Three Club Brugge fans who travelled to Kazakhstan to watch the Champions League match between the Belgian side and Kairat Almaty were detained by local authorities for dressing up as ‘Borat’, the satirical Kazakh character with an iconic green thong played by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
“On January 20, three men committed disrespectful and disturbing acts of public order during a soccer match,” said a statement from the local authorities, as reported by the newspaper DH Les Sports.
An administrative procedure has been opened against them for drunkenness and ‘hooliganism’ and on Wednesday they were sentenced to five days in prison, so they will remain in custody in Kazakhstan until next Sunday.
“It’s very serious. They did nothing but put on a Borat costume,” one of his friends told the Belgian newspaper Nieuwsblad
It’s very serious. They did nothing but put on a Borat costume
The fans, located among the 500 visiting supporters who populated the stands of the Central Stadium in Almaty, were arrested on Tuesday night during the match, which ended in a 4-1 victory for Club Brugge.
Despite the fact that the thermometers showed temperatures below zero degrees Celsius, the three Belgian fans wore the recognisable green thong with shoulder straps of the humorous character created in 2006 for the film ‘Borat: Cultural Lessons from America for the Benefit of the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan’
Perception shift
The character of Borat, a supposedly anti-Semitic, racist, sexist and homophobic Kazakh journalist who in his audiovisual adventures speaks English with a strong Eastern accent, has never been liked by the authorities in Kazakhstan.
However, after a strong initial backlash, with attempts to censor the product and official protests over what was seen in Astana as a denigration of the country and its culture, in recent years local discontent with the icon has relaxed, and it also serves as a tourist attraction.
The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that it is closely monitoring the situation and is providing consular assistance to its compatriots.
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