This blog has had a go at the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) over scheduling matters once or twice and so why not a third time.
First up I'd point out that the scheduling of this weekends matches in no way inconveniences me, Genclerbirligi or Ankaragucu and therefore this may turn out to be one of the more balanced rants this blog has seen.
The season is close to the end and there are extremely close races all over the place, for the championship, for a UEFA place and one hell of a struggle down the bottom to avoid relegation.
Knowing this, the TFF decided that most of last week's matches be played at the same time. I'm not sure if I agree with this, they don't do it in most other leagues, but hey if that's the way the TFF wants to do it I don't see any real hassle.
Having established the precedent the TFF has again scheduled the matches to be played by Galatasaray and Fenerbahce to be played at the same time on Sunday night.
But now comes the stupidity that we have come to expect from the TFF. The rest of the matches are not scheduled to be played at the same time and clearly some teams are feeling pissed off.
Today, both Kayserispor and Samsunspor have called for changes in the schedule saying that they are disadvantaged because they are playing before some of their rivals. In both of these cases, Genclerbirligi and Ankaragucu have a supposed advantage by playing later.
As I said before, I have no real problem with matches which aren't played at the same time but surely if the TFF are going to set a precedent they should stick to it. They have decided to treat the top two "fairly", why not the rest?
This being Turkey, I'm sure that it won't be long before the conspiracy theories are posted all over the net.
There you go, Gencler and Ankaragucu get given an advantage and this blog complains, can't say we aren't fair.
The Round Ball in Ankara! Dedicated to football lovers in Ankara (Except for those who follow Osmanlispor)
And for once I and the Husband completely agree with you. AS he says either play all the matches at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon whihc as every sane person knows is the only really correct time to play football, or play them at some other strange time, 7pm on a Sunday???? As you mention other leagues dont do this although last season the EPL had all the relegation matches starting at the same time on the last day. And as this Turkey the only way to make sure that the conspiracy theories are stopped before they start is to have them all starting at the same time. However this will of course bugger up Lig TV's schedule...so who is the real culprit here!!
ReplyDeleteI refer back to a previous Blog or a comment I made about the power of Digiturk. This company is really dangerous and are taking control of the situation. Just to refresh your memory, they made a deal to screen the Turkish Cup matches, but they then told users that they would have to pay extra for Cup matches because they were not league matches !!! A very poor deal for the punters like us and the Pubs who serve the punters like us !!! The TFF are spineless in this situation because, as always........... it all comes down to YTL !!!
ReplyDeleteSo, the minnows will squeak away and nobody will listen. However, the bottom line is that all the teams have to do the bizz on the day irrespective of KO times and to hell with what is going on elsewhere !!!
All the best from Eski Kanka Jim
PS.... Hey, surprise surprise, I am beginning to like Gulay more and more, but......... don't tell her husband !!!