Three Club Brugge fans who traveled to Kazakhstan to watch a Champions League match between the Belgian team and Kairat Almaty were detained by local authorities for dressing up as British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s satirical Kazakh character Borat, who wears the iconic green thong.
“On January 20, three men engaged in disrespectful and disturbing public order behavior during a soccer match,” local authorities said, as reported by DH Resport.
Administrative proceedings were initiated against them on charges of drunkenness and “hooliganism” and on Wednesday they were sentenced to five days in prison and will be detained in Kazakhstan until next Sunday.
“It’s very serious. They were just wearing Borat costumes,” one friend told Belgian newspaper Neuseblad.
It’s very serious. They just wore Borat costumes.
The fans, who were among 500 supporters gathered in the stands of Almaty’s central stadium, were arrested during Club Brugge’s 4-1 win on Tuesday night.
Despite the thermometer reading below zero degrees Celsius, the three Belgian fans wore familiar green thongs with humorous character shoulder straps created in 2006 for the film Borat: Cultural Lessons from America for the Glorious Land of Kazakhstan.
change in perception
The character Borat, an anti-Semitic, racist, sexist, and homophobic Kazakh journalist who speaks English with a strong Eastern accent in his audiovisual adventures, is never liked by the Kazakh authorities.
But while there was initially a strong backlash, including attempts to censor the product and protests by authorities in Astana over what was seen as defaming the country and its culture, recent years have seen local dissatisfaction with the icon ease and it doubles as a tourist attraction.
Belgium’s Foreign Ministry said it was closely monitoring the situation and providing consular assistance to its compatriots.
