Shakhter Returns: How Timur Turlov Is Developing Football in Karaganda

Shakhter FC has secured its place in the country’s Premier League ahead of schedule. Timur Turlov, who acquired the club at an auction a year ago, is confident that this is the beginning of major changes. Last year, the entrepreneur also headed the Karaganda Regional Football Association and announced plans to build a football academy in the region. Sport has become part of Turlov’s broader charitable activities, which encompass education, chess, environmental initiatives, and social projects. 

Karaganda Returns to the Premier League

“Shakhter, congratulations on your return to the Kazakhstan Premier League. We have a great future ahead of us. We will build a football academy where generations of footballers will develop, and we will improve the infrastructure in our home city,” Timur Turlov congratulated the Karaganda club in a post on his Instagram account.

In November 2025, a company within the Freedom Holding structure acquired Shakhter FC at an auction. A few months earlier, in August of the same year, Timur Turlov was appointed head of the Karaganda Football Association. At that time, the entrepreneur also presented a four-year plan for the development of football in the Karaganda Region, under which Turlov and Freedom Holding Corp. plan to invest KZT 18.5 billion. Of this amount, KZT 12 billion will go toward establishing the Shakhter Football Academy, while another KZT 6.5 billion will be allocated to the development of grassroots and youth football in the region.

The New Shakhter Football Academy

The Shakhter Football Academy will be built on an area of more than 9 hectares and will include three full-size pitches, an indoor arena, a heated training pitch, a 3,500-seat stadium, a boarding school, and medical facilities.

New opportunities will be available not only to young athletes, but also to coaches and referees. Specialists will be able to take professional development courses, while the best-performing participants will receive grants to obtain UEFA-standard licenses and will take part in international practical training programs.

Alongside the development of new infrastructure, Turlov is also restoring existing facilities: renovation of Lokomotiv Stadium has begun in Karaganda, as has the renovation of Zhiger Stadium in Abai.

“Football Is Born in the Courtyards”

Another important area that Timur Turlov is developing is integrating football into the school curriculum and creating football pitches in villages and remote areas.

“Football does not begin in large stadiums; it is born in courtyards and on school grounds,” the entrepreneur believes.

During the year that Turlov has headed the Karaganda Football Association, 200 football training sessions have been held at 40 schools across the region. Children’s tournaments brought together 159 teams and more than 2,500 athletes.

Timur Turlov has been developing football in Kazakhstan since 2023, when he and Rochus Schuch established the Freedom QJ League, a youth football league bringing together teams from different regions of the country. The holding company finances the championships, including transportation, accommodation and meals for away games, refereeing, and match organization.

Timur Turlov’s Social Projects

Chess is one of the key areas of Turlov’s social investment. Over the past three years, Freedom Holding has allocated $75 million to the development of the sport.

Since 2023, Turlov has headed the Kazakhstan Chess Federation. In 2024, he began promoting school chess internationally through the International School Chess Federation (ISCF), which operates under the auspices of FIDE. In 2026, ISCF is holding a large-scale tournament for school students, bringing together participants from Asia, Europe, Africa, and North, Central, and South America. Also in 2026, Turlov announced his candidacy for the FIDE presidency, running as a team with former world champion Viswanathan Anand.

Another major area of investment is education and technology. In 2025, Freedom Holding funded access to ChatGPT Edu for 165,000 teachers. The company also financed the creation of a new space at SDU University, featuring artificial intelligence laboratories, fintech research centers, and financial literacy zones.

Since 2023, the group’s social and environmental initiatives have been brought together under the corporate Freedom Shapagat Foundation. Its projects include Eco-Aul, which aims to provide villages in the Kyzylorda Region with clean water and combat desertification. Freedom, together with USAID, supported an experimental planting of black saxaul across 150 hectares of the exposed seabed of the Aral Sea. Freedom Holding has allocated more than KZT 100 billion to various charitable projects in Kazakhstan.