Kazakhstan’s long wait to qualify for their first major international tournament is going to go on for a least another year after they managed to win just one of their ten Euro 2016 qualifiers by signing off their campaign with a 1-0 dead rubber win over Latvia.
Prior to said Latvia victory, The Hawks had won just two of their previous 20 games – both being friendlies against fellow central Asian footballing super powers Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
With a desperately needed and current head coach Yuri Krasnozhan on the way out, the Kazakhstan Football Federation (FFK) have decided to let the fans take responsibility for their next managerial appointment.
Indeed, the FFK have decided to utilise an online poll to decide their new coach. In the first round of voting, fans will be asked simply if they’d like to see a Kazakh or a foreign coach given the job.
The second round of voting allows fans to name a specific coach from a list of candidates. Unfortunately, the FFK have had to be realistic with their targets.
“Basically, no Mourinho,” federation spokesman Dmitry Nesterenko told The Associated Press.
The Federation have stipulated that at least 50,000 votes will have to be lodged before they take the fans’ response into consideration.
Neserenko confirmed that the take-up rate hasn’t exactly been hot, with just 1,732 fans voting for a foreign coach and a further 336 for a Kazakh.
“There aren’t really any problems with popularising football,” Nesterenko said.
“People go to the football, watch it, but I can’t say why no one is voting.”
(Via ESPN FC)