0 – this is how many Turkish Super Lig clubs played in European cups this spring. Last year’s autumn was a nightmare for clubs from this country. In the second qualifying round he was eliminated, and later lost in the third qualifying round of the Europa League. Alanyaspor was eliminated at the same stage. In the last qualifying round for LE, it failed.
In the group stage of the Champions League, Basaksehir had no chances with Manchester United, RB Leipzig and PSG, and in LE Sivasspor he finished in the group behind Villarreal and Maccabi Tel Aviv. For the first time since 2005, Turkey had no representative in the European knockout stage in the spring.
It’s not much better this season. Although in spring Galatasaray i will play in the Europa League and the League of European Conferences, there was no shortage of disgrace to Turkish clubs in the cups. Galatasaray was eliminated from the qualifying for the Champions League in the second round after a 2: 7 defeat on aggregate to PSV. Besiktas, who played in the group stage, did not score a point and had a goal balance of -16. .
– We apologize. Our performance in the Champions League was very poor – the coach of Besiktas, Sergen Yalcin, spoke after the last match against Borussia Dortmund.
Sivasspor and Trabzonspor also made fun of LKE. The first ones lost 1: 7 on aggregate against FC Copenhagen, the second ones 1: 5 against AS Roma.
A dangerous drop in the UEFA ranking
Until recently, Turkey was tipped to challenge the strongest countries, today is flying headlong in the UEFA ranking. The Turks finished 13th in the national ranking last season, which means that no club will start the LM with the group stage in the future. Until now, one club had such a privilege, the second one started in qualifying. Now two Turkish clubs will have to get through it.
The situation may worsen after this season. After the fall in European competitions, Turkey, which until recently was in the top 10, has fallen to 18th place in the UEFA ranking – the lowest since 1992. If the Turks drop beyond the top 20, they will lose one place in European cups.
This season, however, it is unlikely. While the Danes and Greeks lurking behind the backs of the Turks have a small loss, the Norwegians will only be able to count on Bodo / Glimt in LKE in spring. On the other hand, who until recently could have predicted that in the UEFA national ranking it would overtake Cyprus 15th today?
Untapped economic growth
What happened to Turkish football? After all, when in 2000 Galatasaray won the UEFA Cup and the European Super Cup, and two years later the national team won the bronze medal at the World Cup in South Korea and Japan, it seemed that the country was growing in strength and with its potential soon to join at least European leaders.
Especially since Recep Erdogan, ruling the country since 2003, assured that by 2023, that is, until the century of the Turkish Republic’s foundation, the country will have one of the ten strongest economies in the world. Football was to play a very important role in the transformations. It is he who is the undisputed, sports number one in a country with over 80 million people.
In the first years of Erdogan’s rule, Turkey recorded record economic growth. Airports, bridges, roads, hospitals, shopping centers, transport networks, thousands of mosques and at least 30 new football stadiums in 27 cities were built in the country.
In 2002-2006, Turkey recorded 7.5 percent. GDP growth, which was the best result since the 1960s. In the years 2007-2015, this increase remained at the level of 5%. The Turkish economy has not been hit by the global crisis and the country’s poverty rate has halved.
The boom in the economy was a great opportunity for football. For the local government, football plays a very important role in influencing society, so leading politicians like to show off their football likes and are friends with the presidents of the largest clubs. These, in turn, gained great funds that allowed them to bring stars.
Only in recent years in Turkey have played, inter alia, Wesley Sneijder, Didier Drogba, Lukas Podolski, Radamel Falcao (Galatasaray), Roberto Carlos, Nicolas Anelka, Robin van Persie (Fenerbahce), Guti, Pepe, Ricardo Quaresma and Mario Gomez (Besiktas). However, the imported stars were disappointing for the most part. And instead of pushing Turkey to sixth place in Europe, the great but often burned out players took it to the brink of a football collapse.
Powerful debts of giants
In the times of the financial Eldorado, the Turks spent cosmic money, especially on the salaries of players. For example: Drogba and Sneijder in Galatasaray were earning a total of around € 13 million a year. Van Persie’s salary at Fenerbahka was five million euros. However, the Dutchman’s contract was terminated by mutual agreement of the parties in January 2018.
The contract of the former Arsenal and Manchester United player had to be terminated as Fenerbahce could not afford to keep the forward. The economic situation in Turkey worsened, which had a huge impact on the largest clubs. Although the Turkish league’s revenues have increased in the last 20 years, living beyond the limits in times of economic growth has brought local giants to the brink of collapse.
In 2000, the debt of all Super Lig clubs amounted to EUR 60 million with EUR 150 million in revenues. Currently, the debt of Turkish clubs is estimated at 2.3 billion euros, which is four times the league’s annual revenues. According to calculations by Turkish experts, the debt of the big four clubs, i.e. Besiktas, Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Trabzonspor, amounts to EUR 1.7 billion. Over the past eight years, the debt in these clubs was to increase by as much as 579 percent!
In 2016, Galatasaray was banned from playing in European cups for a year for breaking the Financial Fair Play rules. A year later, UEFA head of club licensing and FFP Andrea Traverso said Turkey was the only country where clubs’ debts and liabilities exceeded their assets. Subsequent penalties for Galatasaray and Trabzonspor and the threats of longer banishment in European cups made the Turks massively sell players on star contracts.
The uncertain situation on the TV market
The situation in the league could be – and probably will be – even worse. Although the state supports the clubs to a much lesser extent, without their help many of them would probably have gone bankrupt long ago. In recent years, despite the crisis, Turkish clubs made their living mainly from the sale of TV rights.
In 2016, Digiturk, a company belonging to the Qatari beIN Sports network, took over the rights to broadcast the games. The huge interest in football in the country meant that under the contract, the Super Lig received as much as EUR 565 million annually. In the 2019/20 season, due to the pandemic and premature termination of the games, the contract was reduced to 380 million euros, and in the previous games to 460 million.
The method of payment is an additional problem for clubs. Half of this is made in euro and half in Turkish lira. At this point it should be added that most of the revenues of Turkish clubs are paid in lire, and contracts are usually in euros. The weakening of the domestic currency caused by the economic crisis hit the Turkish giants even harder. A perfect example on his blog was provided by a Turkish journalist – Deniz Burunlu. The salary of 2.5 million euros per year in 2016 was 8.2 million liras. Two years later, it was already 14 million lire!
The situation of the clubs may worsen after the end of the current season, after which the contract with Digiturk ends. For now, it is not known whether the contract will be extended, and even if it is, it is certain that the Super Leagues will not be able to count on such huge money.
– The situation is very difficult, but I believe that thanks to concerted cooperation we will get out of the crisis. We need to analyze global trends and focus on long-term strategies. We must have a common dream: to restore Turkish football to its place, said Turkish Sports Minister Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoglu.
Neglected training
There is no hope for a quick improvement in the situation in Turkish football. Although the national union, in agreement with the league authorities, introduced a financial recovery plan, the effects will have to wait several years. The Turks in the Super Lig have established their own FFP to prevent the clubs from signing new high contracts that would aggravate problems. A limit of 14 foreigners was also introduced in the 28-person teams of the Super Leagues. Until recently, there were no restrictions in this regard.
– It is very important because if our clubs want to be successful again, they have to find a compromise between good scouting and training. Turkish clubs can no longer compete with the rest of Europe financially. In times of limited economic opportunities, we must focus on investing in academies and youth, because there is no shortage of talent in Turkey, said the vice president of the Turkish union and member of the UEFA executive committee, Servet Yardimci.
It is difficult to argue with Yardimci. There is no shortage of talent in a country with over 80 million people. The problem is that in recent years they have been neglected, which can be seen in the results of the national team. The match for bronze at the 2002 World Cup was the last meeting of the Turks at an event of this rank. The Bosphorus squad was absent for the World Cup in Germany, South Africa, Brazil and Russia.
The results at the European Championships are not much better. Since 2008, i.e. the tournament in Austria and Switzerland, where the Turks reached the semi-finals, they played twice at the European Championships. And at the tournament in France and Euro 2020, they did not leave the group. Moreover, at this year’s European Championships, Turks were hailed the worst team of the tournament. They were the only ones, apart from North Macedonia, not to score a point, losing to Italy (0: 3), Wales (0: 2) and Switzerland (1: 3). The Turks also had the worst goal balance. Even North Macedonia, making her debut at the tournament, was better.
In Turkey, they see the problem of a decline in interest in playing football. While the discipline itself is still very popular in the country, fewer and fewer children want to practice it. – We have to get some interest and attract children. Our clubs and league have to develop a strategy based on scientific research. We also need to pay more attention to the marketing and promotion of the Super Lig brand – said Kasapoglu.
Patience – this is a word that must accompany Turks today. It seems that only training new players such as Rustu Recber, Yildiray Basturk, Emre Belozoglu, Umit Davala, Nihat Kahveci or Hakan Sukur will allow the league to gradually return to its former place in Europe. One thing is certain – there will be no consent to the next debauchery of clubs in the coming years.
Source: Sport
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
