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Istanbul (AFP) – Stefan Kuntz feels like he is “coming home” after signing a three-year contract as Turkey’s national coach with the aim to guide them to their first World Cup finals in 20 years.
The 58-year-old former German international striker scored nine goals playing for Istanbul-based side Besiktas in 1995/96.
Kuntz, who has established his coaching reputation on the back of coaching Germany to two European Under-21 titles (2017/21), looked back on those days with longing while formally signing his contract to replace Senol Gunes as Turkey’s new head coach.
“It’s like coming home. It was an unbelievable one year in Besiktas,” Kuntz told reporters at the signing ceremony in Istanbul.
“My wife even still tells me we made a mistake, that we left Turkey too early.”
No financial&nbsp;terms of the deal were disclosed.
The football federation decided to part ways with Gunes after Turkey got thumped by the Netherlands 6-1 in a 2022 World Cup qualifier earlier this month — one of the worst losses in their history.
Turkey are sitting third behind the Netherlands and Norway in World Cup qualifying Group F.
This leaves them in danger of failing to qualify for a fifth successive World Cup finals.
Their last appearance in 2002 saw them stun pundits by storming into the semi-finals and ultimately finish in third place.
“Hopefully, we can play once again in a World Cup finals after 20 years.” said Turkish Football Federation president Nihat Ozdemir.
The football-mad nation held out high hopes for the 69-year-old Gunes — who guided Turkey to the 2002 World Cup semi-finals — when he took charge of the team again in 2019.
Turkey appeared to have a good mix of veterans and young talent that performed admirably in qualifiers for the pandemic-delayed Euro 2020.
But they lost all three matches in the tournament while conceding eight goals and scoring just once.
They followed that up with a lacklustre draw against Montenegro and a 3-0 victory against lowly Gibraltar before being humiliated by the Dutch.
Kuntz&nbsp;said his immediate task was getting the team ready for their crunch match against Norway on October 8 in Istanbul.
“I am full of positive energy because I know the potential of Turkish players,” he said. “We are full of self-confidence that we will celebrate future successes.”

Kuntz feels at home as he signs Turkey deal

Kuntz feels at home as he signs Turkey deal - World Soccer Talk

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Istanbul (AFP) – Former Turkey football star Hakan Sukur went on trial in his absence Thursday on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on social media.
Sukur is one of several thousand people including journalists, politicians and the occasional celebrity, to face similar legal proceedings.
Opponents say Erdogan has become an increasingly polarising figure in Turkey since becoming president in 2014, showing zero tolerance for any criticism on social media or on the streets.
But the president’s supporters insist fair criticism is allowed and a line is only drawn when it boils over into insults.
The lawyer of Sukur, one of the stars of Turkey’s third place performance in the 2002 World Cup, told the court in Istanbul that his client had moved to the United States.
Ali Onur Guncel said his client could give testimony from the United States if evidence provided by the defence was found to be insufficient.
According to Turkish media, Sukur had accused Erdogan of theft in a tweet in February 2015, without naming him directly.
Prosecutors have asked in the indictment for Sukur to serve up to four years in jail.
Sukur, a striker whose football career stretched from 1987-2007, was by far the most prolific goalscorer in the history of the Turkish national side, finding the net 51 times in 112 appearances.
His goal after just 11 seconds of play against South Korea in 2002 remains the fastest goal in World Cup history.
After football, Sukur went into politics and was in 2011 elected an MP with Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
But he resigned in 2013 after a vast corruption probe that targeted Erdogan and his inner circle, siding with the movement of his arch-foe, the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.&nbsp;
Sukur had voiced objections to the government move to shut down schools run by Gulen’s movement Hizmet.
His lawyer’s comments confirm that Sukur has left his home country for the United States have ended uncertainty over his whereabouts.&nbsp;
Sukur had previously insisted his presence there was merely temporary to learn English and open a football academy.&nbsp;
One of Istanbul’s most prominent universities, Bilgi University, meanwhile said it had laid off a professor teaching in its communications faculty after she made remarks insulting Erdogan in a lecture.
The university said in a statement its relations with Professor Zeynep Sayin Balikcioglu had been cut and it no longer had any relationship with the academic.
Reports said that the comments — where the academic is said to have mocked Erdogan for being “the best in everything, in rudeness and vulgarity” — had been secretly recorded by a student at her lecture.

Turkey ex-football star on trial for insulting Erdogan

Turkey ex-football star on trial for insulting Erdogan - World Soccer Talk

<div id="attachment_160774" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/0e6e8db4fba13a27542b019174456f370404e1ca.jpg"><div><figure class="image"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-160774" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-160774" src="https://media.worldsoccertalk.com/wp-content/2015/12/0e6e8db4fba13a27542b019174456f370404e1ca-600x459-600x459.webp" alt="Photo credit: AFP." width="600" height="459" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px"></figure></div></a>Photo credit: AFP.</div>
A Turkish court on Tuesday ordered the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) to pay thousands of dollars in compensation after it revoked the refereeing license of a local referee on the grounds that he was gay. The Istanbul court ordered the TFF to pay 23,000 Turkish Lira ($7,900) in material and moral compensation over its treatment of Halil Ibrahim Dincdag, the Dogan news agency reported. However the sum was lower than the 110,000 Turkish Lira ($38,000) demanded by Dincdag’s lawyers,in a case that had become a symbol of discrimination against gays and lesbians in largely conservative and overwhelmingly Muslim Turkish society.
The TFF had said that since he was exempt from military service due to his homosexuality, Dincdag fell into the army’s classification of “unfit” and thus unable to do the job of refereeing. Dincdag had been a referee in the Trabzon region on the Black Sea region but had his license revoked in 2009 after publicly coming out as gay.
<div id="attachment_160775" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/c50cba5898e848dcab5bba8a41fd8725f478dec0.jpg"><div><figure class="image"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-160775" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-160775" src="https://media.worldsoccertalk.com/wp-content/2015/12/c50cba5898e848dcab5bba8a41fd8725f478dec0-300x200-300x200.webp" alt="Photo credit: AFP." width="300" height="200" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"></figure></div></a>Photo credit: AFP.</div>
<h3>– ‘Break the taboo’ –</h3>
“This lawsuit was a case in favor of all people who suffered injustice and discrimination,” Dincdag (right) told the Diken online news website.
“Winning this case was really something very important. The court has now confirmed that my fight was a right.”
“I hope that this decision sets a precedent for similar cases. This is a victory.”
However Dincdag and his lawyer Firat Soyle said that they would appeal the verdict to be awarded the full amount of compensation demanded in the lawsuit.
“We are happy that justice has been done but we are going to appeal regarding the figure to be paid,” the lawyer said, quoted by Turkish media. “Given the moral and material damages suffered, it is a small figure.”
“December 29, 2015 is a victory in the fight against homophobia in football and also a victory for the LGBT movement in Turkey,” he added. “We have to break the taboo on football over homophobia with this decision.”
Turkish media said that Dincdag had been a referee in Trabzon for 13 years when his license was revoked in 2009 and has been unable to officiate at any match since. He also lost his job as radio presenter on a sports show on a local station.
The issue of homosexuality in soccer, by far the most popular sport in Turkey, remains a virtually untouched topic in the macho society. The military’s attitude to homosexuality has also been controversial, with gays needing to undergo nude examinations to prove they qualified for an exemption for military service due to their sexuality. However Turkish media reports last month said that this requirement had now been dropped and only verbal declarations would now be taken into consideration.
Homosexuality has been legal in Turkey throughout the period of the modern republic and was also legalized in the Ottoman Empire from the mid-nineteenth century. But gays in Turkey regularly complain of harassment and abuse.

Turkey's soccer federation has been fined for revoking the license of a gay referee

Turkey's soccer federation has been fined for revoking the license of a gay referee - World Soccer Talk

<div id="attachment_157487" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/turkey-fans.jpg"><div><figure class="image"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-157487" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-157487" src="https://media.worldsoccertalk.com/wp-content/2015/11/turkey-fans-600x399-600x399.webp" alt="Photo credit: AFP." width="600" height="399" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px"></figure></div></a>Photo credit: AFP.</div>
Turkey’s soccer&nbsp;authorities on Thursday adopted an action plan on fan behavior to prevent a repeat of the whistling and shouting during a minute of silence for the Paris attacks victims that shocked observers.&nbsp;Some Turkish fans shouted “God is great” and booed the opposing Greek team during a minute’s silence for the 129 people killed in the Paris attacks ahead of an international friendly in Istanbul on Tuesday.
Their behavior caused outrage outside of Turkey and was a huge embarrassment for the Turkish soccer&nbsp;authorities, who in the last years have sought to bring boisterous fans into line.
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At a meeting with national team coach Fatih Terim, the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) agreed to a series of measures to ensure its image is not hurt again, the Hurriyet daily and other Turkish media said.&nbsp;Terim will emphasize in his press conferences the importance of fan behavior, in particular during the national anthems of opposing sides.&nbsp;Brochures will be printed in a publicity campaign and placed on seats at stadiums before matches.&nbsp;Meanwhile, the point will be further rammed home in video advertisements by Terim and top players, it added.
Hurriyet said Terim, a hugely respected figure in Turkish soccer, was incandescent with fury over the behavior of the fans:
<blockquote>“What is happening to us? We do things that we would not want others to do to us. We are paying homage to the dead. We can’t wait one minute? Please …
“Turkey must take action to correct its image in Europe.</blockquote>
Many saw the shouting of “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) as a deliberate insult to the victims of the Paris attacks.
Some Turkish commentators have said most likely the jibes were aimed at Turkey’s historic foe Greece rather than sympathy for the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group that carried out the attacks.
The scenes have been unfavorably compared with <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/2015/11/17/watch-wembley-stadium-sing-la-marseillaise-before-englands-friendly-with-france/">the solidarity showed by English fans with their French counterparts</a> at the England-France friendly at Wembley also on Tuesday.
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In an interview with A-Haber TV late on Wednesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the behavior of a “few hundred” fans.
“It’s unacceptable. We are not such an intolerant nation that we cannot show respect during a national anthem. It’s not in the genes of this nation.”
“How would we take it if another country did this to us?” he asked.
Turkish supporters last month also shouted “Allahu Akbar” during a moment of silence commemorating the 103 victims of twin suicide bombings in tha capital Ankara.

Turkish federation develops an action plan after fans disrupt Paris silence

Turkish federation develops an action plan after fans disrupt Paris silence - World Soccer Talk

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