Football: Kazakhstan Football Clubs not interested in CIS Championship

Kazakhstan Football Clubs are not interested in the United CIS Football Championship, Vesti.kz reports, referring to Izmail Bzarov, PR-manager of Kazakhstan Football Federation, Vesti.kz reports. “We are monitoring the situation around this tournament, but there is only one thing I can say about this: Kazakhstan will guard the interests of its football players and fans in respect of this issue. A whole range of our teams participate in European cups. This never happened during the Soviet period. We have made a huge step forward in development football in our country's regions during 11 years of our membership in the UEFA. Joining the United CIS Championship would mean a step back for us, because the championship involves only one big football club per a country. In this case all the other clubs might cease their development,” Bzarov said. According to the representative of Kazakhstan Football Federation, unlike many Russian and Ukrainian clubs Kazakhstan football clubs don’t make earning money their primary goal. “Every region should have a club, a distraction for football fans. In the other words, our teams are socially oriented. The only one club that might be interested in participating in this tournament is Almaty Kairat that doesn’t depend of the city budget.” Initially it was planned that Ukrainian, Russian, Armenian, Kazakhstan and Belarus teams will take part in the United CIS Football Championship. However, only the first two countries have been mentioned in the news lately. In spite of the low interest from among the potential participants the tournament’s budget has been announced. It makes 1 billion dollars.