Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Dec 12 2004
Neither EU Nor Zana can dissuade Turks from Tonight’s Match
Turkish publics’ EU and Zana agenda will be disturbed tonight by
Galatasaray-Fenerbahce match. Once for this week 17th December,
Armenia and EU will not be talked but rather more `serious’ issues
like Hasan Sas, Hakan Sukur, Rustu, Tuncay Sanli will invade our
night.
Both teams are well prepared and close their doors to public until
the match. As usual Turkish Media printed pages of news coverages,
pictures of Hasan Sas and Tuncay Sanli and as usual asked for fair
play.
Galatasaray with its manager Georgia Hagi `the Maradona of Carpats’
is missing the old days, when they won the UEFA cup in 2000. After
2000, the team submerged into financial tides. Fatih Terim, the
Galatasaray’s local chap, tried anything but luck wasn’t on his side.
This year Galatasaray started the season with the veteran player
Georgia Hagi as the coach of the team. Hagi gathered up his old mates
and achieved better than former Real Madrid’s coach Del Bosque, in
the Turkish League.
Fenerbahce on the other side is an interesting team, with a coach
from Germany, players from Brazil and a group of media commentators
suffering from andropose. Although the football Fenerbahce performed
in the previous weeks was nice, (thanks to Brazilians Alex and Nobre)
it couldn’t escape from criticisms. Until this week’s Manchester
United win, some commentators were asking Manager of Fenerbahce
Christopher Daum to be sent, accusing Alex of not playing whole
heartly, and claiming there are divisions inside the team.
Turks can escape from the EU agenda but they can not hide. Executives
of both teams asked supporters to chill down and avoid any
unnecessary violence, claiming that any unnecessary event may damage
Turkey’s reputation before 17 December.
JTW