Oktay Haluk Doğan writes: As long as the mentality does not change

AS LONG AS THE MENTALITY DOES NOT CHANGE

For years, people have been asking what lies beneath the constant complaints of "how much further can this go" or "what could be worse than this" in every field. While questioning the reasons and the whys, we must not forget that there is a single answer to this without needing to overthink it. 

Every institution is actually a mirror of us, that is, of society. It is related to the quality of the country.

Look at every institution in the Turkish sports organization that appears to be in poor condition; you will see that in all of them, many of the values that make a human being human—starting with justice, morality, commitment to duty, and hard work—are either absent or very scarce. As it is always said, competence, merit, being worthy of that duty...

In recent years, this is what lies behind all the appointments, dismissals, operations, and failures to operate in institutions due to the lack of these qualities. 

The rot that has become rampant in society has enveloped many institutions and their employees to varying degrees. When a lack of a sense of justice, and a deficiency in oversight and accountability are added to this, we find ourselves hitting the wall harder day by day.

We are constantly witnessing a state of contamination and its worsening day by day. We have been seeing a typical example of this for years in Turkish football and in those who are brought there with the claim of managing it. The existence or non-existence of the TFF, the most important institution of football, the structure of its Central Referee Committee, and the referees serving under that umbrella are always debated. It leads to them facing accusations of being biased, and determining who gets relegated and who becomes the champion in the leagues. Just as in the past, there will be the same justified accusations in the future.

They are not wrong; from the past to the present, the referee community has been debated and subjected to heavy accusations in every season. 

The main reasons for this are the mentality of finding jobs for people, which is a general disease of the elections here, and the continuation of a system passed down from father to son. Things have gone so far that referees grouping themselves as "those guys," "these guys," and "the others" have surfaced.

When those who leave refereeing take on administrative duties, especially as observers who audit referees, they take things as far as settling old scores and venting their grudges. 

Sports in this country have never been fully autonomous, and politics has never withdrawn its hand from the process.

When the fact that Turkish football and its boards, which should be fully autonomous by law, direct their will entirely according to political power from their election to their tenure and the point of leaving office, and act under its umbrella, combines with human deformation, this picture emerges.

From choosing people based on power when forming boards, to pressures behind closed doors while boards are performing their duties, unpleasant dialogues that influence decisions, attempts to change decisions, and the state of not allowing the freedom to make decisions, it all leads to a situation where, so to speak, "the salt has rotted."

As long as the mentality does not change, even if there are legal texts prepared according to objective criteria as in everything else; as long as an arabesque, lawless understanding and action, cronyism, and favoritism are not abandoned in practice, this football will wear out many more Büyükekşis, but nothing will change.

News Source: 12punto