Looking at their list of recent matches, the answer is often, but not always (matches in Bursa, Kayseri and Izmir), and the Federation's website doesn't give any indication that they've decided on a venue for that particular game.

For what it's worth, the last time they played Belgium, it was in Istanbul, but you probably knew that.

StephL wrote:
Sorry to hijack the thread but I have one question : Belgium are in Turkey's group for Euro 2012 and we are playing there on 7/9/2010. I´m considering going there but does Turkey always play in Istanbul? Thanks

Turkey generally plays the big games in Istanbul and some of the smaller games around the country, I would say that the Belgium game is 99% likely to be played in Istanbul as it was in the last round of qualifiers. Hope to see you here for that.

ursus arctos wrote:
Looking at their list of recent matches, the answer is often, but not always (matches in Bursa, Kayseri and Izmir), and the Federation's website doesn't give any indication that they've decided on a venue for that particular game.

For what it's worth, the last time they played Belgium, it was in Istanbul, but you probably knew that.

The friendlies are shared around but generally the qualifiers are in Istanbul, I think it was the Estonia game that was played in Kayseri because of the new stadium.

Thomas Doll has signed a two year extension to his deal at Gençlerbirligi, at last some stability for the club that was famous for that. They are also doing pretty badly of late so the real not dreaded vote of confidence is a timely boost.

Two pieces of news to report, first of all Trabzon's Engin Baytar hits out at the selection process for the national side. He basically expands on what I have posted before, same players picked regardless of form or injury situation and many players cannot break into that circle. Secondly Bursa fans have been banned from attending the game in Diyarbakir this weekend, some of them even went to see the governor and chief of police in Bursa to appeal against this decision but were by the man himself shouting and screaming at them, basically to the effect of who do you think you are. The joys of free speech in action and not a power crazed condescending twat humiliating his subjects and actually getting one of them taken into custody.

Darius update, his blog is still not running but his comments page is, he will hopefully play against Gaziantepspor on Sunday, I wish him luck and goals aplenty so long as we win. He will, hopefully, be at Ali Sami Yen next Sunday where I can properly support him.

The Diyarbakirspor game has now been suspended. Any idea what went down?

Apparently, the Diyarbakirspor supporters hit the ref in the head with a rock...

Here's a video of it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfikovQi2rk

Lots of incidents at the Diyarbakir game, in short the game was suspended due to a constant hail of missiles, from lighters to rocks, thrown onto the pitch with one hitting the assistant referee on the back of his head. The referee took the players of the pitch and despite appeals for calm from the club and the players the game was suspended with the Bursa players and staff taken to the airport in unmarked police coaches.

More to follow.

Eskisehirspor beat Galatasaray 2-1 at home today. The heat is still on in the title race!

The standard seems a lot more level in the last 3 or 4 years to what it used to be. Is that jsut my ignorant perception, or is that true? And if it is, why?

Etienne wrote:
The standard seems a lot more level in the last 3 or 4 years to what it used to be. Is that jsut my ignorant perception, or is that true? And if it is, why?

I agree with you about the standard levelling off and I think it is for a number of reasons, in no particular order:

-the quality of the foreign players brought to Turkey, especially by the bigger clubs has declined, whereas the smaller clubs have been able to bring in some players with better pedigree. Turkey is not so attractive for the top stars despite tax free contracts in theory

-the quality of refereeing, due to TV saturation coverage and UEFA ambitions of the referees, has improved with less decisions going the way of the big teams

-slowly more fans are going to and supporting their home town teams, a long and slow process though

-better coaches and tactics, especially when playing the big sides in Istanbul, have led to an improvement

-trying to win away games rather than settling on a point have increased the quality

-more ambition against the bigger clubs, probably motivated by the desire to get a transfer there though

-media coverage and analysis has improved too, this has had a knock on effect as people are more knowledgeable and expect a better product

-better stadium and less but not an eradication of the threat of violence, it is generally a safe place to watch games, which means more supporters and more women, children and families

-the youth systems of the Anatolian teams means they are producing more players, okay they are sold/poached by the big clubs but they often return if they are unsuccessful

-players willing to play for Anatolian sides rather than sit out large contracts in Istanbul

It is still not a level playing field, Bursaspor have a budget of about $15 million which is about 25% of Trabzonspor's, not exactly sure how much the Istanbul clubs have but it is about $100 million.
I predicted Bursa to be in the title race and if they can beat Kasimpasa on Wednesday they will be one point of the lead with the Diyarbakir game in hand, almost certainly they will have that awarded to them 3-0.

When football and politics clash in Turkey.

With the Kurdish issue high on the political agenda any match in Diyarbakir is subject to heavy media interest, and round two of the clash with Bursa was no exception. Diyarbakir is the largest city in the SE of Turkey and is predominantly Kurdish whereas Bursa is an industrial city in the NE, well developed and has a nationalist edge to its support which matches the rest of the country. The events unfolded as follows:

This weekend saw Bursaspor travel to face Diyarbakirspor in a match where everyone expected trouble but nobody could really have predicted how bad it actually ended up.
The match earlier in the season ended in a 4-0 home win for Bursa but with chants of "PKK Outside" from the Bursaspor fans and a response of broken chairs thrown onto the pitch by the Diyarbakir supporters put everyone on high alert for the return match.
The tension rose in midweek when the governor of Diyarbakir said away fans would not be welcome and Bursaspor tried to get permission from the TFF(Turkey Football Federation) to arrive on the day of the game to avoid inciting further tensions. At 1 am Diyarbakir fans went to the Bursa hotel and beat drums until 3am to disrupt their sleep.
On the day of the game the national anthem was whistled at by many and then the hail of missiles, from lighters to rocks, started. When the game kicked off the first target was Ivankov the Bursa keeper who fled his area after being subjected to a barrage of missiles. The game continued and when Bursa won their first corner ten policemen had to protect Ali Tandogan while he tried to take it. After 17 minutes when Bursa won another corner on the opposite side of the pitch the same player was subject to another hail of missiles, one of which struck the assistant referee on the back of his neck. This resulted in the referee and the Bursa players fleeing the pitch and the Diyarbakir board and players appealing for calm by asking them to support their team.
After some consulting with the TFF the referee, Mustafa Kamil Abitoglu, abandoned the game and the Bursaspor players left the ground in unmarked police coaches. This where one major problem occurs, the chairman of Diyarbakirspor, Çetin Sümer, said he believed the game could have continued and was not aware that Bursa had left the ground until they had arrived at the airport. As Bursaspor were fleeing the stadium and driving to the airport their convoy was subjected to a ferocious barrage of rocks, the TV footage released by Bursaspor TV from inside one of the coaches shows windows being broken, players kneeling on the floor and the constant thud of rocks hitting the sides of the coach. Other pictures show the players wearing riot helmets.
So what will happen now? Bursa will be awarded the match 3-0, Diyarbakir will be fined money they do not have, and their stadium will be closed for a number of games which will be played behind closed doors in another city.

Here are some of the pictures

The postponed games are being played today, later Besiktas host IBB but Bursaspor have already played and beaten Kasimpasa 2-0 and are now 1 point of the top with a game in hand, the Diyarbakir game, and will probably go two points clear. Galatasaray have also "played" Ankaraspor, Bursaspor "play" them in the last week. 10 games to go and the Anatolian dream is alive and well.

Played Points Goal Difference
1 Galatasaray 24 50 +22
2 Bursaspor 23 49 +25
3 Fenerbahçe 24 48 +19
4 Besiktas 23 45 +16
5 Kayserispor 24 43 +17
6 Trabzonspor 24 42 +17
7 Eskisehirspor 24 39 +7
8 IBB 23 37 -1
9 Gaziantepspor 24 32 +2
10 Gençlerbirligi 24 31 +1
11 Antalyaspor 24 30 +3
12 Kasimpasa 24 28 -4
13 Ankaragücü 24 26 -2
14 Manisaspor 24 24 -7
15 Sivasspor 24 24 -15
16 Diyarbakirspor 23 21 -12
17 Denizlispor 24 17 -16
18 Ankaraspor 24 0 -72

No news yet on the result of the Diyarbakir Bursaspor game but Diyarbakir have been handed a 40,000TL fine as well as having to play three games behind closed doors in another city.

The next round of games kicks off tonight, we(Gaziantepspor) host Trabzonspor, I have to be content to watch it on TV, with the referee being the notorious Cüneyt Çakir. How this corrupt official is a UEFA standard referee I have no idea, he has refereed Europa league games as well as international friendlies.

Darius Vassell and Ankaragücü come to Istanbul to play Galatasaray on Sunday night, I hope to be there.

ursus arctos, Matteo Ferrari has just picked up a six month ban for drink driving, caught out and about in his Ferrari at three in the morning, pulled over and was slightly over the legal limit. Just after you had posted about him being a playboy and me warning of the bright lights of the bul.

We drew, a last minute equaliser from Alanzinho, 1-1 at home to Trabzonspor. It was a weird game, lots of chances but no real excitement, strange really perhaps I was too tired to watch it. Anyway Trabzon were poor, we should have killed the game off but couldn't. Julio Cesar didn't start, perhaps everyone has sussed that he only has a left peg and can do nothing on his right. Away to Fenerbahçe next Saturday.

Only one game today, Fenerbahçe away to Gençlerbirligi. In the last 18 league games the record is 16-1-1 to Fener, for a side that has been a consistent pain in the arse for the big three it is quite a statistic to see, Ilhan Cavcav, the chairman of Gençlerbirligi, must be a Fenerbahçe fan then.

0-0. Maybe not that big a fan, after all.

Bursapor win again.

Diyarbakirspor game suspended again, with them as the away team this time.

Etienne wrote:
Bursapor win again.

Diyarbakirspor game suspended again, with them as the away team this time.

Bursa ground out the three points, the atmosphere at the ground was something else, I will try to find clips to link them on here. The media is now talking of them as
being title contenders, with some saying they are the favourites. Adnan Polat, the chairman of Galatasaray, says he thinks the Bursa Diyarbakir match should be replayed and he supported the comments made by Frank Rijkaard. Rijkaard said that Anatolian teams do not play with the same ambition when they face Bursa as they do when they play the big three. I cannot wait for the Bursa game at Ali Sami Yen, that will be special.

The Diyarbakirspor match against IBB was suspended after 87 minutes, Tum scored and some of the Diyarbakir fans left the stand to go onto the running track surrounding the pitch. As they did this others tried to stop them, about a dozen fans got onto the pitch and ran directly to the other side of the ground, the referees, IBB players and some Diyarbakir players ran off the pitch to the dressing rooms. The remaining Diyarbakir players tried to persuade the so called fans, they have been disowned by the club chairman, to leave the pitch. The actions of about twenty people caused the game to be suspended and the situation was quickly defused but as it is Diyarbakir the media have made a big deal of it with some calling for the club to be relegated. The image of two of their players sitting looking at their fans is one that stays with me. The strange thing is that the match was looking like it would pass off without any incident at all.

All the photos

I will try to update the table and the remaining fixtures this week.

I could not go the Ankaragücü game either, night duty and exhaustion but Darius played well and is still trying to be positive.

As expected Bursa have been awarded the game at Diyarbakir 3-0 and are now top of the league for the first time since Gordon Milne took them there, the green crocodiles have outdone the green pearls then.

Guus Hiddink signed his contract on Monday. He is trying to get out of the remaining months of his contract with Russia, not to take the Ivory Coast to the world cup despite Drogba's pleas but to take Turkey to a pre-world cup tournament in the USA in May.

More news from Diyarbakir is that their goalkeeper, Gökhan, has been kicked out of the squad for an apparent bust up with new coach Güvenç Kurtar, the players refused to train in the early evening until he is reinstated and two members of the coaching staff have tendered their resignations. More and more turmoil at that club.

Besiktas beat Denizlispor away on Monday to move above Fenerbahçe.