Former TFF Disciplinary Board Member Remzi Kazmaz writes

The attack by Ankaragücü President Faruk Koca on referee Halil Umut Meler on the pitch during the Ankaragücü-Çaykur Rizespor match has sparked controversy. Leagues were postponed after referees decided not to officiate matches. Ankaragücü was handed a 5-match ban. The events that took place further lowered the already low brand value of Turkish football. Former Turkish Football Federation Disciplinary Board member Remzi Kazmaz writes about the ways out of the chaos that Turkish football is in.

Kazmaz's article is as follows:

Sports, especially football, is a social and societal activity that affects individuals and society all over the world. Since the day it emerged, football has been a sport that has undergone changes and reached the present day. And this change is still continuing. 

With its massive economy, it has become a part of financial capitalism with institutions that have turned football into an industry, working like a smokeless factory under neon lights. Football has ceased to be just a cheap means of entertainment that we enjoy and has become a professional financial sector.

Naturally, the managers who steer football have started to be managed by joint-stock companies (AŞ) established by large holding bosses, rather than by association managers as in the past. In fact, today, the source of success or failure has started to be seen as the management and the president, and financial and sporting successes are written not to the account of the player and the coach, but to the club and the club president.

In this article, I encountered another face of football that I have put under the microscope.

Although it has taken on many roles throughout the historical development of football, the area it has frequented most has been as an antidote that protects the system by trailing large masses of people while being a cheap means of entertainment for the masses, unable to escape being a tool for politicians.

A war to some

A peace to others

Entertainment to some, exploitation to others

A tool to control millions

Or a profitable toy of capitalism

Sometimes it united peoples and became a festival for nations

Sometimes it started wars and caused massacres

Either it became the spark of a revolution

Or a tool of fascism

Football was never innocent

Those who controlled football always won

In other words, football, which started on dirt fields in neighborhoods, changed class by evolving while moving to green grass fields under neon lights.

It is no longer the dream of my youth, running after a leather ball with torn shoes and goalposts made of stones; it has become a satellite of clubs filling their coffers with millions of dollars.

In recent years, football, hosted in Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, has become a toy in the hands of Arab sheikhs to fulfill its historical duty.

It is now doing the same service it did for Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco for Arab dictators who are turning the Middle East into a bloodbath and establishing an authoritarian system with a regime of oppression and tyranny. It pacifies the public's reactions against the system and renders resistance ineffective. Football, which is in the hands and at the command of imperialism, continues to be the hope of the poor people in the African deserts these days...

FOOTBALL IN TODAY'S TURKEY

We will all watch together as the problems of football, which have come to the agenda once again with the events that occurred at the end of the Ankaragücü-Çaykur Rizespor match, are comprehensively put on the table...

In our country, we need to clean these problems from the root, not by applying a bandage as we always do when we say we will solve them without knowing the solution, but by operating on that wound if necessary without harming the whole.

So let's look at the bleeding wounds of Turkish sports and football together.

The administration of football is multi-faceted; associations, joint-stock companies, the TFF, the Union of Clubs, sports writers, presidents, and managers—everyone is saying something different, and the situation is chaotic. This situation does not increase the solution but the chaos, yet problems that have been postponed for years are waiting for a solution. There are serious problems in the stance, decisions, and relationships of those who manage football, club presidents, and managers. There is unfair competition between clubs in our football. Naturally, this unfair competition leads to economic and financial problems.

There are both legal inadequacies and technical deficiencies in the organization of football administration; that is, there are many troubles but no cure. But everyone knows why no one speaks up? They cannot, because no one wants to compromise their own interests, they do not want their comfort to be disturbed.

We haven't even been able to transition to industrial football yet; we are trying to manage football professionally with amateur minds.

Most of our managers are not even aware that football is an industry. Those who spend money out of their own pockets to protect their seats in order to 'make a career' while satisfying their own egos, and those who are in office, can be of no benefit to this country's football.

We console ourselves with individual successes. Naturally, what I described above regarding managers also applies to footballers, coaches, referees, and other actors in our country. Therefore, instead of expecting great success with small investments made in a short time, it is time to set out with new structures that we will build on deep-rooted, contemporary, and scientific foundations.

First of all, we must immediately change our mindset in football. We must change our mindset by closely following the European way of thinking in football, blending the moral values unique to our country with the contemporary norms of football, and renewing our education system regarding footballers, coaches, managers, and referees.

Our other impasse is that we cannot manage competition in football; we cannot spread the competition to all of Anatolia, taking football out of this spiral that we have confined to the 'Big Three' for years. Anatolian teams stand like the 'blacks' of these leagues; the TFF has not taken any precautions or made any improvements in this regard to date.

The Union of Clubs has not even brought this issue to the agenda. The only thing they agree on is the sharing of revenues from broadcasting rights. It is as if the Union of Clubs was established only to share these broadcasting revenues.

Unfortunately, there is no cooperation, solidarity, or sharing that must absolutely exist between the Union of Clubs and the TFF; that is, there is no harmony between the Union of Clubs and the TFF.

COMPLIANCE BOARDS

Again, in April, the law regarding sports clubs and sports federations was published and entered into force. However, these changes were not incorporated into the TFF legislation. The changes made to the TFF statute remained insufficient. But today, the TFF statute and TFF instructions were not compatible with Law No. 7405, and 10 months have passed...

The TFF Board of Directors and the TFF Legal Board have been sleeping for 10 months... This does not suit an institution with brand value; furthermore, the TFF Legal Board has failed in the matter of harmonizing National Legislation with FIFA legislation. They cannot manage this job.

A COMPLIANCE BOARD should also be established within the TFF. Because it is necessary to restructure in compliance with the current law and constitutional provisions with statutes and regulations that have become a 'patchwork garden,' and to recreate it in a way that is also suitable for the FIFA and UEFA structure by observing the developments in football and other branches of sports that are growing rapidly under today's conditions, as well as financial and economic issues.

Another matter of compliance is to create a legal and peaceful environment where the Ministry of Youth and Sports can work together in harmony, which will eliminate the problem of guardianship.

CONCLUSION

With this article, in which I tried to explain the aspects of our football that are failing, which has been put under the microscope due to the events in the Ankaragücü-Çaykur Rizespor match, neither the Union of Clubs, nor the TFF, nor the association non-governmental organizations within sports are sufficient alone to address these negativities that have emerged. First of all, it is necessary to bring our sports law legislation into compliance with contemporary scientific European standards and to distribute justice through independent and competent boards and individuals who will implement this legislation.

In other words, the sports law legislation to be made from scratch should not be left to the backrooms of the government or the central practices of the TFF. We must also include the fans. Starting a study at an appropriate time in which all actors of sports are involved, with a large workshop, and meeting on a common ground is the most correct path. Otherwise, we will continue to separate ourselves in our own league with football clubs still managed by associations.

Football has now gained an industrial dimension and is played with massive budgets. If we cannot adapt to this development financially and economically, it is impossible to compete on the same scale as the teams fighting in the 5 big-budget leagues in Europe. If a few victories we get in these competitions as an exception are to console us and stroke our national pride, we will continue to play in our own neighborhood.

Former TFF Disciplinary Board Member

Atty. Remzi Kazmaz