KZBlog

Do they do that in European sports events?

Anyway, in case you didn’t know, today at 16:00 GMT or 21:00 Kazakhstan time, England and Kazakhstan will meet in the World Cup qualifiers. If your local station isn’t covering it, or someone else in the house is watching the French Open, Eurosport looks like it will have nice play-by-play coverage online.

We will remember that the last time Kazakhstan and England met, in October of last year, Kazakhstan lost 5-1. Here’s hoping the homefield advantage will play out. It does look like even though the match is taking place in Almaty, the England fans will be in better shape to cheer their team on. According to a Neweurasia post, locals are relegated to the east side of the stadium where there is no roof and the afternoon sun gets in people’s eyes. Of course since the match starts at 21:00 here, it should be ok. But it is sad to see that the powers-that-be can’t resist making even a football match about brand imaging by giving foreigners better seats than locals. I have never heard of a stadium segregating people by nationality before, let alone being biased against its own citizens.

In more positive news the England team is having a great time in Almaty, very impressed with the warm welcome from fans everywhere they go. And they are giving back, even going to an orphanage here and training the children! Although amusingly enough, the FA has warned team players not to use unlicensed taxis here–maybe because they are dangerous or technically illegal? How are else are they going to get around? The bus?

And the fans that have come to watch are having a great time as well. Contrary to all expectations the biggest disappointment appears to be the lack of horsemeat:

“We were looking for some horse on the menu at lunchtime, but there was nothing on the menu,” Scott Holmes, 24, from Wapping in east London says, sounding remarkably disappointed.
“We have to try some before we leave. We had kebabs earlier – but if we can get a horse kebab that’d be very nice,” he adds wryly, his ‘Mr Grumpy’ T shirt at odds with his vivacious personality.
But on a neighbouring table, it becomes clear he’s been beaten to it in the culinary stakes.
“It was delicious,” says John Brister, 45, from Leeds, with a hint of sarcasm.
“I think it might just have been a horse I lost twenty quid on on

It all goes to show that Kazakhstan actually is a nice place to visit and officials don’t actually need to be working so hard to make people like it.