Kazakhstan Saves More Than $17 Million Under New Sports Club Funding Rules

On June 16, 2025, Kazakhstan stopped using state and quasi-state funds to finance foreign athletes at professional sports clubs. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports now says that measure, combined with wider limits on club budgets, has saved more than 8 billion tenge, or about $17.2 million. The change follows years in which football and hockey clubs spent significant amounts of public money on foreign players. Clubs in Kazakhstan may still sign foreign players, provided their contracts are financed by sponsors or private investors rather than public money. Public spending on foreign players was already under scrutiny before the reform. In January 2025, Ulan Sarkulov, then first deputy chairman of Kazakhstan’s Anti-Corruption Agency, said FC Astana and HC Barys had received nearly 100 billion tenge in total over six years. Foreign players’ salaries accounted for around 60–70% of FC Astana’s budget. The funding restrictions are part of Kazakhstan’s effort to reduce professional football’s reliance on the state. Several clubs have since come under private control. FC Kaisar was placed under the private management of construction entrepreneur Islamgali Kozbakov, while Kaspi.kz co-founder Mikheil Lomtadze became the owner of FC Zhenis. A company in the Freedom Holding Corp. group, founded by Timur Turlov, bought FC Shakhter Karaganda at auction. In January 2026, FC Aktobe was sold for 364 million tenge, about $710,000 at the time, to Qazaq Stroy Properties, owned by businessman Nurlan Artikbayev. As The Times of Central Asia previously reported, the change in ownership was followed by the signing of former Manchester United player Nani. Under FC Aktobe’s privatization plan, some public funding was retained. Before the sale, a regional sports official said public money would support its academy and women’s team. The futsal side was also included, while total state support for the club was expected to fall from 3.5 billion tenge in 2025 to 1.9 billion tenge in 2026. A separate ministerial order effective July 25, 2025, imposed limits on public funding for professional teams. The ceilings are set in units of Kazakhstan’s monthly calculation index (MCI), which is adjusted annually. At 2026 levels, a football club can receive up to about $6.1 million a year in total. The ceiling is around $3.5 million for an ice hockey club. In other team sports, each men’s or women’s program can receive about $1.1 million. Football clubs competing in UEFA tournaments can receive an additional $1.9 million. Monthly salaries paid from public funds to first-team players and coaches are capped at about $4,700. Kazakhstan is also changing how senior jobs in state sports organizations are filled. Since September 2025, the heads of these organizations have been subject to a unified rotation procedure, while appointments to top posts have been made through open competition. Of 112 appointments since then, 86, or 76%, followed an open competitive process. Another part of the reform is the unified e-Sport platform, which will gather records of athletes and competitions from across Kazakhstan’s sports system, along with information on coaches and referees. The ministry plans to...