The sorry state of Turkish football

Pity the fans of Trabzonspor, a football club from Turkey’s Black Sea region. In May, the team was crowned champions of the Super Lig, Turkey’s answer to the Premier League, for the sixth time in their history. Three months later, they lost to FC Copenhagen in the Champions’ League play-offs meaning that, for the first time in 27 years, no Turkish team will play in the tournament.

Trabzonspor’s defeat was a drop in a wider malaise. The Turkish game has been in decline for a decade, battered by mismanagement, political interference and the devaluation of the Turkish lira, which is worth just one-eighth against the euro what it was in 2012. Turkish clubs are deep in debt – 1.9 billion lira (£90.75 million) in Trabzonspor’s case – and still borrowing money, while others are relying on wealthy patrons. Fenerbahce is 6.4 billion lira (£305.75 million) in debt, yet has signed an average of 30 players each season since Ali Koc, scion of one of Turkey’s most famous business dynasties, took over the presidency of the club in 2018.