Footballers, coaches and staff of FC Atyrau have threatened the Department of Physical Culture and Sports of the Atyrau Region with a boycott of the match against FC Aktobe, scheduled for 30 March, if their wages, delayed by three months, are not paid.
According to the Telegram channel Halyqstan, club employees have been in a difficult financial situation for the third month: they cannot pay their loans or support their families. The workers blame the head of the sports department, Nurbol Sudykov, who, they claim, has not allocated funding to the club from the regional budget.
The footballers recorded a video address to the head of the region, Serik Shapkenov, expressing bewilderment as to why other Atyrau sports clubs had already received their due funding. As a result, all employees of FC Atyrau, including the technical staff, declared their intention to go on strike.
For their part, the Department of Physical Culture and Sports explained that the suspension of funding was due to numerous violations in the club's activities, identified by the regional prosecutor's office.
The department clarified that in February 2023, the club carried out an international transfer of a footballer for the sum of €500,000, of which €420,000 was unjustifiably transferred to a third party – a citizen of the Russian Federation. The contract with the intermediary was concluded just two weeks before the deal, which, according to the inspecting authorities, raises doubts about the legality of the transaction.
Furthermore, in December 2024, out of 65 million tenge received from the Kazakhstan Football Federation, 20.4 million tenge was groundlessly written off by the FC, and 30 million tenge was transferred for goods that were not delivered.
In addition, from the club's reported profit of 662.7 million tenge, 132.5 million tenge was not transferred to the budget, as required by the terms of the agreement. The prosecutors also identified an exceedance of the salary cap for footballers (3 million tenge against the established limit of 2 million tenge) and for the coach (4 million tenge).
It has also come to light that the Sudoremontnik Stadium, on whose pitch the footballers trained, was used illegally, and no contract was ever concluded for the rental of a bus to transport the athletes.
The inspection also revealed inflated costs for purchased equipment (for example, a washing machine costing 1.8 million tenge compared to a market price of 200-300 thousand tenge). Furthermore, the regional sports department was invoiced for 233 million tenge for January of the current year without supporting documents or prior approval of the expenditure.
In addition to the financial violations, the prosecutor's office pointed to the club's poor sporting results: despite reaching the finals of the Kazakhstan Cup (2018, 2019, 2024), the team has not risen above seventh place in the championship. At the same time, the number of local players fell from 16 in 2021 to 5 in 2024, while the number of foreign footballers reached 12.
"Following the inspection, the prosecutor's office issued an order to eliminate the violations and bring those responsible to disciplinary account. In this regard, the department has been recommended to consider the possibility of terminating the trust management agreement, returning the club to state ownership, ensuring the return of illegally used funds, reducing the number of foreign players with priority given to developing local athletes, and reviewing budget expenditure", the statement reads.
According to representatives of the Department of Physical Culture and Sports, measures are currently being taken to return the club to state ownership and to promptly resolve the issue of paying staff wages.