Incident in the first final
The original final took place on 25 November 1996 at the Central Stadium in Almaty betweenMunaishy and Yelimay. Before the match, both teams reported about the requirement about resignation of the president of the Football Association of the Republic of Kazakhstan (FARK) Kuralbek Ordabayev and warned that the winner will accept the cup only in case of Ordabayev's resignation. The match was won by Yelimay with the score 2–1 who refused to accept the cup. These actions were interpreted as refusal of participation in the final which resulted in it being replayed.[1] The new final was arranged between losing semi-finalists Kairat and Vostok-Adil on 26 April 1997.[2]
Background
Kairat and Vostok-Adil each entered their second Kazakhstan Cup final. In the their first finals, Kairat beat Fosfor 5–1 in 1992 while Vostok-Adil beat Aktyubinets 1–0 in 1994.[1]
Kairat and Vostok-Adil played each other three times during the league season. On 26 July 1996, Kairat won the first match 1–0 at the Central Stadium. On 13 September 1996, both sides played a 3–3 draw. In the third match, Vostok-Adil beat Kairat 2–0 with goals from Yevgeni Sveshnikov and Ruslan Duzmambetov.