President Tokayev suggests giving up on international athletes
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has proposed to stop attracting international athletes, the president’s office reported. Instead, he suggests inviting foreign specialists to support sports Kazakhstan has been struggling with.
The president has also demanded to stop naturalizing foreign athletes.
«In fact, international athletes take the place of our own young and promising athletes who could have been in the national team. At the same time, it is reasonable to attract foreign coaches to those sports we experience difficulties with. International athletes cannot maintain long-term success but professional coaches can,» the head of state underlined during a meeting with medalists of the 2024 Olympics.
He has also blamed sport officials for a lack of results. According to him, high-performance sports expenses have doubled over the past five years, but no adequate results have been achieved so far.
«Given the current situation, sports officials are more focused on spending multibillion-dollar budgets than on developing sports, with no attention to final results. Corruption is frequently reported in the sports sector, causing significant harm not only to the development of domestic sports but also to the country’s image. This is unacceptable!» the president said.
In December 2023, the country’s MPs resented million-dollar salaries for the Barys hockey club’s international players. According to MP Nartay Sarsengaliyev, Kazakhstan pays international athletes too much. Deputy Minister of Tourism and Sport Serik Zharasbayev responded that the government would attract fewer international athletes in the future.
In June 2024, the media reported that Stanislav Cherchesov, the former head coach of the Russian national football team, had signed a contract with the Kazakhstan Football Federation.
In April 2024, the Anti-Corruption Agency highlighted the high level of corruption in sports in Kazakhstan. It expressed dissatisfaction with Kazakhstan’s drop in the world rankings despite a budget increase to $2.9 million.
In June, the agency reported on the non-transparent and inefficient funding of Kazakhstan’s sports sphere.
