Berik Kaniev, President of the Zhas Kyran Youth Football League, and Marat Abdildabekov, Vice President of the Project, told PROSPORT about how their football project is developing, how many children across the country are involved in their tournaments and what goals they set for themselves.
— Almost a year has passed since the “Zhas Kyran” League became a republican league. Tell us what you have come to in the past and how the idea of creating such a Kazakhstan-wide competition came about in the first place.
B. K.: In 2011, with the active participation of Marat Abdildabekov, we opened a youth football tournament in Almaty. Since then, this city league has developed quite successfully and currently has 118 teams with more than 2,700 children. Due to the fact that one division could not accommodate everyone, we divided the competition into leagues A and B. By the end of 2015, we had almost gained momentum, and both the City Football Federation and the Republican Football Federation had joined the work. And when we became part of the FFK Executive Committee, the idea arose to expand Zhas Kyran throughout Kazakhstan. A year ago, this ambitious goal was set: to cover as many regions of the country as possible. At first, we expected to include representatives from ten regions in the league, but in the end, we managed to involve 90 percent of all regions of the country in our first year of existence.
M. A.: Our idea is to create a social lift. A talented child from the district center would never go to a football center or anywhere. But thanks to what we are doing, he is winning regional, regional and national competitions — he is rising. He is noticed, and as a result, he may be invited to the football center, where professional coaches will work with him with the necessary equipment. The “Zhas Kyran” system still allows children who went unnoticed, and the majority of them, to get through. At the expense of what? At the expense of desire, of course. A hungry person is more motivated than someone who is brought to train in an expensive car.
— Can you calculate how many children are involved in “Zhas Kyran” throughout Kazakhstan?
B. K.: At the beginning of the year, the goal was to increase the total number of participating children to 30,000 to 32,000. We calculated this number by studying European children's leagues, taking into account the number of football clubs in various regions of Kazakhstan, and relying on the experience of the Almaty Zhas Kyran League, and calculated how many children may be in the age groups we are interested in, minus those who are already studying in children's football centers at the national championship clubs. We have now reached about 20,000 people, and in the second season, by next spring, we expect to reach 30,000.
If we develop our league well, we want to give it the status of a national championship. In this case, we will be able to assign grades to children, and categories and allowances to coaches.
M. A.: According to optimistic forecasts, the total number of children participating in the Zhas Kyran League may even reach 35,000 by the end of next year.
As for coaches who work with teams, they must be in category C, which confirms certain qualifications. But we have very few such specialists. For the most part, coaches who work at the level of regional centers, below the regions, do not have this category and cannot obtain it. Therefore, we are trying to motivate the coaching staff (this work is now being gradually developed). In other words, individual mentors are planned to be sent for professional development. Colleagues responsible for this area are auditing coaches right now. It is clear that preference is given to young professionals who can develop over time and who generally have the future. The same goes for judges.
— How many guys who have passed the Zhas Kyran League can join football centers, in your opinion?
B. K.: If we have three or four such players every year, we'll be happy. It is important that we at least teach children a healthy lifestyle. It's good if someone goes to a children's football center, but if someone chooses a different future and goes to university, this experience will still give them a lot.
I recall my example. I trained at SKA and then went to Aktyubinsk to play at the age of 14. Then I went to a physics and mathematics school, and my coach Nurpeisov came to pick me up three times and always wanted to take me back. That's when I had a conversation with my dad. And he told me that if I promise to play for Kairat in tenth grade, I'll be able to continue my football career; if not, I should focus on school. I didn't end up becoming a great football player, but my football experience changed my whole life. If we take a child out of a village instead of just sitting around and show him prospects, it will stay with him forever.
For example, in Baikonur, children who came to the Championship on a weekend visited the famous Cosmonautics Museum, where they were able to learn about the history of world cosmonautics and space engineering, took pictures and asked questions with great pleasure. Perhaps, if it were not for football, if it were not for such a tournament, boys from various parts of the country would never have seen this beautiful city, the center of the world's space exploration, because Baikonur began the history of space exploration. A kind of pedagogical education for the younger generation is taking place here.
— It is interesting how the structure of “Zhas Kyrana” is built.
B. K.: We have registered branches in each region, where we have several people who are directly involved in organizing competitions. These branches are financed by the Central Youth Football League “Zhas Kyran”, and all other expenses for stadiums and referees are borne by the regional sports departments, as I have agreed with the akims. Moreover, this is not so much money — 15-20 million tenge per year for one region. The same amount includes not only organizing district and regional tournaments, but also ensuring that winners travel to national tournaments of five ages. In general, the effect is huge.
M. A.: An important point. It is clear that we are setting the tone. But the fundamental people in this project are people with extensive football experience who are known to the whole of Kazakhstan: Bolat Yesmagambetov, Viktor Katkov, Valery Malygin and others.
— Is it possible to provide each team with sufficient playing practice? How many games do they play a year?
B. K.: In a particular region, 20-25 teams represent each age group, which are divided into subgroups and determine the best in their clusters. Then the winners go to regional and national competitions. It turns out that teams that go all the way have 18 to 25 games a year. I think this is a big motivating factor. Previously, children who did not make it to football centers but study in regular sections participated in rare tournaments that lasted two or three days, but now they are playing in a full-fledged championship. They are preparing for each match and working in a cycle. The coach sees what schemes need to be worked out and what goals to set for a particular game.
— Infrastructure is probably the most sensitive topic in Russian football. Have you faced similar problems?
B. K.: That's why we should start from branches. Neither me nor Marat (Abdildabekov. — Approx. PROSPORT Kazakhstan.) There is no time to travel to Kulsary or Shalkar District and see the real infrastructure. But the league's goal is to see the exact picture in each region and improve infrastructure. Today we already have an idea about certain regions: some have fields, others do not. The issue of trainers' qualifications is no less important, as Marat has already mentioned. So this is a whole layer that we are drawing to the surface of the football system.
M. A.: In fact, we saw a good quality of infrastructure in some regions. But overall, of course, this is a problem that I hope our league will also help solve.
— What would you like to see in the “Zhas Kyran” league in a year or two?
M. A.: As for competitions, the ultimate goal is to cover seven ages and hold the Kazakhstan Children's Championship. But when we cover such a significant number, we must also create an information space so that people can communicate with each other, see the big picture, and watch the results of the games in all regions. Maybe we will be able to organize live broadcasts of matches. New generation children are involved in interactive activities in one way or another, so we have developed a portal that provides opportunities not only for classic commenting on publications, but also chat rooms and a blog platform. So we need feedback. The key goal of the site is to certify all members of the “Zhas Kyran” League. Why can't we name the exact number of children involved in the competition today? Because the figures differ from region to region. We expect that by the end of the year we will take into account every child and enter all data in accordance with UEFA requirements: weight, height, speed at the 100m race, physical parameters, and role. In other words, this portal will be able to monitor the progress and growth of a child from the farthest village.
B. K.: I would like this league to be a fundamental springboard for training a new generation from which football centers would be able to select the most talented players, including from the farthest corners of our vast homeland. And we have already seen that there are a lot of talented boys. Several tournaments have been held with the participation of Kairat Academy teams — we can say that even against this background, the Zhas Kyrana teams from Almaty are looking pretty good. At the same time, we see that some football centers are brewing in their own juice—that is, they don't get the talented boys they could get into their ranks. In the future, I think we will have a proposal to the Football Federation to organize a tournament in which teams made up of the best Zhas Kyran players will play against teams from football centers so that their leaders can regularly find talented guys for themselves. Thus, we are not just hoping, but dreaming to change the destinies of Kazakh boys, and at the same time support all Kazakh football.
— Could you tell us what is the most difficult thing about developing Zhas Kyrana?
B. K.: Probably, we are not yet finding understanding in all regions with which we have collaborated to promote Zhas Kyran. It is very easy for us to reach an akim; it is easy to agree on cooperation, as with Daniyal Kenzhetayevich (Akhmetov. — Approx. PROSPORT Kazakhstan), Krymbek Eleuovich (Kusherbayev. — Approx. PROSPORT Kazakhstan) or Berdibek Mashbekovich (Saparbayev. — Approx. PROSPORT Kazakhstan). They understood our idea right away and took it with a bang. But things are not moving so fast in some regions. And maybe it's not even about the first managers; it's just that sports departments are not everywhere imbued with this problem — the problem of training reserves and the need to increase mass participation in sports.
