Will tonight prove anything?

I'm not going to pretend that the words below are some kind of report of Genclerbirligi's match this afternoon. For the vast majority of us at the stadium this was a chance to prove a point. That point was simple and was made through chants over and over again. We refuse to accept Passolig.

Genclerbirligi 6 - 0 Etimesgutspor

No Passolig card required... but it still seems as if Passolig
were in charge of the paper tickets

Not a huge crowd of Kankas down at the Beer Bus for pre-match drinks... but perhaps this can be excused by the fact that this was a weekday, and we were drinking at 2pm. But Carl was there, as was Flying Dutchman, myself and Little Oz Kanka. Later at the stadium we joined up with Dan the Man and his young one Efe.

Just a bit of background to today's Turkish Cup early round match. This was not a league match. It was against a team miles below us. It was during the week. It was taking place at a time when Gencler are not doing all that well. The weather was grey and overcast. In previous years this would have been a one-lira ticket match and still only get a crowd of a couple of hundred people. This was not an important match.

What was important today, however, was that you didn't need to have a Passolig card to get in. We lined up, handed over 10 lira and were given a black and white paper ticket... something that is now not allowed at normal league matches.  

Considering the circumstances, we got a great crowd in. And while it was not huge, huge, the crowd was made up of quality people prepared to sing for the full 90 minutes. And sing we did. Right from the off were continual chants against the e-bilet system. This was not a crowd of "Gencler-season-ticket-holders-but-true-Bizans-team-supporters", these boys and girls were true Gencler fans.

L to R: Carl, Flying Dutchman Kanka, Dan the Man,
 Efe and Little Oz Kanka

At some stage the football started. Gencler put out a very young team with not a single first team player. None of us cared though. I saw one tweet from @malicetinkaya that seven of our players were from our own youth system. That's got to be good for the future.        
 
We went ahead with just a few minutes on the clock. We pushed it further and scored again. And again. Three-nil at half time.

But we didn't care about the score, it was all about the atmosphere. It was about the singing. It was about showing the players and the management what they are missing when no-one goes to the stadium. They know full well that the crowd today will not be showing up next week, nor the week after that, nor the week after that. "Chairman, save us from Passolig", was one of the chants. "We are fans, not customers," was another. This was a plea to the management... it is time for you to stand up and oppose Passolig, not because you give a shit about us, but because without fans you lose money and our players lose the bonus that a good home crowd can deliver.

Singing loud.

This match was as much of a mismatch as you can imagine, but it was good to see our younger players doing their best. We are through to the next round of the Turkish Cup. Let's hope the next round is also a non-Passolig match.

The atmosphere today was fantastic and it was great to finally be able to go to a match this season. I hope there will be many more.