Hot kick off ahead for Turkish Super League
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Hurriyet Daily News
OluÅŸturulma Tarihi: Temmuz 08, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - Only one month is left before the 51st season of the Turkcell Super League, with the first week expected to be played under boiling heat. The calendar is set to give countries some time to prepare for the World Cup next summer, a federation official says.
Turkcell Super League draws were made Tuesday, meaning the season is destined to start under sweltering heat next month.Â
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Turkish football’s top-flight enters its 51st season on Aug. 7, remarkably earlier than last year’s debut date of Aug. 23. The reason is the World Cup in South Africa next summer.
"FIFA demanded from every football federation to finish their leagues by mid-May," said Turkish Football Federation Secretary General Ahmet Güvener. "That is why the new season starts a little earlier than the last."
Güvener has a point, as some of the major football leagues start earlier than usual this year, as French Ligue 1 and German Bundesliga kicks off on the same weekend as the Turkish League.
However, considering the hot summer weather records in the country, maybe it would be better for Turkey to follow the examples of two other Mediterranean countries, Italy and Spain. While Serie A starts on Aug. 23, La Liga is set to start on Aug. 29.
With that starting date, Turkcell Super League seems to ignore past lessons, especially the upsetting case of Michal Meduna. Playing a home game against Galatasaray on Aug. 19, 2006, the Vestel Manisa striker collapsed to the ground and immediately hospitalized. Later, the Czech was announced to have suffered a heart attack, triggered by the heat and a heart dysfunction he was carrying from birth.
Meduna later announced his retirement from football, probably grateful of not being added to an infamously increasing list of footballers passed on the pitch in recent years.
Following the Meduna case, the Football Federation made slight changes to its calendar, starting the 2007/2008 football season on Aug. 10 and the 2008/2009 campaign on Aug. 23. But due to the World Cup arrangements, the governing body opted to forget all the changes.
No complaints
Fenerbahçe Sports Director Aykut Kocaman said he had no complaints about the current calendar.
"There is no point in complaining now," said Kocaman. "Football can be played in the rain, in the snow or in extremely hot weather. We will try to do our best to adapt to those situations."
With an ironic twist of fate, Fenerbahçe starts the season with the Denizlispor game at the Denizli Atatürk Stadium, where the Yellow Canaries slumped to a draw on the last day of the 2005/2006 season and missed the title to Galatasaray. That game was Christoph Daum’s last game as a Fenerbahçe coach before being reappointed this summer, and it will be interesting to see how the German will start his second period at the same ground where the first chapter ended.
Defending champion Beşiktaş starts the campaign in an away game at Istanbul Municipality. Beşiktaş Secretary General Kenan Öner said that the team would vie for a good start.
"Recently, the municipality caused us some trouble, but it will be a good game," said Öner. "We want to make a good start there."
The Sivasspor-Trabzonspor game is likely to be the highlight of the first weekend, with two solid Anatolian teams hoping to make a good start, and Galatasaray, led by coach Frank Rijkaard, begins the campaign with a difficult test at Gaziantepspor.
The first big derby of the season is the Galatasaray-Beşiktaş clash on the fifth match day. On the ninth week, Galatasaray welcomes Trabzonspor this time, a week before meeting its bitter rival Fenerbahçe.
Beşiktaş’s other big games are the Trabzonspor match in the 12th week and the Fenerbahçe clash in the 13th week. The Trabzonspor-Fenerbahçe game will be played on the last week of the first period of the league, just like it did in the last two years.
Â
Turkish football’s top-flight enters its 51st season on Aug. 7, remarkably earlier than last year’s debut date of Aug. 23. The reason is the World Cup in South Africa next summer.
"FIFA demanded from every football federation to finish their leagues by mid-May," said Turkish Football Federation Secretary General Ahmet Güvener. "That is why the new season starts a little earlier than the last."
Güvener has a point, as some of the major football leagues start earlier than usual this year, as French Ligue 1 and German Bundesliga kicks off on the same weekend as the Turkish League.
However, considering the hot summer weather records in the country, maybe it would be better for Turkey to follow the examples of two other Mediterranean countries, Italy and Spain. While Serie A starts on Aug. 23, La Liga is set to start on Aug. 29.
With that starting date, Turkcell Super League seems to ignore past lessons, especially the upsetting case of Michal Meduna. Playing a home game against Galatasaray on Aug. 19, 2006, the Vestel Manisa striker collapsed to the ground and immediately hospitalized. Later, the Czech was announced to have suffered a heart attack, triggered by the heat and a heart dysfunction he was carrying from birth.
Meduna later announced his retirement from football, probably grateful of not being added to an infamously increasing list of footballers passed on the pitch in recent years.
Following the Meduna case, the Football Federation made slight changes to its calendar, starting the 2007/2008 football season on Aug. 10 and the 2008/2009 campaign on Aug. 23. But due to the World Cup arrangements, the governing body opted to forget all the changes.
No complaints
Fenerbahçe Sports Director Aykut Kocaman said he had no complaints about the current calendar.
"There is no point in complaining now," said Kocaman. "Football can be played in the rain, in the snow or in extremely hot weather. We will try to do our best to adapt to those situations."
With an ironic twist of fate, Fenerbahçe starts the season with the Denizlispor game at the Denizli Atatürk Stadium, where the Yellow Canaries slumped to a draw on the last day of the 2005/2006 season and missed the title to Galatasaray. That game was Christoph Daum’s last game as a Fenerbahçe coach before being reappointed this summer, and it will be interesting to see how the German will start his second period at the same ground where the first chapter ended.
Defending champion Beşiktaş starts the campaign in an away game at Istanbul Municipality. Beşiktaş Secretary General Kenan Öner said that the team would vie for a good start.
"Recently, the municipality caused us some trouble, but it will be a good game," said Öner. "We want to make a good start there."
The Sivasspor-Trabzonspor game is likely to be the highlight of the first weekend, with two solid Anatolian teams hoping to make a good start, and Galatasaray, led by coach Frank Rijkaard, begins the campaign with a difficult test at Gaziantepspor.
The first big derby of the season is the Galatasaray-Beşiktaş clash on the fifth match day. On the ninth week, Galatasaray welcomes Trabzonspor this time, a week before meeting its bitter rival Fenerbahçe.
Beşiktaş’s other big games are the Trabzonspor match in the 12th week and the Fenerbahçe clash in the 13th week. The Trabzonspor-Fenerbahçe game will be played on the last week of the first period of the league, just like it did in the last two years.