The preliminary stage of the Kazakhstan Cup 2024 in football kicked off in Shymkent on March 11. Nineteen clubs from the First and Second Leagues are divided into six subgroups and will play each other once. The winners of these groups will then compete for spots in the next round in single matches.
The schedule for the Kazakhstan Cup 2024 is as follows: March 11-19 – first round of the preliminary stage; March 21-23 – playoff stage of the preliminary round. Only three winners from the initial stage will advance to the 1/8 finals of the competition.
On the first day of the tournament, three games took place: "Okzhetpes" – "AKAs" ended in a 1-1 draw, "Akzhayyk" lost 0-1 to "Ontustik", and "Irtysh" won 1-0 against "Khan-Tengri".
On March 12, two more matches were held: "Taraz" beat "Ekibastuz" 2-1, and "Caspian" was defeated by "Zhas Kyran" with a score of 1-3. Upcoming days will see more preliminary matches in the other subgroups.
The current titleholder of the Kazakhstan Cup is "Tobol" from Kostanay, who defeated "Ordabasy" from Shymkent 1-0 last year. These teams kicked off the current season in Kazakh football, with the southerners initially winning the Winter PFLK Cup in Turkey. However, "Tobol" later secured victory in the decisive match for the country's Super Cup.
