Waking up to the news that one of the biggest club football matches on the calendar has been scheduled to take part in Kazakhstan, I was momentarily excited, wondering indeed if the mighty Crewe Alexandra hadn’t agreed a pre-season tour of the country some time next summer. They would be made very welcome.
While the arrival of the Railwaymen from South Cheshire is not something we can rule out for the long term, we have to rule it out this morning, as the match in question is a rather more marketing-friendly affair, the UEFA Super Cup, no less, awarded to the Astana Arena for 2028.
Agreed, that’s a bigger story, and great news for Kazakhstan.
The Super Cup is a match played between the winners of the Champions League and the Europa League, and following scheduled improvements to the Kazakh venue, those two top sides from Europe will line up in the easternmost capital city in UEFA on a date yet to be finally confirmed.
This decision by the UEFA Exec Committee means that Kazakhstan will host a match of this significance for the first time, and getting the nod over several other cities is a fitting reward for the work the country has done to develop both its sporting infrastructure, and the level of performance of its athletes.
The 2027 Super Cup will take place in The Netherlands, also without Crewe Alexandra, but we English football fans have to be left to dream, in many cases, the dream is all we have.
