When FC Barcelona opened a new football academy in Kyrgyzstan in late August, the public reaction in the Central Asian state was warm and welcoming.
An exhibition match was held to promote the opening of the academy – the first of its kind in Central Asia – in which Barcelona ‘legends’ played against a team of Asian ‘legends’, including Kyrgyzstan’s president Sadyr Japarov, a former member of the national football team.
Barely a fortnight on from the sold-out game, a simple good news story had become darker – and the fate of Kyrgyzstan’s leading independent media outlet was hanging by a thread.
