On December 12 the UEFA Executive Committee with the majority of votes decided to recommend the Congress of the organization to accept the Football Union of Kazakhstan to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The Congress took place in April 2002 in the capital of Sweden (Stockholm).’

The UEFA delegation led by the union’s vice-president Dez Casey (Ireland) visited Kazakhstan. The guests visited Almaty and Astana to observe the sport infrastructure and meet the authorities, sport officials and businessmen.

Presentation of Kazakhstan and the Kazakhstani football were held at the UEFA Executive Committee in September. FUK’s vice-president Tlekbek Akpayev made a report and then a 20-minute film produced by “Khabar” agency about the history of Kazakhstan and the Kazakhstani football was demonstrated.

The Football Union of Kazakhstan withdrew from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) longing to join the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).

Kazakhstan National Futsal team took part in the III Asian Championship in Teheran (Iran). In the quarter-finals our team was defeated by Japan.

FC “Irtysh” from Pavlodar took part in the final round of the Asian Champions Cup in Korea. In the semifinals they lost Japan’s “Jubilo Iwata” and in their match for the third place “Irtysh” again lost to Iran’s “Piruzi” and finished fourth.

Kazakhstan national team took part in the 2002 World Cup qualifying round. Its group also included the teams of Macao, Iraq and Nepal. Initially the tournament had to take place in one round in Nepal. However this country’s federation refused to host it. As a result the tournament was held in two rounds with the first one in Bagdad and the second – in Almaty. The only spot in the second round had to be decided in the two-leg game between Kazakhstan and Iraq. The both legs finished on equals, and they had a similar number of points in top of the group. Kazakhstan finished second as it had worse goal difference. The team of Iraq continued the competition for a spot in Korea and Japan.

The AFC declared the head coach of Pavlodar’s “Irtysh” Leonid Nazarenko from Russia the best coach of Asia in March 2001.

FC ”Irtysh” finished second in the western quarter-final group of the ХХ Champions Cup and passed to the semifinals of the competition. Thus “Irtysh” became one of four best teams of Asia.

FC ”rtysh” from Pavlodar represented Kazakhstan in the ХХ Asian Champions Cup. The club replicated its previous year’s record and for the second time in a raw became the best team of Central Asia. They successfully played in two rounds of the competition and qualifyed to the quarter-finals.

Pavlodar’s forward Viktor Zubarev playing in FC “Apollo” (Limassol, Cyprus) was declared the top scorer of the Cyprus Top-League Championship in January 2001.

KFU President Rakhat Aliyev on November 23, 2000 and on January 21, 2001 met in Moscow with FIFA and UEFA Presidents Lennart Johansson and Joseph Blatter. The main purpose of negotiations was realization of Kazakhstan right for membership in the UEFA that meant the transfer of the KFU from the AFC to UEFA. The preliminary part of negotiations finished with no principal objections to Kazakhstan willing to join the UEFA and proposal to find out the official position of the AFC on this theme. On May 10 the AFC published a note of its web-site after discussions at its executive committee, reading that the KFU was free to make decisions itself. After that according to Reuters’ report and the note on UEFA official web-site, Lennart Johansson had stated at a press-conference on May 15 in Dortmund (Germany) that UEFA would be glad to accept Kazakhstan as its 52nd member. Also Mr. Johansson highlighted that Kazakhstan was considered as a country returning to the UEFA as earlier it had already been in the UEFA with the Soviet Union. UEFA executive director Gerhard Aigner added then that with all regulations settled by the KFU the UEFA could consider the issue of its acceptance as soon as in April 2002 in Stockholm at the executive committee and congress of the UEFA.

After that at a press-conference on May 21, 2001, the KFU informed that the Kazakhstani side interpreted UEFA’s statement as a guarantee that the issue would be considered seriously. The KFU began preparing documents for withdrawal from the AFC.