Three Belgian Club Brugge supporters have discovered that what plays as a joke in the away end can be treated as an administrative matter in Kazakhstan.
An Astana court has sentenced the three men to five days of administrative detention after they attended Tuesday’s Champions League match between FC Kairat and Club Brugge dressed in the neon-green “mankini” made famous by the Borat films. Police detained them at the stadium, saying they were intoxicated, removed clothing and caused a disturbance.
The outfit choice was ambitious on several levels. First, it is not widely marketed as winter wear. Second, the match was not even in Almaty, despite Kairat’s name being welded to the city in most football minds. The fixture was staged in Astana, where clubs often decamp in winter for a covered arena and workable playing conditions. This is the sort of practical detail that UEFA and stadium managers care about, but it is also the sort of detail that makes a mankini feel less like fancy dress and more like a medical event.
Video clips circulated online showing three men in the stands, mankini-clad, chanting in Dutch and apparently delighted with themselves. Belgian reports quoted the chant as “Borat is van ons, olé olé” — “Borat is ours”. It was a claim of cultural ownership that Kazakhstan, being the country that Borat is supposedly from, may not have been inclined to recognise.
Borat is van ons ole ole! pic.twitter.com/dbYegol1aK
— 𝙁𝘾. 𝘽𝙧𝙪𝙜𝙚𝙨 𝘼𝙧𝙢𝙮 🏆 (@FcBrugesArmy) January 20, 2026
Kazakh police were not amused. Under the administrative offence system, “minor hooliganism” and public disorder are treated briskly, and the court handed down five days’ detention. Kazakhstan’s rules allow administrative arrest for short periods in such cases, and officials have previously described detention as a standard sanction for public order offences.
Belgium’s foreign ministry responded with the kind of language that suggests it has had worse phone calls but would rather not have this one. A spokesperson said Brussels was “monitoring” the case with the Belgian embassy in Astana and providing the necessary consular support. Diplomacy, after all, is often the art of sounding calm while someone else is explaining a costume decision.
The Borat connection is not a neutral prop in Kazakhstan. Sacha Baron Cohen’s fictional journalist character caused genuine irritation in the mid-2000s, when the first film’s depiction of the country provoked official condemnation and restrictions. Years later, the mood shifted: in 2020, Kazakhstan’s tourism authorities leaned into the joke, using Borat’s “Very nice” in promotional material around the release of the second film. The state, in other words, has moved from banning the punchline to occasionally renting it. That does not necessarily mean it wants visiting fans to deliver the full set, in swimwear, in January.
As for the football, Club Brugge won 4–1 and returned home with a result that will matter rather more than the wardrobe malfunction. The club’s own match report described the trip to Kazakhstan as a long haul and credited the win with keeping its European campaign alive. Kairat scored a late consolation in stoppage time, though it was not enough to alter the impression that Brugge had come, seen and collected points.
It also remains a reminder that away days are not all beer and banter. Kazakhstan is not a weekend in Bruges, and Astana Arena is not the Jan Breydel Stadium with different signage. Local rules apply, and authorities can respond quickly when they decide supporters have crossed the line from colourful to disruptive.
In practical terms, five days’ detention is short. It is also long enough to ensure that the main souvenir from Kazakhstan is not a scarf but an official stamp. The men are expected to be released after serving their terms unless further administrative proceedings are opened. No additional charges have been reported.
For Belgian officials, the episode is now a consular checklist. For Club Brugge fans, it is a cautionary tale about novelty swimwear, alcohol, and the hazards of assuming that a cinema gag travels well. And for everyone else, it is a reminder that if you are determined to dress like Borat, the safest venue is probably still a film screening — preferably indoors, and preferably somewhere that does not have the power to jail you for five days for proving you own a mankini.
