More on Turkish match-fixing
I am continuing with my tradition of reserving Sunday to informal light reading, even though my previous post wasn’t like that.
It has been exactly two weeks since Aziz Yildirim, the president of Fenerbahce football club, was arrested. And now my own beloved Besiktas is drawn as well, as the team’s manager and the head of football operations are under arrest.
Although ten days have passed since my first post on the subject, my thoughts have not changed much: I am still sure Fenerbahce did it (wishful thinking), although I am not sure if there is hard evidence to prove it, as most of the early evidence turned out to be bogus, as a blog post in Turkish explains. And even if there is hard evidence, spoon-feeding media with “facts” is not the way to do a fair trial: It is as if the prosecution and the police are conducting a PR campaign.
I have also become more and more convinced that these acts are political in nature, as a letter to the UEFA by Fenerbahce fans explains. You can’t blame me for saying this because my own team is implicated as well, as I have been saying it much before. But as for my own team, the so-called evidence is even weaker than Fenerbahce’s, as a fan post explains (in Turkish).
Therefore, it is time for all Turkish football fans to unite, as a Fenerbahce blogger has done (in Turkish). There has definitely been match-fixing in Turkish football in the past and will be in the future. But Besiktas did not do it before the cup final, at least according to my understanding of the available “evidence”. And there is a good chance Fenerbahce did not do it as well, although I continue to hold my ground that they must have done it:). But the prosecution is using the same methods in Ergenekon and Sledgehammer suspects, and if these were to go to trial, we would be seeing the same sham trial Dani Rodrik has been pointing to at his blog.
That’s why I have been supporting Fenerbahce despite my perennial hatred towards them and their President, and I believe every Besiktas fan should as well: We have a tradition of supporting the righteous, whether it be an Armenian journalist murdered or a footballer called “nigger” (nonetheless, by Fenerbahce fans). Before, we shouted, “We are all Armenians!” and “We are all niggers!” So now is time to shout: We are all Fenerbahce fans!
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