First Deputy Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Agency Ulan Sarkulov said how much money had been allocated over the last six years to the Astana Football Club (FC) and the Barys Hockey Club (HC). He also noted that of the 200 billion tenge allocated to football in Kazakhstan, the lion's share was paid to foreign legionnaires.
According to the Kazinform International News Agency, Sarkulov reported that over this period FC Astana received about 50 billion tenge. He stated that the bulk of the money came from the funds of Samruk-Kazyna Sovereign Wealth Fund JSC.
"Later, when we conducted an analysis, their main share, around 60-70%, was wage payments to the majority of legionnaires. These are foreign football players who played, played for a season, two, three and were paid huge sums of money. Some of these footballers are no longer there now. But despite this, large allocations continue, and we are watching," the statement said.
Ulan Sarkulov noted that the ratings of FC Astana are declining. Furthermore, it lacks proper infrastructure and a training base, as a normal, fully-fledged professional football club would have.
According to him, the situation is similar with HC Barys. It emerged that over six years, the hockey club was allocated 49 billion tenge.
"The main share of these funds was paid to the same foreign hockey players, who, in many cases, we now see are no longer even there. Essentially, it is an inefficient distribution of funds, although over the years infrastructure could have been built with some of that money," Sarkulov noted.
The First Deputy Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Agency explained that in both cases, the agency identified the misuse of funds.
It will be recalled that last December, the prosecutor's office of the Mangystau region identified embezzlement worth more than 27 million tenge at the Caspian football club. It was reported that the money was allocated for training camps.
During the investigation into the embezzlement, it emerged that the former head of the club, along with two acquaintances, used physical force to try to force a club employee to change his testimony. Furthermore, they extorted 15 million tenge from him.