When Fenerbahce lost last season’s league title to crosstown rivals Galatasaray, it was obvious the club would not let that stand.  Seeing their rivals win the right to tack on a fourth star to their emblem (stars in Turkey are for every five league titles) certainly didn’t sit down well with the faithful.  While many were quick to put the blame on chairman Aziz Yildirim, and with the club’s fans already angry at the season that was suffered, Fenerbahce decided to make big moves in the transfer market to pacify supporters and make a run for the league title.

In the last few windows, Fenerbahce have been quiet on the transfer front.  The only major signing that was made in the last couple of windows was Diego Ribas from Atletico Madrid, and he came in as a free agent.  With the lack of European competition due to their two year ban imposed by UEFA for alleged match fixing, Fenerbahce could not attract any sort of decent talent from abroad.  But with the ban coming to an end, two things changed their transfer outlook.

The first is the relaxing of the Turkish Super League’s foreigner quota.  In previous years, the quota would force line-ups that would consist of a majority of Turks.  Some of those domestic players, fans of various clubs have argued, are of lower quality.  As such, the quality of play on the field has suffered.  As an example, last season allowed only five foreigners on the field during play, and three additional foreigners on the matchday roster, with one additional foreigner in reserve.  The new foreigner quota allows clubs to have up to 14 foreigners on a 28 man roster, up to eleven foreigners on a matchday roster, and the coach can determine the starting lineup as he sees fit.  As it pertains to the starting lineup, a coach could start a Turkish league game with all starters being foreigners.

SEE MORE — Listen to an interview with Ata Dizdar about Turkish soccer.

The second is the hiring of former Inter Milan sporting director Giuliano Terraneo as Fenerbahce’s sporting director.  Terraneo immediately went on the prowl for players.  While Sener Ozbayrakli and Fernandao already had deals with Fenerbahce at around the time Terraneo got hired, Terraneo has acquired players in a very unusual amount of time for any Turkish club.  Generally Turkish clubs tend to drag their feet when it comes to transfers and find it hard to convince players to come to Turkey.  Fenerbahce were quick to acquire central defender Simon Kjaer of Lille, defender Abdoulaye Ba and goalkeeper Fabiano Ribeiro of Porto (both of the Porto players come in on one-year loans), and, perhaps one that raised some eyebrows, midfielder Nani of Manchester United.

However, it’s Fenerbahce’s most recent transfer that has made the headlines.

Robin Van Persie was once the leading scorer of the English Premier League.  His most recent season at Manchester United didn’t work out so well as injuries hampered his playing time.  While the injuries were minor in nature, it certainly didn’t help Van Persie’s reputation of being injury prone.  There were times where he wasn’t in the starting eleven for other reasons; such has having Wayne Rooney or Radamel Falcao being selected ahead of him even when he was healthy.  But nobody expected Van Persie to move to Turkey, not even those within the country itself.  Like Wesley Sneijder’s move to Galatasaray before him, Van Persie’s move to Fenerbahce provided a lot of buzz within the football community.  Also, the transfer fee of €6.65 million euros (or £4.7 million) was seen as a bargain in some circles covering soccer in Turkey.  As a comparison, Fenerbahce acquired midfielder Souza from Sao Paulo for €8 million.

Some have argued that the only major reason foreign players sign with Turkish clubs is because of the money.  With a tax rate of 15% for football players in Turkey, that makes the Super League a very attractive area for players to ply their trade.  However, it is a far cry from the glamor of England, Spain, Germany, or Italy for instance.  Van Persie will get a significant wage rate at Fenerbahce for the next three years.  Given that, it is essential to question whether it’s too much for a player who is injury prone and has had attitude issues at times.

Granted, going to Turkey is a tremendous step down for him, and with the lesser quality, Van Persie shouldn’t have issues scoring goals.  But the money paid for him, the injury issues, and the attitude issues will be highly scrutinized.  Nobody in Turkey will be paid more than Van Persie, and whether he is worth it remains to be seen.

SEE MORE — Read more coverage about the Turkish Super League.

Fenerbahce is taking a tremendous financial risk with this signing.  Granted, Fenerbahce isn’t in as bad of a financial shape as their competitors, but paying the wages reported for Van Persie, along with the wages of Nani, Kjaer, etc., will have to be offset by revenues coming in.  As of right now, Fenerbahce does not have a shirt sponsor.  There are rumors that there are negotiations for a shirt sponsor and that the naming rights for Sukru Saracoglu stadium will be sold off.  In fact, there has been a report published by news website T24 that Ulker, the food manufacturer, has paid for the stadium naming rights. However, players like Nani or Van Persie are not going to play for cheap, especially if they’re playing in Turkey.  Fenerbahce may want to put last season’s failure to retain the league title behind them, but it’s coming at a financial risk.  While Financial Fair Play rules have been relaxed, their Istanbul big three rivals already are under settlements with UEFA’s Club Financial Control Board.  Fenerbahce didn’t have to worry about FFP with their ban, but now that they are back in Europe, they will have to.

The transfer period that Fenerbahce is having hasn’t been seen in Turkey for years.  Most of the time, the major Turkish clubs, with Fenerbahce being a prime example of this, have had to drag their feet when it comes to transfers from abroad.  The addition of Terraneo certainly has helped Fenerbahce attract these sorts of players.  But the major reason for this is the new foreigner quota for the Turkish league.  So perhaps comparisons with previous transfer windows can’t be logically made due to this.  With the availability of many more foreigner spots on a roster in comparison with previous seasons, this transfer period was anticipated to see how all the clubs would respond.  For Fenerbahce, they have responded to the loosening of the quota in a major way.

It also worth noting that Fenerbahce has to go through Champions League qualifiers.  While that has been the case in the past, the hope was that the club would qualify for the group stages and then make quick moves when qualification was secured.  The question is, will the current transfer policy cost them from a financial prospect in a few years?

With their ban from Europe at an end, and with the fans already angry about how last season ended, Fenerbahce has made moves to give fans some sort of hope.  With the foreigner quota being relaxed, and without any transfers made in the last few windows, Fenerbahce have gone on a spending spree.  But this sort of spending has been seen before, and the results have not been positive.  Granted that Fenerbahce has some financial muscle to work with in comparison with other clubs, but whether it results in trophies in upcoming season remains to be seen.  If it doesn’t work out, then the club will pay dearly from a financial standpoint.

Match fixing allegations from Galatasaray’s game played last weekend threaten to mar the 2014/15 Turkish Super Lig.

First, the backstory.

When Besiktas Chairman Suleyman Seba died before this season started, the Turkish Football Federation was quick to name this season in his honor.  Seba was considered a highly respected member of the soccer community in Turkey.  He was seen as a paragon of virtue in sport.  He was not only seen as the quintessential Besiktas man by fans of that club, but even fans of rival clubs held him in great esteem.  Unfortunately, this season may have put his famous quote, said back in 1993 when Besiktas lost the league title to Galatasaray on the final day of the 1992-93 season, back into the spotlight:

“It is better to finish an honorable second than a tainted first.” Suleyman Seba, Besiktas chairman 1982-2000.

This past Saturday, Galatasaray was hosting Genclerbirligi in week 32 of this season’s Turkish Super League.  Galatasaray would go on to win the match 1-0 with a goal in the 67th minute from Wesley Sneijder.  The goal itself would be the subject of controversy.  Videos posted on Vine showed Genclerbirligi goalkeeper Ferhat Kaplan leaping to his left, trying to recover, but the ball went in. Accusations were made that Kaplan intentionally let the ball go in so that Galatasaray could win the game. From the video, it looks like Kaplan jerked his hand back and didn’t completely outstretch his arm to make a decent attempt to save the ball.

Another video on Vine that wasn’t so widespread was an offside trap attempted earlier on in the second half of the game. When Yasin Oztekin was attacking from the right and going into the penalty area, he made the pass to Umut Bulut.  While the Genclerbirligi defenders seemed to get out of the way, presumably to execute an offside trap, they failed to realize that a fellow defender was keeping Bulut onside.  Some people implied that the Genclerbirligi defenders intentionally got out of the way so that Bulut could score, even though Bulut would whiff the attempt.

When the match was over, the match fixing allegations came from all sides.  Besiktas forward Demba Ba tweeted that “some people in this world must really be ashamed” after the match was over.  Another tweet came from TV pundit and former referee Ahmet Cakar, who found the goal to be strange and asked why Kaplan was pulling back his hand on the goal.  Bilal Niyaz, who plays for fourth tier side Bergama Belediyespor, tweeted that he was ashamed to play soccer in the country, and that anyone who doesn’t think this match was fixed should feel the wrath of God.  Moestapha El Kabir favorited a tweet sent his way in Dutch saying that his team tried, but that his team’s keeper and Bogdan Stancu should be ashamed of themselves. El Kabir would later remove the tweet from his favorites.  Various publications in Europe, from Dutch publications to English papers, picked up on the video and were quick to ask whether the fix was in or not.

With the widespread accusations of the match being fixed, Genclerbirligi went into pseudo-damage control mode.  Club chairman Ilhan Cavcav put a gag order on the club’s players to stop them from speaking with the media after the game was over.  Cavcav mentioned to Turkish newspaper Haberturk that Kaplan “could’ve reached out better” for the ball and that Kaplan “is an honest goalkeeper and has character”.  However, earlier in the day on a sports program, Cavcav mentioned that if his team couldn’t be champions, Galatasaray should be champions.  With these words from Cavcav, many people were quick to accuse him that he intentionally had his team “throw” the match.  In an era post-2011 match fixing case, every word coming out of the mouths of various soccer officials gets scrutinized.  Cavcav would later say his words were taken out of context, but he had admitted before that he was a fan of Galatasaray growing up and was a fan of that club currently.

Much of the world, at least on the Internet, started questioning the legitimacy of Galatasaray’s win over Genclerbirligi once the word spread over social media.  However, some who have followed the league closely over the last couple of months have started to question some of the results Galatasaray have gotten compared to their rivals.  One particular point of discussion is the play of certain teams from Anatolia going up against the Istanbul big 3.  The accusations are that these Anatolian teams tend to play their usual game against Besiktas and Fenerbahce, while not trying so hard against Galatasaray.  Others have made accusations that the Turkish Football Federation and the referees have been “protecting” Galatasaray, and point out that no Galatasaray player has seen a red card this season as evidence of this.  One example that is immediately pointed out is the antics of Galatasaray midfielder Felipe Melo.  In last week’s match, there were two instances of Melo’s cleat making contact with the opposing players’ feet that could have warranted a direct red card.

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Perhaps the most obvious questioning of legitimacy of a Galatasaray win, before this past weekend, was back in March in week 25 when Galatasaray beat Kasimpasa 3-2.  While a comeback from a 2-0 halftime deficit is always possible regardless of any league, some have questioned the legitimacy of how it was done.  The first point of debate was the half time break for this game, as the halftime period was 25 minutes instead of the usual fifteen.  In the laws of the game, only the referee can extend the halftime break as he sees fit.  But there has never been an explanation as to why the half time break was extended. When Galatasaray scored two goals to tie the match, both goals came from attacks from the left flank.  The Kasimpasa defender covering that flank was Veysel Sari, a right back who was transferred to Kasimpasa from Galatasaray late last summer.  When Sari was substituted in the 87th minute, Sari left to a barrage of boos.  Kasimpasa fans immediately accused him of fixing the match for Galatasaray.  Fans of Galatasaray’s rivals also accused him via social media of intentionally allowing the attacks that led to Galatasaray two goals early on in the second half.  The goals came in the 52nd and 55th minute respectively.  Coincidentally at that substitution, Galatasaray club official Abdurrahim Albayrak started to feel under the weather and had to be seen by a team doctor.  Social media in Turkey, however, posted pictures of Albayrak looking fine the following day, leading to suspicions that he may have been involved in a fix during the game.  These allegations were quickly forgotten.

For Galatasaray, winning the title and the group stage berth into the UEFA Champions League that comes along with it isn’t a requirement. It’s a necessity.  The club has a total debt of around or a little over 800 million Turkish lira ($308 million) according to recent reports.  Granted, Besiktas have been reported to have more total debt, but they have the ready excuse that they are currently rebuilding Inonu Stadium with their own funds, and their debt should decrease after the stadium construction concludes and the new ground opens.  Galatasaray’s stadium was built with taxpayer dollars. And speaking of taxes, Galatasaray also owes around 140 million Turkish lira ($54 million) in back taxes.

Should Galatasaray not qualify for the Champions League, it could spell financial disaster.  Galatasaray is also under a UEFA Financial Fair Play settlement, which will last until the end of next season.  It’s quite possible that they will not be able to uphold the terms of the settlement, thereby subjecting them to various sanctions from UEFA.

Going back to the Galatasaray-Genclerbirligi match, the accusations have provided a dark cloud over Turkish soccer. Granted, the 2011 match fixing case provided another dark cloud, but all the decisions from a sporting standpoint have been rendered.  In terms of the legalities, the suspects who were initially found guilty in the now abolished “special authority courts” are now being retried due to abrogation of due process.

The match itself fed into the thoughts of some fans that the season has been set up for Galatasaray to be champions.  In an age where every play is scrutinized, rightly or wrongly, due to the effects of the 2011 match fixing case, the suspicious play surrounding this match does nothing to change the minds of those who believe that match fixing is still prevalent in Turkish soccer.  In fact, those people who believe that seem to think that some clubs are allowed to bend the rules, while others play by the rules yet get accused of breaking them.

When the match fixing case broke out in the summer of 2011, people were demanding that the Turkish Football Federation “clean up” soccer in the country.  Because of the controversy surrounding the Galatasaray-Genclerbirligi match, the question now being asked is whether the TFF wants to clean up the game.  In a season named after one of Turkish football’s most respected club officials in recent memory, his most famous quote may be in the spotlight once again.  It may have more relevance today than it did when he first said it years ago.

After a 5-1 victory on the road against Rizespor on Saturday, the bus transporting Fenerbahce players and club officials came under attack from gunmen. The bus went over a viaduct when gunmen started shooting at the bus. The bus driver, who was identified as Ufuk Kiran, was struck by the glass from the bullets hitting the windows. A Fenerbahce security official slammed on the brakes when he noticed that the driver was shot, thereby preventing an even greater tragedy. The driver was taken to the hospital and his injuries were not life threatening.

Initial reports from Turkish media were conflicting. The Trabzon provincial governor initially said that a rock caused the damage to the bus. He later changed his story as more evidence came out that the damage was caused by bullets. The bullets have been determined to have originated from a shotgun. The governor, Abdil Celil Oz, said that he had received a phone call from Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asking about the investigation.

After the attack, pictures of the aftermath of the attack were seen across the news. They revealed damage to the windshield of the bus and the driver side window was shattered. Pictures also revealed blood on the driver’s seat and steering wheel.

Fenerbahce midfielder Mehmet Topal told reporters that they had “cheated death” and called the situation unbelievable. Fenerbahce vice-chairman Mahmut Uslu said that the shooting was an attempt to kill the players. The players eventually made it to the airport under armed guard and flew out to Istanbul. They were greeted at Sabiha Gokcen airport by fans and club officials led by club chairman Aziz Yildirim.

Many had come out to quickly condemn the attack. The Turkish Football Federation issued a statement of condemnation of the attack. Various clubs throughout the Turkish Super League did so as well.

However, there were many in Turkey who came out in support of the attack. Trabzonspor lawyer Atilla Dilaver tweeted that Fenerbahce influenced the media to change the story from the bus getting hit with rocks and “turned it into” a shooting, even though the initial investigation found that it was in fact a gun attack. Galatasaray club official Selim Arda Ucer said that while “match fixing was one thing, life is something else”. People praising the shootings were fans who support Trabzonspor and Galatasaray for the most part. Social media messages varied in this matter ranging from people wishing that they had died to Fenerbahce deserving to get shot because they had fixed matches in the 2010-2011 season to even why didn’t the shooter kill Emre Belozoglu. Some have even put the blame for the shootings on the Turkish Football Federation themselves.

Fenerbahce came out on Sunday and called for the league to be suspended. In a statement posted on their website said: “We consider that as long as this attack is not solved in a way that satisfies Fenerbahce and the public, it is inevitable that the league should be suspended. Blood ran and football was silenced.” The Turkish Football Federation later decided to suspend Fenerbahce’s matches for this week. One was the Turkish Cup quarter-final second leg against Mersin Idman Yurdu and the other was their league match against Bursaspor.

There were those in social media implying that the TFF did so to give Fenerbahce an unfair advantage over the other teams. Since Fenerbahce had eight players injured, three of which suffered injuries during their match against Rizespor, it would give Fenerbahce extra time for players to recover. Some even implied that Fenerbahce influenced the TFF into postponing their games due to so many of their players being injured.

The Turkish Football Federation then decided to suspend all league matches for one week. Also, the second legs of the Turkish Cup quarterfinals have been suspended.

In a press conference on Monday, Fenerbahce officials said that they do not want to play until the incident is resolved. Fenerbahce official Deniz Tolga Aytore said that the club will not play any matches and that the club’s responsibilities have been fulfilled. Aytore added that they found this incident to be an assassination attempt, and do not consider the incident to be an extension of a row with Trabzonspor about the much debated league title of 2011 due to a match fixing case. Granted the league has suspended play, but it looks as though Fenerbahce are pressuring the authorities to wrap up the case in a timely manner. In a country where investigations either drag on for so long that people forget about them, or covers up investigations, perhaps this is something to encourage the authorities to get the investigation resolved in a timely manner. Whether Fenerbahce actually goes through with their threat of not playing is another story.

The shooting uncovers a far greater issue when it comes to Turkish soccer, and Turkish society as a whole, and that is the polarization of fans. The fact that some fans on social media are praising the actions of the shooters not only is disturbing, but infuriating. Turks already have a stereotype attached to them as barbarians, and those praising this shooting did not help change anyone’s views.

The shooting could affect the possibility of transfer signings this summer. The Turkish Football Federation recently approved a loosening of the foreigner quota. However, because of the shooting, many players would be very wary of coming to Turkey, even those who are part of the Turkish diaspora. Turkey already doesn’t have the best of reputations in terms of its league being attractive to players, unless there’s money thrown around. With this shooting, will foreigners, even with the money and the 15% tax rate on footballers, even think about coming to Turkey? Their security might not be guaranteed.

The shadow of the 2011 match fixing case has never gone away. That may be more due to people who can’t move on from the TFF’s decision on the matter. While some cite UEFA’s decision to bar Fenerbahce from Europe for two years, UEFA can’t rule on affairs exclusive to a domestic federation, which the 2011 match fixing scandal was. There has always been confusion among people in Turkey and in the Turkish diaspora as to the autonomy of soccer organizations, and this has never been rectified. Regardless of where people have stood on the 2011 match fixing case, all the decisions from the respective organizations have been rendered.

However, many are still using that as an excuse to justify any sort of action against Fenerbahce, much less this one. There is a certain section of the populace that says that this would go away if Fenerbahce gave Trabzonspor the 2011 league title. But the TFF has already ruled on the matter, and even if that were to happen, the backlash against Fenerbahce due to that case would not cease. It has been Trabzonspor and those affiliated with the club for the most part who still are dragging this already dead issue into the spotlight when they should have moved on. While the club itself has condemned the attack, this grudge of Trabzonspor’s over a league title from four years ago has gone on for far too long.

Many in Turkey still mockingly refer to Fenerbahce as a “match fixing” club, so they justify any sort of action against the club due to this perception. This has now even extended itself to the bus shooting. People have left comments and tweeted that due to the fact that Fenerbahce allegedly engaged in match fixing, they deserved to have their bus shot at. One would think that due to this sort of thinking, if a greater tragedy occurred and people had died, people would find same sort of justification for it.

The match fixing case is currently being retried in the Turkish court system. One can only imagine what would happen if all of the accused are found not guilty or the case is dropped. Granted the case isn’t the major cause of the issues of Turkish football. It’s just the most popularized.

The Fenerbahce bus shooting should have been able to bring the soccer community together in Turkey. In some ways it has, but in other ways it still shows how polarized the country is. While some people were trying to justify the actions of a shooter, it shows that Turkey isn’t really a soccer country at all. All Turkey has in terms of soccer is a club culture, and a very poisonous one at that. The shooting of the Fenerbahce team bus has brought out the best and worst of Turkish soccer and its fans.

As for what the solution to this ongoing problem is, even if there was a perfect solution, it would never solve the problem. Even if there was a tragedy involving players, club officials, or even soccer administrators, some will find a way to justify the actions, especially if it involves Fenerbahce in some form. But the Fenerbahce bus shooting just shows that according to some people in Turkey, some lives aren’t worth as much as others, and that’s the biggest tragedy of all.

For a team that was tipped by some in the Turkish media to be champions, the first quarter of the season Fenerbahce have just about lived up to that billing. The team was already making headlines before the season even started, as manager Ersun Yanal was abruptly sacked three weeks before the season kicked off. Current manager Ismail Kartal has steered the club to joint-first after nine gameweeks of the season. However, there have been criticism about the side’s new playing style.

The first nine weeks have been hectic for Fenerbahce, playing Trabzonspor in the second week and meeting with their fellow three Istanbul rivals all away from home. It’s been demanding, but the team have found a way to grind out the results that see them well placed for the remainder of the campaign.

Performance Overview:

Some of the results have not been achieved without a bit of luck or controversy. One that springs to mind is the match against Gaziantepspor, which was won 1-0 thanks to a controversial penalty which should not have been called. Yet again they defeated Genclerbirligi courtesy of two penalties, although both appeared to be legitimates penalties for the most part. Luck has also played a role, when Fenerbahce went down to 10 men before halftime against Konyaspor. A Moussa Sow goal and the opposition’s woeful conversion in the final third saw the side claim a plucky win. On a whole, however, the side has been composed and should be commended for their results thus far.

Weaknesses 

Defensive lapses have been a major weakness for Fenerbahce so far this season. Disciplinary issues were also evident with Bekir Irtegun and Bruno Alves receiving red cards in weeks six and seven respectively. However, the man directly guilty of defensive lapses has been Michal Kadlec. The normally dependable center-back has scored two own goals this season against Karabukspor and Rizespor. Aside from some minor mishaps Kadlec otherwise has been solid his partnership Irtegun continues to develop promisingly.

Strengths

Fenerbahce is in first place after a quarter of the season. The derbies have all been played on the road and gives the team an edge in the second half of the term. Fenerbahce went unbeaten at home last season, and are currently unbeaten at home this season. While things could be better, the team is starting to come together at maybe the right time. In midfield the side has been able to control the tempo of matches. The side’s gritty nature and team spirit has been the real highlight of their results.

Best starting XI:

(4-3-3) Demirel; Gonul, Irtegun, Kadlec, Erkin; Meireles, Topal, Ribas; Potuk, Moussa Sow, Emenike.

Positions needed to be filled in the transfer window:

Fenerbahce will need a backup right-back, as there really is no definitive backup plan if Gokhan Gonul should go down with injury. Also, it will help Fenerbahce if they invest in a Turkish center-back. This is due to the foreigner cap in the Turkish Super League (five foreigners on the pitch, three on the bench, one in reserve) being very restrictive. A tall foreign center-back could also help, but only if they offload a few foreigners in the winter transfer window. The basic necessity of Fenerbahce is to acquire younger players, as the team has one of the oldest squads (based on average age, in which for Fenerbahce is around 28 years old) in the Super League. Considering they are most likely going to be playing in Europe next season, getting younger players who can keep up with the faster play of continental competition is imperative.

Most Improved:

Bekir Irtegun. Irtegun might not be the flashiest, or the most imposing of center backs. But he has gradually improved over the last few years to be a dependable center-back for Fenerbahce. If a center-back only gets truly noticed in the Turkish league for the mistakes he makes, then Irtegun hasn’t been noticed. The 30-year-old has done extremely well to fill in for primary-choice Egemen Korkmaz, who has a knee injury. When he returns it will be interesting to see whether Irtegun retains his place in the team.

Best performer:

Alper Potuk. Over the last few weeks, whether in central midfield or on the left wing, Alper Potuk is a player that can’t be dropped from the starting lineup. That is, unless, when Fenerbahce have to put out a lineup that abides by the Turkish Super League’s foreigner cap. One of the best examples of his play was during the Besiktas match in week eight. His dashing run into the box exposed the Besiktas right flank and set up a simple tap in for striker Emmanuel Emenike. I can’t remember one performance where he’s let the side down this season.

Managerial progress:

There have been several instances where Fenerbahce fans, whether in the stands or through social media have insisted that Ismail Kartal should quit. Some have criticized some of his substitutions in games. However, many of the subs have been in situations where Fenerbahce needed to grind out a result by being defensive. This is his first major job of any kind after being an assistant coach for the last four seasons and the team seems to be coming together nicely. The players appear to be enjoying the manager’s leadership. Whether Kartal will become the coach going forward after this season remains to be seen, even if he does lead the team to their 20th league title.

Injury news:

Two injuries complicate things for Fenerbahce. Korkmaz is still recovering from a knee injury suffered last season. Recently, Gonul has been diagnosed with a partial tear of the groin, which will sideline him for about three weeks. With no natural right-back to replace Gonul, it may make things difficult. Emre Belozoglu suffered a hamstring strain during week eight and is yet to return.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

It’s been a relatively solid start the campaign for Fenerbahce, after navigating through a tricky fixture list to find themselves in a position of authority. If the side can stay injury-free then they will have every opportunity of lifting yet another Super League trophy.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this for Trabzonspor. With the team suffering its worst start in the Turkish top-flight in 40 years – four wins and a loss – people have begun to speculate about the future of manager Vahid Halilhodzic. Trabzonspor have only had two wins in competitive matches this season. One came in the Europa League playoff round against Russian club FC Rostov, and the other was in the Europa League group stages against Metalist Kharkiv. It took a last-gasp goal from defender Avraam Papadopoulos in order to achieve that feat.

In a country where patience in football has never been a virtue, Trabzonspor finds themselves already in a torrid position. After signing an insane 20 players in summer transfer window, success was never going to come overnight. The coach said it would take time for the team chemistry to develop, however, their poor start has people hitting the panic button. The loss of exceptional goalkeeper Onur Kivrak to a long-term knee injury for four to six months was a massive blow to the side.

It is essentially a team created from scratch. Players like Adrian Mierjewski, Olcan Adin, and Paulo Henrique were sold, whilst Gustavo Colman, Ondrej Celustka, and Florent Malouda were released from contracts. It led Trabzonspor to conduct a complete summer overhaul. Players signed include Oscar Cardozo, Kevin Constant, Waris Majeed, and Mehmet Ekici to name just a few.

As always, team chemistry plays a key role in success. Halilhodzic was instated as boss shortly after the World Cup finished and basically said he oversaw a team who he didn’t think could produce the goods. He suggested to the board that a clear-out was necessary, and with all the moves that occurred it could be worse. However, it’s not an idea situation and the loss against Karabukspor at the weekend was a crushing blow.

Sitting in 16th position with just four points, few people would have expected such a disappointing start.

Rumors have begun to circle that other managers are being monitored as potential replacements for Halilhodzic. One coach in particular, Ersun Yanal, who led Fenerbache to the league title last season, is a frontrunner for the job if results don’t improve. 

For a club desperate to win the league title that has evaded them for the past three decades, Trabzonspor must decide whether to stick or twist with their manager sooner, rather than later.

When one thinks of soccer in Turkey, the first thing that would come to mind is the passion of the fans.  The fans in Turkey have the reputation for being some of the craziest in Europe.  But currently this season, the Turkish Super League has seen declining attendances.  Where fans have once chanted for ninety minutes straight, they have been relatively silenced for the most part.  Many have pointed out that this is the fault of a recently implemented electronic ticketing system called Passolig.

The Passolig system came as a result of the 2011 Violence in Sports Act (or Law 6222 on Sport).  The purpose of the system is to prevent unwanted incidents, such as pitch invasions by fans, and hooliganism.  The idea behind the system was to sanction individual fans instead of the clubs themselves for actions by fans.  This has not been the case so far, as Galatasaray had to play in front of an empty stadium for their first home game of this season.  But much of the criticism of the system derives from two factors.  One is the nature of surveillance, and freedom of expression.

The threat of surveillance is one of the biggest criticisms of the system.  Signing up for the system requires a fan to submit personal information, with one of them being which team the fan supports.  Once registered, the person can only get tickets for games involving their supported club only.  Tickets are not transferable, and one cannot take a friend to a game unless they are signed up for the system as well.  Every seat in a stadium is associated with an ID number, so there is no fan anonymity.  The personal information is then kept by AktifBank. AktifBank, who won the contract for Passolig last April, is owned by the son-in-law of then-prime minister, now president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  With the bank having a monopoly over the administration of this system, Erdogan and his allies within his own AK Party have denied government tenders if said businesses were not favorable to the ruling party.  While security cameras around the stadium wouldn’t be anything new for football fans anywhere, many fear that the cameras used in the stadium will be used to identify fans that the ruling party could potentially harass and target.  This leads to fans, understandably, being very wary of what the government would do with their personal information.

This leads to the other criticism of freedom of expression.  People in Turkey have used the stadiums as an outlet to exercise freedom of assembly.  Passolig was announced in 2013, coincidentally after the Gezi Park protests. Many fan groups took to the streets to protest government policies.  The Carsi fan group, who support Besiktas, was one of the most vocal in those protests.  Earlier this September, several of their leaders were indicted by the government on charges of attempting to overthrow the government.  Prosecutors are seeking life imprisonments for those leaders of Carsi, accused of inciting people to stage violent protests against the government.  With the law of Violence In Sports being very vague in its application, and the harassment of people protesting the government by the authorities, trust in the government is at a low point.

Attendances have suffered because of Passolig.  Out of information available from transfermarkt.com.tr, only five teams have averaged over ten thousand people per home game.  Even matches so far this season that would have attracted full crowds, such as Trabzonspor-Fenerbahce from week 2 and Bursaspor-Besiktas from week 3, have been played in front of some empty seats.  Granted, most games last season without the Passolig system didn’t see sellouts, but the two matches mentioned generally produce sellout crowds.  Considering that the Galatasaray-Fenerbahce derby is set to be played a couple of weeks from now, one can only think how Passolig will affect the attendance for one of the most famous derbies worldwide if the two previously mentioned matches are any indication.  Passolig, however, does not affect the European matches, as evidenced by the near 60,000 in attendance for Besiktas’ Champions League qualifying match against Arsenal.

Implementation of the system, even after it was launched, has been an issue.  Technical issues have seen fans waiting outside, even with a ticket bought via Passolig, even when the match has kicked off.  This has even extended into European matches.  Galatasaray’s Champions League match against Anderlecht saw many empty seats in Europe’s biggest club competition.  For European matches, fans who signed up for the Passolig system could get their tickets in an exclusive pre-sale, but for many of those fans who had a ticket, the system had issues preventing many fans from getting in.  Fans have boycotted by not going to games at all, or have started attending lower division domestic matches where Passolig has not been implemented.

With the declining attendances, Turkish football matches don’t seem to have the appeal it had once had.  With people frustrated by Passolig for various reasons, it has made people watch the game on television and avoid the stadiums altogether. It makes you wonder what impact it may be having too on Turkish football betting sites.  Whether this system will continue or be scrapped remains to be seen.  But regardless, attendance at the stadium is important for the clubs to generate revenue.  With the empty stands seen on television, it doesn’t provide a good impression on a first time viewer of the Turkish league.  With that, the soul of football in Turkey may be lost, possibly for good.