Another useless draw for Genclerbirligi

Keyifsiz bir 90 dakika. Golsüz bir maç. Yavrunu da al git Özat.

— KaraKızıl G.Birliği (@fckarakizil) December 16, 2017

There is no talking about football in today's report... Well, not that much.

What I hope to give is a feel for what the atmosphere was at the match.

Genclerbirligi 0 - 0 Kasimpasa

SOME BACKGROUND

As we reported in last week's blog, Genclerbirligi Coach Umit Ozat verbally attacked Gencler fan Mehmet Soylu on the transfer bus at Antalya Airport after last week's 1-1 draw with Antalya. This itself has a bit of history as Mehmet Soylu, a long term Gencler fan, has launched court proceedings against Ozat for "insulting" him on social media.

A BIT MORE BACKGROUND

Just after arriving in Ankara, Soylu spilt the beans onto the Alkaralar Whatsapp channel. Basically, Mehmet Soylu was confronted by Umit Ozat on the transfer bus from the terminal to the plane. Ozat was swearing away, allegedly, and complaining about the criminal complaint that Soylu had made about Ozat. All well and good.

STILL ON LAST WEEK'S TRANSFER BUS

We will never know for sure what sorts of insults Umit Ozat aimed at Mehmet Soylu (but I can make a bloody good guess). The really annoying thing is that the whole confrontation was being recorded by Mehmet's 15 year-old son Omer. What Ozat was saying must have been explosive because the next thing that happened was that Zeki Yavru, Genclerbirligi's midfielder/back, grabbed Omer's phone and deleted the recording.

NOT QUITE AT THE MATCH YET

All of above reporting about Umit Ozat may seem very petty but this stuff only scratches the surface of why the Gencler fans can't stand him. This is a man whom has said that women have no right to discuss football. This is a man who has said just a couple of weeks ago that he wouldn't criticise an old club "even if it was a Jewish club".

I don't know how many people will really be interested in this but it is important to point out that seven Divan Kurulu members resigned last night. As far as I understand the Divan Kurulu is a sort of honourary advisory board. Those who resigned on Friday night were Turgay Demirer, Ozan Güler, Nevzat Akçaoğlu, M.Akşit Özkural, Necdet Özkazancı, Tanıl Bora and Doğan Akpınar. In a very extensive statement they said that they were resigning not just for the club administration not advising them of goings on at the club but for Umit Ozat specifically attacking fans of the club.

To resign from something you love is one hell of a statement.

One of those who resigned was Tanıl Bora. Bora was the author of the definitive history of Genclerbirligi, a book that I proudly have in my library - "Ankara Ruzgarı".

A respected political journalist, Bora also writes the odd article about football... including one about us from many years ago.

ARE WE AT THE MATCH YET?

As I was walking down from the Ruzgarli gate I heard what was by far the largest chant I had ever heard before a match. "Zeki istifa, Zeki istifa." It was loud! What on earth did Zeki Yavru think of it I have no idea.

I got inside a few minutes in and Zeki, (61) got the ball... "boo...." went the crowd. Zeki got it again, "boo," went the crowd. We got a corner. Looked like Zeki was going to tale it.... "boo". Every single time Zeki got the ball the Genclerbirligi fans "boo"ed him. I have never seen us Gencler fans attack one of our own players for so long.

It went on... we didn't play all that well. I think we had one decent shot in the first half.... we had a couple of better chances in the second.

In the second half the fans stopped barracking Zeki Yavru and so it was just a touch ironic that he wasn't that bad in the first half but hardly touched the ball in the second.

We had the odd chance but nothing amazing. Same for Kasimpasa.

Then Zeki was replaced late in the match to amazingly loud boos from the crowd. "Zeki istifa", was the chant. Closely followed by "Ozat istifa". I have never seen anything like it.

There is nothing much to say about the football.