Stuart Hall: “KFF’s work will focus on youth football”

16 March 2025, 10:43

FIFA Technical consultant for the national academy of the Kazakhstan U-16 team Stuart John Hall spoke about the plans for 2025 and training camp held in Dubai.

- Stuart, you recently had a meeting with KFF President Marat Omarov. Did you discuss with him further plans for the development of youth teams?
- I had a very encouraging meeting with the President, he was very enthusiastic regarding the future. He was positive that the KFF would focus on youth football and the youth national teams. We discussed some of the problems and the potential solutions. There are plans to build a youth academy in Almaty and also to upgrade Talgar, the president was very hopeful that work could start soon. We also talked about the National youth teams and how we could develop the program to ensure greater competition and exposure to top international football.

- In January, Kazakhstan U-16 team completed the training camp in the United Arab Emirates. Would you tell us more about it, how satisfied are you with the work done by the team?

- The January 10 day camp was excellent in all aspects, we trained in -12 degrees before departure to Dubai and changed to + 24 degrees in the UAE. The hotel was excellent and we had our own laundry and the players worked together to look after there own kit and equipment and showed great discipline. The training facility was excellent and is being used by Nottingham Forest this week and previously Aston Villa and Chelsea. Training was 2 sessions most days and the players performance improved on a daily basis ( they recently had 3 weeks holiday break ) The games were played in excellent stadiums also, it was good to win the games but more importantly all players got good minutes on field and injured players had a good rehabilitation program.

The players also enjoyed the visit to Dubai city and the beach, it was good for them to experience that standard of living and give them goals and ambition for the future.

- Are there any plans on participation of Kazakhstan U-16 team in international tournaments in 2025?

- The team has a UEFA development tournament in March which we will host in Shymkent. the opponents will be Uzbekistan, Belarus and Tajikstan. There are FIFA windows in June, September, October and November.

We are hoping to have invitations to other countries and games against competitive opposition. On the domestic front we need to compete in the QJ league in the 2009 age to play boys who are 1 year older than our squad.

- You have been working in Kazakhstan for more than a year, what conclusions have you made during this period of work and what, in your opinion, is the potential of youth football in Kazakhstan?

- The program has been running on a residential program since 17th August, so that's almost 6 months. The boys found the first month very challenging with new school, new physical and psychological demands and living in a new environment away from friends and family. In a country as large as Kazakhstan, a residential format is the only real option to get the correct amount of practice time.

The QJ league is a good competition for boys at the top end of the scale, U18/17/16, but there needs to be a lot of work done on the the boys and girls aged 7,8,9,10. The foundation work in most cases is not satisfactory and needs a drastic re-shape. To often the training sessions have to many players, not enough coaches, not enough contact time with ball and poor equipment.