A toy in the hands of business and politics: How has football been cornered?

Football is the most watched sport in the world. It is the biggest factor in the lives of millions of people. For some, it comes before their families and even themselves. For some, it is the only thing they hold on to in life. There are people who build their whole personality and character around it. Especially in Turkey. So while the place of football in Turkey is always at the top, where is Turkey’s place in football? Very low… If you look at the relationship between the size of the football industry in Turkey and the success of Turkish clubs, you will see that we are at the bottom of the table in Europe. And the reason for that is, of course, politics.

Galatasaray, with a team worth 200 million euros, were eliminated in both games by a Swiss team worth 30 million euros. With their early exit from the Champions League, Galatasaray also lost 30 million euros. We are not going to talk about technical and tactical issues in this article. We will analyse why Turkish football clubs systematically fail.

The condition for becoming TFF president: I’m more pro-Erdogan!

Turkish football has always been intertwined with politics. Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe have many presidents who have been prime ministers and ministers. Kenan Evren, the leader of the September 12 junta, is still remembered for bringing Ankaragücü into the top flight through fraud. 

Mehmet Ağar, who left his mark on a period in Turkey (and still does), was a name that appeared in the Galatasaray camp for a while. I will never forget Galatasaray’s 2-0 win over Benfica in 2008, with goals from Emre Aşık and Ümit Karan. The most memorable incident after the match was when Mehmet Ağar walked behind the Galatasaray players giving interviews to the press with his hands in his pockets. 

There was a time when Aziz Yıldırım’s seat at Fenerbahçe belonged to Yaşar Büyükanıt, the then Chief of General Staff who issued the April 2007 memorandum. Yaşar Büyükanıt, who had a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Erdoğan at the Dolmabahçe Palace and said “This meeting will go with me to my grave”, and who was rewarded by the government with an armoured car after issuing the memorandum and retiring… Rıdvan Dilmen, Mustafa Erdoğan, Ahmet Ketenci, Acun Ilıcalı… If you look, you will find many people.

If you say Beşiktaş, there is already a case of Yıldırım Demirören. After the 2011 match-fixing case, he was directly appointed by Erdoğan as the president of the TFF. In 2017, before the presidential referendum, which was one of the worst events that ever happened to Turkey, what do you expect from a man who, as President of TFF, took the floor at a meeting between the football world and politics and said, “We say ‘yes’ to a strong Turkey?” I was embarrassed to write that.

What about the Anatolian teams? Dear friends, rest assured that even the presidents of the Anatolian teams are decided from Ankara.

The TFF held its presidential elections last month. Mehmet Büyükekşi and İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu ran against each other. Both were in the “I am more pro-Erdogan” race at the same time. Hacıosmanoğlu won. The man who, when he was president of Trabzonspor, locked the referee in a room in the stadium, prevented the police from approaching and ‘released’ the referees with a personal phone call from Erdoğan, has become the boss of Turkish football. What kind of footballing success can we expect with these managers?

A strange presidential election

I’m from Galatasaray; let’s take Galatasaray and let all the teams stick the stick in themselves. 

Galatasaray is a community that is a bit different from other clubs in Turkey. There is the phenomenon of Galatasaray High School. The high school is the main dynamo… The number of members is small, it is difficult to become a member, it is a more closed structure. For this reason, the community’s reflexes are different from the general reflexes in Turkey. 

Criticism of Galatasaray never ends. In the best times, the criticism is the harshest. After winning the UEFA Cup, Faruk Süren was not even allowed to stay in office. He had to go. Ünal Aysal resigned and left. Dursun Özbek’s first term in office was so bad that the community and the fans revolted. Tens of thousands of people called his Point Hotel every day, shouting ‘Dursun resign’ and hanging up. To save himself, Özbek made a deal with Fatih Terim, who was at the bottom of the prestige ladder, and decided to call a snap election; he lost to Mustafa Cengiz, whose name no one had ever heard before.

Apart from the disgraceful football of Özbek’s first term, the most memorable event was the ‘valuation’ of the Riva and Florya land in agreement with Emlak Konut. All of Galatasaray’s debts were to be cancelled. 500 million dollars were said to have become 500 million TL when we woke up one morning. Who was the president of Emlak Konut with whom Dursun Özbek was doing business? Hold on, Murat Kurum. You know, the Kurum who stroked Özbek’s cheek in the March 2024 elections. Anyway, let’s move on…

Burak Elmas, who, through emotional actions and strategic mistakes, sacked Fatih Terim, who wanted to do everything but coach, at a time when even his ‘manly’ fans, who lived with the past, were starting to criticise him for bad football, and took off the steel vest in front of him, lost the presidency before the season had even finished. 

Eşref Hamamcıoğlu, who had lost the election to Elmas by just a few votes and who had joined Elmas in raising his fist on the podium after his defeat, stood again. There were four other candidates running against him. Hamamcıoğlu was guaranteed to win. But a former member of Galatasaray, Adnan Oktar, appealed to the court and got the election postponed. 

As a result of quick lobbying, hard negotiations, dinners and phone calls, former president Dursun Özbek, who was not even a candidate in the cancelled election, became the new presidential candidate, taking with him Metin Öztürk, the presidential candidate in the cancelled election. There were two conspicuous names on Özbek’s list: Cemal Özgörkey and Erden Timur, who were on Hamamcıoğlu’s list until the last moment and who have weight in the community.

Dursun Özbek won the election with the votes from the last ballot box. In 2017, Özbek, who had lost twice in a row, returned this time. A squad with a huge budget was put together. Icardi, Mertens, Torreira… Galatasaray even paid 6 million euros for Yunus Demir, a player with potential, just in case. Such a budget. The transfer window at the start of the second season is interesting. There are whispers within the club that there is a coldness between Erden Timur and the board, with the Özbek president as the audience. 

The most expensive annual salaries in Galatasaray’s history began to be paid to players such as Zaha, Icardi and Ziyech. Zaha’s salary is so high that it amounts to around 8 million euros a year… Imagine, Galatasaray couldn’t even loan Zaha to another team this season. He was loaned to French side Lyon on the last day of the season, but Galatasaray will pay his salary in full.

Özbek’s words

Capital accumulation in Turkey is not a situation that can be realised independently of the institution of the ‘state’. In the last 20 years, the creation of wealth by the state has become a serious issue. In fact, capital has changed hands in such a way that the middle pole has melted away. The favourite toy of these politically involved rich is football. Because there is an industry that will add to their wealth and has the potential to raise their social status on a national level. You are a giant in the rubber industry with a turnover of 100 million euros. Who would recognise you? But if you become vice-president of Beşiktaş, especially if you transfer a player with a name and pose with him on the plane, tens of thousands of people will write hymns in your name.

What happens in every club has happened and is happening at Galatasaray. Mr Erden Timur is a building contractor. He is a well-known name in his field. Later, during the Mustafa Cengiz era, he became Galatasaray’s shirt sponsor and paid for the transfer of Emre Akbaba. He entered the radar of Galatasaray fans. He began to be recognised nationwide. Later, during the Burak Elmas period, he became the sponsor of Galatasaray’s basketball department. He was now close to the fans. With the sponsorship of the stadium, there was no one left who did not recognise him.

Erden Timur was Dursun Özbek’s biggest trump card in the election process with the deep Galatasaray sauce described above.

Those who are familiar with Galatasaray politics know that presidential candidates win elections if they have the right trump card on their list. When Özhan Canaydın ran for the presidency of the team that won the championship with Lucescu, he said ‘I will bring the coach of my heart’ and won the election. Galatasaray spent millions of dollars on Fatih Terim, but nothing came of it. The champion coach they sent to Beşiktaş beat Galatasaray and became champion. 

Duygun Yarsuvat won the election along with Ali Dürüst and Abdurrahim Albayrak. Everyone knew that Burak Elmas would work with Terim. The last-minute transfer of Cemal Özgörkey from Eşref Hamamcıoğlu to Dursun Özbek’s list changed the election.

Dursun Özbek won the election against Eşref Hamamcıoğlu in the last ballot box. In fact, the problem between Timur and Özbek arose even before the election was won. Erden Timur was supposed to be vice-president and names from his own circle were supposed to be on the list. But Dursun Özbek promised a lot of people. 

Metin Öztürk, who was first a candidate for the presidency and then, when the election was cancelled, appeared on TV with the other candidate Hamamcıoğlu and said “We will accept no other candidate than these candidates in the new election process”, agreed with Dursun Özbek and joined him with his list and became the second president. Erden Timur had withdrawn his support from Özbek after Özbek’s rude remarks about Timur’s circle. But Özbek is also clever, he knows that the election was close. He promised to make Timur the vice-president of Sportif AŞ, and he did… So the crisis was overcome. 

There has been a rumour for the last two years. It is this: When Dursun Özbek won the election, it was Cenk Ergün and not Erden Timur who was going to run the football operations. But after Ergün’s first act in the new management was to give 30-year-old Sergio Oliveira a full five-year contract worth €3 million a year, and after selling young Marcao, who has a market in Europe, to Sevilla for €15 million, Erden Timur bypassed Cenk Ergün and took full control of football.

After two successive league titles, Galatasaray are now reeling. The reason is the Middle East disease: Envy. 

As Demirel famously said: ‘Success has many owners, failure is an orphan’. The case of Galatasaray falling victim to internal conflicts in the third year of every two-year period of success has been repeated this season. Erden Timur was sacked and Cenk Ergün was put in charge of football operations. Transfers, in which İbrahim Hatipoğlu was also involved, became a complete mess. 

Are sports journalists a useful apparatus?

New agreements, leaks of previous agreements, late transfers and the lack of healthy communication have turned the situation into a fire. The bellows of this fire is Twitter, which is the black scourge not only of Turkish football but also of world politics, including Turkey.

Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion. We can see the results of this with our own eyes. Dozens of anonymous accounts with hidden agendas have taken over Twitter because anyone who pays can get a blue tick and the revenue model is based on interaction. Not only in Turkey, but all over the world, any issue where there is money, power and public interest is manipulated. Let’s take Turkish football.

There are Galatasaray reporters who call themselves journalists. They do everything but journalism. The ethical values of journalism have eroded so much, conscience and professional honour have atrophied so much, that these people who call themselves journalists carry out operations on the club, the parties and Turkish football every day. How do they do it? This is how:

We have a ‘Galatasaray reporter’ account with many followers. We are a phone call away from the club president, we are a journalist close to him (!). We don’t want the popularity of a former manager to get the better of us. So what do we do? We give the contract of a player signed by that manager to a journalist close to us. This journalist then passes on the document, as if he had access to it because of his incredible journalistic work, and throws it in front of the fans, indirectly saying to the former manager: ‘How could you sign such a heavy contract? 

Here’s another example. There is a manager in the club who wants to sell a player. This manager will also get his share of the sale. But the player doesn’t want to leave. What do we do? We get the Galtasaray reporters to insult the player. We write some stories and throw the player in front of the fans. 

And what does the sacked manager do? He uses the same weapons against the other front. Twitter accounts with large followings are used to start fires. Meanwhile, millions of fans try to filter out the right information and support their team. In other words, there are no team priorities or journalistic activities. As usual, whatever happens, happens to those who love the colours.

There is also the Florya problem… 

Dursun Özbek is determined to finish what he started in 2015 and move from Florya to Kemerburgaz. He is so determined that he opened the team’s camp in Kemerburgaz this season to show the media and the community how quickly the Kemerburgaz facilities are being completed. But because the facilities in Kemerburgaz were not ready, the footballers had to use mobile toilets. Whichever way you look at it, it is a disgrace.

Özbek wants Florya to be sold to the highest bidder (presumably Emlak Konut) rather than being used for projects by Galatasaray contractors. In 2011, Adnan Polat, who had been sulking against the club after being sacked, suddenly emerged as the unofficial executor of the project. According to Polat, Galatasaray will earn at least $300 million from the Florya project. Özbek is also using the Florya project as a shield for his camel’s-teeth accusations of a black market. It is a lie by those who do not want Galatasaray to win and who want to sabotage the Florya project,” he says. The case has been referred to the judiciary. Erden Timur’s statement ‘It is a fact that we cannot agree on Florya’ is also important. 

With all this in mind, let’s sum up the current thinking of the Galatasaray faithful:

Erden Timur was the star of the team’s championship run over the last two years. The president ate him up. He replaced him with Cenk Ergün and the whole system collapsed.

I agree, but we have to look at things from a broader perspective. That’s why, at this point, I think I differ from 90 per cent of Galatasaray fans.

Football fans can break this wheel!

I can easily say that the mistakes of the current management should not deify Erden Timur. Because he is not like that. He may not have been involved in anything shady. Let’s also appreciate him for doing what he has to do. Because we don’t see many people doing that. But the contracts Galatasaray signed last season are terrible. 8 million for Zaha, 6 million for Ziyech, the Zaniolo gamble that didn’t work out, 4.5 million for Tete, Ndombele and Aurier for unknown reasons…

Erden Timur is a developer. I ask you: Would you hire a journalist as CEO of your textile company with an annual budget of at least 100 million euros? What do the construction and football sectors have in common? What do we expect from a successful businessman in football, where networking is everything, where you sell your player with a phone call if you know someone? How do you know if a player is a manager’s game or not? The answer is experience and know-how.

Barcelona’s sporting director is their world-famous former player Deco. Real Madrid’s former player Santiago Solari. Milan’s vice-president is the legendary footballer Baresi. Even Bayern Munich’s president is a former footballer. These men have been involved in football since the age of 17, and they determine the strategies of these giant clubs. They know and recognise the habits of the managers and act accordingly.

Beşiktaş have brought in Samet Aybaba and Feyyaz Uçar, who are well organised, and added former Galatasaray goalkeeper Friedel to the management team. Their successful transfers are evident. (Hüseyin Yücel, the owner of Bahçeşehir College, is also trying to steal a role). Let’s take a look at Fenerbahçe… Until Ali Koç learned the system, how many shameful transfers he made and how many millions of euros were wasted. 

This article is getting long, let’s end it. There are two huge obstacles facing Turkish football: Politics and personal ambition. This is a system where even someone like Sezgin Baran Korkmaz says: ‘They are robbing the clubs. The day we take football away from being a mechanism for political power and a toy for businessmen’s personal PR, we will be able to compete with Europe again. 

The first and most important condition for this is that all football fans, regardless of which team they support, criticise their own teams first and foremost and never give a bonus to the corrupt journalists and managers of this corrupt system. Only football fans can break these wheels. Not fan groups like UltraAslan, who have become pawns of the corrupt system. Football fans!