WELCOME TO HELL ? – IN SEARCH OF THE REAL TURKISH FOOTBALL

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

I attended the book launch of Welcome to Hell ? – In Search of the Real Turkish Football last night written by a friend of the Kanka Group, John McManus.   The function was held in the British Ambassador’s Residence and it was well attended by ‘friends of footie’.   The Kanka Group was represented by Oz Kanka Chris, Oz Kanka Junior Mathew, Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Spine Kanka Steve, Paddy Kanka Paul and Kloggy Kanka Carlo.

I mentioned to John during the course of the evening that I thought he was being kind to Turkish footie fans by putting a question mark after ‘Welcome to Hell’ !!    And, as an example, I reminded him and the audience of the stabbings in Eskisehir to 2 Ankaragucu supporters prior to the match about 7 years ago, and us guys dodging missiles directed to the away end during the match.   In particular, a large stone/small rock which landed two rows in front of us just missing a girl who was sitting two seats from its final destination as it punctured a hole in the seat !     I also mentioned The Battle of Kayseri briefly in which Damon’s ‘hard head’ withstood a barrage of missiles thrown by Kayseri ‘fans’ !!

The British Ambassador mentioned that he has already read the book and was full of praise for its contents and style.   I’ve started reading it (now on Page 100 of 384), no doubt along with the other kankas I’ve mentioned above, so you can expect to see our comments/opinions in the Blog soon.

In the meantime, we wish John success with this book and perhaps he has a follow-up under consideration when he finds time in his busy life ??!!

We all poured ourselves into the Red Lion Club after the book launch to see Ingallind grind out a 2-1 win against the Mighty Tunisia !     They will certainly have to up their game against Belgium if they intend to finish top of their Group.    Also, they can’t always rely on ‘Arry Boy to bail them out – the TEAM is a squad of players !!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim