Reuters Soccer Blog

from Photographers Blog:

Goodbye to hell

In the second half of the 2010-2011 Turkish football season Galatasaray moved to its new home ground in Istanbul, the Turk Telekom Arena, a 52,000-seat multi-purpose stadium replacing the Ali Sami Yen Stadium.

The fate of the legendary Ali Sami Yen Stadium is now sealed.

The demolition of Ali Sami Yen, one of the most iconic venues in Turkish football and the home to one of the three oldest Istanbul football clubs Galatsaray for 47 years, started last week. For almost half a century, the yellow-and-red lions hosted their rivals in this temple with the slogan "welcome to hell". The stadium played host to victories against European giants FC Barcelona, A.Bilbao, AC Milan, Real Madrid, E.Frankfurt, and a historic victory against Neuchatel Xamax. Most notably it was the scene of Galatasaray’s triumphal UEFA Cup campaign in 2000.

The team played all its home group and qualification matches for the 2000 UEFA Cup at the stadium before winning the final against Arsenal in Copenhagen, the biggest success in the history of Turkish football. World renowned Italian referee Pierluigi Collina even once admitted: “I love this Hell.” It was witness to unforgettable national and international football matches, hosting world class teams, players, coaches and referees. The stadium witnessed 14 of Galatasaray’s 17 Turkish league titles. Opened in 1964, Ali Sami Yen Stadium has always played a major part in the Turkish football scene, being home to Galatasaray’s heyday and many victories of the Turkish national football team.

But within two to three years it will be replaced by a vast residence and office project, rising above the memories where Ali Sami Yen Stadium used to stand.

France to host Euro 2016

Favourites France have been chosen to host Euro 2016 after beating Italy and Turkey.

UEFA President Michel Platini, a proud Frenchman, whipped round the card in Geneva to reveal France’s name.

They will host a major soccer championship for the first time since holding the 1998 World Cup.

Italy, who missed out on Euro 2012, will again wonder where it all went wrong amid problems with new stadiums and soccer violence.

Turkey were an outside bet given UEFA took a gamble by giving Euro 2012 to Ukraine and Poland.

Especially with Euro 2016 being expanded to 24 teams, European soccer’s governing body have opted for a safe pair of hands in France.

from Photographers Blog:

Fans, fire and fury

Fenerbahce's hopes of winning the Turkish league title for the 18th time were all resting on the final round of games in the 2009-2010 Super League. Expectations among their fans were high, with the major Istanbul club knowing a win at home against Trabzonspor was enough to clinch the championship.

Second-placed Bursaspor were one point behind Fenerbahce on 72 points and faced the tough prospect of a match against last year's champions Besiktas. Some 50,000 Fenerbahce fans wearing navy blue and yellow jerseys took their seats at the Sukru Saracoglu stadium with their attention focused more on celebrating their imminent title triumph than on watching the game.

Spanish striker Daniel Guiza scored the opening goal in the 14th minute, but nine minutes later Trabzonspor equalized with a goal from Burak Yilmaz. The first half ended 1-1. Even at that stage, Fenerbahce fans were very confident of victory. There was an atmosphere of celebration in the stadium. In the second half Fenerbahce played more attacking football.

The home side kept up the pressure but was unable to convert chance after chance. With the 90 minutes over, the referee signaled four minutes of extra time. Fenerbahce kept on attacking with the aim of scoring a winning goal. In the second extra minute, an announcement changed everything in the stadium.

The stadium announcer shouted out that Bursaspor had equalized 2-2 against Besiktas. This result would have meant that Fenerbahce were champions. Even players and team members of Fenerbahce believed this announcement and they stopped attacking their opponents goal.

When the match ended, the fans took advantage of the absence of any barriers and streamed onto the pitch to celebrate the championship triumph with the players. Within 10 seconds, the pitch was full of joyful fans. I saw Fenerbahce's Uruguayan defender Lugano on the shoulders of celebrating fans. I could not see any other players or team members because of the crowd. Following another announcement, the joy of winning the title was ripped away from the fans and players. The same announcer who declared Fenerbahce champions corrected his mistake and revealed the reality. "The Bursaspor vs Besiktas game in fact finished 2-1. Bursaspor are the champions." Fenerbahce had needed another goal.

from FaithWorld:

Muslims angry at German soccer club over song

German Muslims have inundated one of the country's top soccer teams, Schalke 04, with complaints about a verse in the club's anthem which, they say, is disparaging towards the Prophet Mohammad.

The club has its home in Gelsenkirchen in Germany's industrial heartland and immigrants make up about a third of the town's population. Most of them have a Turkish background. Germany's biggest mosque was opened in nearby Duisburg last year and many Schalke supporters are Muslims, as chat rooms like this one point out.

The lines in question are: "Mohammad was a Prophet who doesn't understand football" although the words that follow seem positive: "But from all the beautiful colours he came up with blue and white." Schalke's colours are blue and white.

The club, which plays in Germany's Bundesliga top league and has some of the country's most ardent fans, is taking the complaints seriously. A spokesman has said Schalke has asked an Islamic expert to analyse the text.

But what is most striking is that the song is not new. Some say it dates back to 1924.  So why has it suddenly started to offend Muslims?

The answer may lie in the mounting resentment in Germany's Muslim community after politicians were slow to condemn the murder of an Egyptian woman in a court in eastern Germany about a month ago, which we blogged about at the time. The crime was widely viewed as racially motivated.

Germany's Central Council of Muslims has summed up the situation. "Many Muslims in Germany no longer have a sense of security. Nerves are wearing thin," General-Secretary Aiman Mazyek was quoted as saying in Bild daily, adding he did not believe the club had malicious intentions. 

Is Grandad Aragones set to leave Fenerbahce?

Turks have nicknamed Luis Aragones “dede” or “granddad” since he became Fenerbahce coach last July – at first to convey the respect they’d show a wise and experienced elder, but nowadays to express their fury at a man they view as an incompetent geriatric.

Calls for his resignation have increased since Fenerbahce lost the Turkish Cup to bitter Istanbul rivals Besiktas last week. A victory could have sweetened Aragones’ severance package from his contract, but would no longer have saved his job, Turkish media said.

The 70-year-old Spaniard arrived in Turkey on a high, having just led Spain to victory in Euro 2008, their first major title in 44 years.

But his spell at Fenerbahce has gone from bad to worse. The Istanbul side, Champions League quarter-finalists in 2008, failed to reach the knockout stages of this season’s competition and finished bottom of their group with just two points.

With two matches left of the Turkish league, Fenerbahce languish in 5th, 10 points behind leaders Besiktas, and heading for their lowest league finish since 2003.

Aragones’ gruff manner and often lethargic mood pitchside have won him few friends in Turkey.

Just kebabs and tea in Sivas – hence the team’s success

“There is no nightlife in Sivas,” states Sivasspor coach Bulent Uygun.

This is why his team are surprise leaders of the Turkish championship.

Located in Anatolia’s bleak central heartland, Sivas is a tortuous 12-hour drive from the temptations of Istanbul. Turkey’s glittering beach resorts aren’t much closer.

You’d have thought the 38-year-old Uygun might have a bit more sympathy for his players. But to a man nicknamed “the soldier”, and whose website displays poems he has penned to Turkish generals and the Turkish Republic, discipline is key.

“There are only a few shops where my players can buy drinks but I’m in contact with the shop owners,” Uygun told Hurriyet newspaper.

“I am informed as soon as one of my players buys drinks and I warn him.”

Don’t mention the draw!

This week’s two World Cup qualifiers between Spain and Turkey have prompted the Spanish media to look back at a dramatic moment in the history of the two nations’ soccer teams.

It came at the end of the last of three matches the pair played in early 1954 to decide which would qualify for the World Cup in Switzerland later that year.

Spain won the first game 4-1 in Madrid but Turkey shocked the Spaniards by winning the second 1-0 in Istanbul. That meant they had to play a decider in Rome, goal difference not being taken into account in the rules of the time.

After the clash in the Italian capital ended in a 2-2 draw, the stalemate had to be resolved by drawing lots and a 14-year-old Roman named Luigi Franco Gemma, the son of an employee at the stadium, was picked to draw one name from the pot.

Adrian Escudero, scorer of Spain’s second goal in Rome, takes up the story: “We shut ourselves away in the dressing room feeling utterly dispirited, thinking that there was nothing more we could do, that everything had gone so badly that the kid wouldn’t pick our name,” he told Friday’s As newspaper.

“And of course he picked Turkey. The disappointment was tremendous. We felt helpless. It was dramatic.”

Can Galatasaray’s “Great Captain” be a great coach?

Galatasaray took a gamble in replacing German coach Michael Skibbe with former captain Bulent Korkmaz just three days before their UEFA Cup tie against Bordeaux.

But there was jubilation at the Ali Sami Yen stadium on Thursday after the team clinched a place in the last 16 with Sabri Sarioglu’s 90th minute decider sealing a thrilling 4-3 win.

“There was a lack of motivation before I came,” Korkmaz said after the game, which ended a run of five matches without a victory.

“Tonight my players showed how they can play… We have done nothing yet, this is just the beginning.”

His side will play Bundesliga side Hamburg SV next.

Known affectionately to fans as the “Buyuk Kaptan”, (Great Captain), Korkmaz won eight domestic titles and the UEFA Cup in 2000 with Galatasaray. He was also capped 102 times by Turkey.

Which Euro 2008 players are on the move?

As the dust settles on Euro 2008 and attention turns to transfer market, it will be interesting to see how many of the top performers from the tournament will be on the move in the coming weeks.

If Cristiano Ronaldo’s future at Manchester United generated endless speculation at the start of the Euros, the finals ended with other names enjoying newly-acquired prominence. 

Andrei Arshavin’s form for Russia has already prompted a paper mountain of speculation about his future, with Barcelona the dream destination of the Zenit St Petersburg forward. Euro 2008 top scorer David Villa is also expected to be leaving Valencia – even if his four goals for champions Spain will have inflated the Mestalla club’s asking price considerably.  

Another name to consider from UEFA’s 23-man team of the tournament is Spartak Moscow striker Roman Pavyluchenko – scorer of three goals for Russia – who according to one British newspaper on Tuesday is now on the radar of Manchester United. 

England may not have been present in Austria and Switzerland but the Premier League boasted six players in the team of the tournament and more may be headed to Europe’s most lucrative league before the start of the season.

At almost 32, Spain’s fine holding midfielder Marcos Senna may be tempted away from Villarreal for a potential last big pay day, while it would have been negligent of scouts to ignore the players that took Turkey to the last four – Galatasaray wide man Arda Turan, in particular.    

In some cases, players already had their transfers tied up before stepping into the Euro shop window. The 16.6m pound deal Tottenham sealed for Dinamo Zagreb’s playmaker Luka Modric certainly made sense when seeing him perform so impressively for Croatia.  

Turkey’s Terim deserves another shot at a big club

Turkey coach Fatih Terim said he would probably leave following their unlucky 3-2 defeat by Germany in the Euro 2008 semi-finals.

Given the way his determined and depleted side played and the gracious manner in which Terim conducted himself, a move to a big European club may not be far away.

Of course the former Galatasaray boss already had short stints at AC Milan and Fiorentina at the start of the decade. The Italian media and fans were suspicious of a Turkish manager and he was not given ample time to show what he could do.

After dealing with a raft of suspensions and injuries and still leading Turkey to an unprecedented European Championship semi-final, he fully deserves another opportunity at a top European club. His side never gave up, scoring some improbable late goals, and against Germany in Basel they were better side for much of the game and should have won.

I was most impressed with his amazing dignity in the pre and post match news conferences. He refused to make the suspensions an excuse or criticise the referees. The snappy dresser, who changes his sweaty shirts in the dugout, also congratulated Germany and said they had to accept the result even if they were unfortunate.

So which club chairman will be singing “you’re the one for me, Fatih”?