A Kazakh court has sentenced three Belgian football fans to a few days in prison after their “performance” during a football game, when the men chanted slogans while wearing the popular comedy character Borat’s swimsuit, writes Politico.
Police detained the Belgians on the evening of the 20th of January, during a Champions League match between Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty and Belgium’s Club Brugge. The men were allegedly drunk, undressed and disturbing public order. An Astana court sentenced the three rioters to five days in prison on the 22nd of January for disturbing public order.
A video posted on the X shows the three men, despite the frost in eastern Kazakhstan, wearing the revealing, green swimsuits known to the wider public from the film Borat. The trio chanted in Belgian, “Borat is ours.”
Borat is van ons ole ole! pic.twitter.com/dbYegol1aK
— . (@FcBrugesArmy) January 20, 2026
A spokesman for the Belgian Foreign Ministry told Politico that they were monitoring the situation with the Belgian embassy in Astana and were providing the Belgians with the necessary consular support.
British actor Sacha Baron Cohen created the character of Borat for a satirical television show that exposed British and American stereotypes about the Central Asian country. A 2006 film featuring the same character became an international box office hit. The film initially angered Kazakh authorities and was banned. Kazakhstan’s then-foreign minister later said the character had played a big role in attracting tourists, and when the second Borat film was released in 2020, the country’s tourism campaigns began using Borat’s line, “Very nice.”
The football match, on the other hand, ended 4-1 in favor of the Belgians.
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