Futsal can become the number one sport in Kazakhstan

What will we play?

Alas, for the world’s most popular sport – football – we do not have the right climate. Namely, a severe long winter, from several months to six months, suspending a full-fledged training process on snow-covered lawns. And although football in the country is universally and popularly loved, there is a classic discrepancy between desire and opportunities.

On the other hand, those sports where we have traditions and even Olympic victories are somehow not drawn to a national fetish. Boxing is somewhat traumatic, the barbell is not very aesthetically pleasing, cycling is strongly associated with doping (as well as the barbell) and corruption (as well as boxing)…

And what if you try to cultivate not big football in glades open to weather adversities, but its sports subspecies futsal? It is cheaper and more democratic than the “big brother”, that is, more accessible to the general public, but the main thing is that Kazakhstani boys can kick the ball under the roof, like Brazilian boys on the local tropical beaches, for 365 days a year. Which, as you know, is one of the most indispensable conditions for cultivating outstanding masters from young talents.

The fruitfulness of this idea is also confirmed by the undoubted successes of domestic futsal. Almaty “Kairat” twice won the UEFA Cup – the most prestigious futsal club tournament in the world. The national team of Kazakhstan was also pleased, which, having made its debut at the European Futsal Championship, immediately won bronze. Laurels, which domestic “grass” footballers never dreamed of. So why not try to become “Eurasian Brazilians”? Or even catch up and overtake South America. However, for this, you first need to adopt the sports and economic experience of another America – North.

Games that students play

There is such a university in the southern capital – the Caspian University. And this university has a futsal team of the same name. Moreover, the team is very famous: it won the championship of Almaty, and climbed to the podium of the National Student League, established in 2014, at the initiative of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Football Federation of Kazakhstan.

In addition, the project is not limited to futsal alone. In 2015, the student league project for basketball was implemented, and in 2016 for volleyball.

The goal of the initiative is to attract young people to sports, and how can this be done better than by involving the most active part of it – students? Moreover, they have actually ready-made fan clubs – fans from among university students who represent the teams. Some play professionally (well, or semi-professional), the rest support their own and play amateur. And everyone is happy: students get a game, universities get very effective PR, and the state gets a healthy nation.

What is beneficial to everyone is also beneficial to us, they decided at the Caspian University.

The main thing is that the student should be busy with something useful all the time, says the founder and owner of the Caspian University, a well-known Kazakh businessman Rashit Sarsenov. Otherwise, he will find other activities for himself – and not the fact that they are socially harmless. After all, there is a lot of energy, as well as temptations, and if a student came to study from another city, or even from a village, cut off from his usual environment, without parental care … Here, in order to give a constructive outlet for all this valiant energy, student initiative is needed to help besides socializing young people. And sometimes you can discover and develop different abilities in yourself, which, by the way, will turn out to be useful in further employment and even, it is possible, will help make a career.

We have a KVN team at the university, students of the Caspian University put on a musical on their own, and sports competitions are regularly held. ”, of course, our special pride is the futsal team.

Discover Sports America

In world sports, in particular football, there are many examples when a club represents a large concern (clubs from the German cities of Wolfsburg and Leverkusen, defending the honor of Volkswagen and Bayer companies), or even an entire business -empire (“Milan” by Silvio Berlusconi, “Chelsea” by Roman Abramovich, etc.) However, in this case, it seems, there is much more vanity than common sense, because the moral and financial dividends from such projects are incomparable with the gigantic costs.

Another thing is not the European, but the North American experience of the sports industry. The owners of the local football, hockey, basketball and baseball clubs from the professional leagues, even if they are at least three times billionaires, treat them primarily as a business that should be profitable. If sports are not interesting as a business, then another scheme comes to the rescue through student leagues.

Until young people make football and basketball their profession, they compete in the teams of the universities in which they are registered. No need to dissemble: they are registered, not studying. It is clear that only rare geeks are able to simultaneously hone dribbling with strikes and study sopromat. But student-athletes have other tasks: by protecting the colors and coats of arms of universities, to promote the upbringing of three important qualities in the younger generation. This is, firstly, the spirit of competition, which favors competition in all areas of activity. Further, a sense of local solidarity, which, in fact, begins with real, and not declarative patriotism. And, finally, physical culture (in the fullest sense of these words), without which, you yourself understand, the nation has no future, and the present is so-so.

And if, by investing capital in professional clubs, American entrepreneurs simply (although it is very difficult) make money, then to be involved in one way or another in your favorite game played by the team of your native university is an unconditional honor for the same businessmen. Whether they are among the noble trustees of the university or “only” its billionaire graduates who donated part of the capital to the alma mater, which, perhaps, they would never have made if they had not studied within these walls.

Of course, not everyone in America deserves to be copied. Moreover, there is an opinion that only one of the notorious American values ​​is real: money. And the only product that Americans do really well is the dollar. (True, this product, in fairness, it must be said, is perhaps the best in the world and in any case the most witty.)

But American universities will be even cooler than American money. In the end, the latter were invented by graduates of the former. So, no doubt, it is necessary to learn from experience.

National Dream League

Moreover, we repeat, the infrastructure of the same student futsal in Kazakhstan is practically created. The National Student League, which already includes 36 teams, has been functioning for the third year. And some of them are very strong. In addition to the above-mentioned team of the Caspian University, we can name teams from the Karaganda University of Economics and last year’s league winners from the Kazakhstan Engineering and Pedagogical University of Peoples’ Friendship from Shymkent. And, of course, in the new season, in addition to the favorites, there will certainly be daring newcomers.

But, no less important, student futsal is popular. The teams have, let’s say, natural fans – these are students with teachers. And these groups are numerous and well organized. So, during the final tournaments, which are held, by the way, in large sports complexes, there are no empty seats and some fans have to settle down on the steps of sports palaces. And many universities even put forward their own teams of cheer leaders who have already competed with each other.

So what (taking into account the European bronze, which means quite a decent level of players) prevents in the coming years to make the Kazakh student league one of the most interesting and competitive in the world?! And which, by the way, could become an excellent supplier of talents to professional futsal clubs. However, this is a separate issue. As well as the fact that changes are needed in children’s sports, and even in school physical education lessons (if you really set a goal to make futsal the number one sport in the country).

And the engine of change should be, as always, young students.