land plot was already addressed in prior court rulings.

Entrepreneur Doniyor Yusupov told the newspaper that he legally purchased the land plot, has been paying land tax for four years, and possesses all necessary construction permits. He stated that he attempted to discuss the matter with the neighborhood committee, proposing alternatives such as building a children's playground, but residents oppose any construction.

Neighborhood residents reject the prosecutor's protest and intend to continue their struggle. On March 10, they sent a collective appeal to Saida Mirziyoyeva, Head of the Presidential Administration, expressing concerns about the construction's potential damage to existing utilities, its proximity to a kindergarten, and the need to preserve the football field. Residents cite constitutional rights to a favorable living environment and have petitioned authorities to register the field based on presidential decrees.

Mukarram Bahromkhojayeva highlighted exhaustion from bureaucratic processes, noting that the General Prosecutor's Office ignored residents' appeals for three years but filed a protest following the developer's complaint. She added, "We want to draw public attention because we have reached a dead end."

This case is not isolated: in 2021, residents of the Orta Chirchiq district fought against the loss of a football field for factory construction, and in 2020, a field in the Mirzo Ulugbek district was eliminated. In 2022, reports indicated nearly 70 hectares of land from 198 school territories nationwide were illegally sold. Despite President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's 2023-2024 initiatives under the "Football Field in Every Neighborhood" program, practical preservation of such spaces remains challenging.

Source: www.gazeta.uz