Büyükekşi speaks after Wales return: EURO 2024 goals

The A National Team, which returned with 1 point from Wales in its final match of the UEFA 2024 European Championship (EURO 2024) qualifiers, has arrived in Istanbul after finishing the group as leaders.

Turkish Football Federation President Mehmet Büyükekşi spoke about their goals for EURO 2024, stating, "Our goal is not just to advance from the group, but to achieve greater success."

MONTELLA'S BROTHER TAKEN ILL

Speaking to members of the press here, Turkish Football Federation President Mehmet Büyükekşi made the following remarks:

"Emanuele Montella's blood pressure suddenly dropped on the plane. Our doctors intervened immediately and administered an IV. They waited a while, but unfortunately, as they did not see sufficient improvement in his condition, we made an emergency landing in Munich. In Munich, the teams first intervened inside the plane. We waited for a while, then they took him to the hospital, but Hamit Altıntop and our federation doctor went down with him, and all his tests were performed there. Blood tests and others were done; they did not see any risk. It had already been landed as a precaution to ensure there was no life-threatening danger. Thank God, everything is fine. Our coach and his brother have been discharged from the hospital. After resting there for a while, they will move on to Rome. Hamit Altıntop will come to Turkey with the doctor on the next scheduled flight," he noted.

"WE WERE SAD, WE WERE SCARED"

Stating that they had to wait after a beautiful night, Büyükekşi continued as follows:

"We had to wait; the airport was closed and was opening at 6 o'clock. The crew needed to be changed; the crew's shift hours had expired, but thank God we have landed safely now. Thank God, when heading towards some successes, nothing is really easy. There are all kinds of difficulties, and this was one of them. I always mention that behind every success, there is teamwork. All together with the president, the board of directors, the technical team, and the players. On the plane, all of us—the entire management, the players, and the technical team—were first a bit sad and scared, but thank God there is nothing to fear; everything is fine."

"A BEAUTIFUL START"

Saying that he experienced the joy of qualifying from a tournament as a group leader for the first time, Büyükekşi noted the following:

"We are very happy, proud, and joyful. Truly, for the first time in our history, we are qualifying from a tournament as group leaders. Our rivals' play-off round in the last minute, what will happen in their match… This time, the president of the Wales federation shared the same anxiety next to me. We watched the match much more comfortably; God showed us these days too. Actually, we always thought about this; we are a federation management trying to do new things. While thinking, we always thought about this: the criticism we received was that our national team was extremely high-quality but that there was no beautiful game, no system. Since we knew our coach from before, we had actually thought about something like this from time to time in March, but we continued as the victories came. After the last Armenia draw and the subsequent Japan defeat, our coach's negative thoughts regarding the players pushed us towards this path we had thought of before. Thank God, our coach is truly highly respectable. We played 4 matches; 3 were victories and one was a draw. He made a beautiful start that has not been experienced for many years."

Speaking about their goals for EURO 2024, Büyükekşi said, "The European Championship draw is on December 2. We will go there, to be successful there. The national team is our team. If we are successful, we are all filled with joy together. This needs to continue. The support of the press members is also very valuable. The Turkish national team is the apple of all our eyes."

50 THOUSAND JERSEY ORDERS

Saying that they are aiming for greater success, not just advancing from the group, Büyükekşi said, "I had always said, 'Come to the national matches wearing the national team jersey.' We have ordered 50 thousand national team jerseys for the 2024 European Championship. Hopefully, the prayers of our entire nation are with us there. We are aiming for greater success, not just advancing from the group. I also believe in this, that our team will be successful. We have the power to do this; we have this will. First, we dreamed, and we brought our dream to life. Our dream regarding participating in the European Championship is over now; our next dream is to first advance from the groups in the European Championship and then climb as high as we can go."

"7 OF OUR PLAYERS ARE MISSING"

Expressing his views on hosting EURO 2032, the TFF President said:

"As you know, we received the authority to organize the European Championship in Turkey together with Italy in 2032. Our next goal is to be a team that definitely participates in all championships, both the European Championship and the World Cup. We have a young team, we have a quality team. All our players are young in this regard. We are raising new stars in every period. Finally, our coach invited Kenan Yıldız to the national team. We did these things while we had seven missing players; currently, 7 of our players who play in the team are missing."

Congratulating Hakan Çalhanoğlu, who became a father in recent days and was not in the squad for that reason, he ended his speech with these words:

"That is why this team and this country deserve beautiful things, and they have achieved a very beautiful success. I congratulate our board of directors, our technical team, and our players separately. Our President called us after every match, congratulated us, and gave us morale. His close interest in football makes us very happy. Hopefully, this success will continue from now on. Thank you very much."