Turkish Premier League football has long had a reputation of being a very intense league with big teams such as Galatasaray, Besiktas and Fenerbahce battling it out for the title with the chance to play champions league and the fans are some of the most passionate anywhere but have a reputation for this overspilling into trouble and violence on a regular basis.
But what about Turkish lower league football which barely ever gets a mention? How many teams could you name outside of the top league?, well whilst on holiday with my better half Alison in Oludeniz and looking for trips to do, we came across Turkish Second Division side Fethiyespor based a few miles away from our resort and as luck would have it their opening fixture of the season was at home to Kastamonuspor on the Sunday evening of the time we were away.
So this got me thinking, what's life like outside of the Turkish Prem?, is it similar?, is it totally different?, do many go and watch or does anybody even care?
Reading up on it Fethiyespor have a good following of British ex pats who live in the area and we joined a Facebook group they created to find out more and sure enough a few met up in a hotel bar an hour before kick off which was adjacent to the ground and it looked like you just paid on the turnstiles for general admission so we thought for a day out, why not?, the game was kicking off at 7pm so we decided to have a mooch round Fethiye, a few beers round the harbour in the afternoon and check it out.
My thoughts on the day of the game was, how would it compare to our beloved Prestwich Heys?, surely being only one league below the Turkish Prem this would mean the stadium, facilities, clubhouse and merchandise etc would far outweigh anything in the North West Counties or we in particular could offer?, well read on as all may not be as clear cut as you imagine....
Research done on Fethiyespor was easy as very little actually exists online except to say they had been plodding on in the Turkish second and third division for many years with just one season in the Turkish Prem back in 2013-14 which gave them their biggest result to date knocking Fenerbahce out of the Turkish cup 2-1, other than that little was known so we had no idea what to expect.
So, as fans of all clubs know, the opening day of the season is always a day of hope, optimism and confidence that its going to be your clubs year, your team will breeze through the season, win the league and get promoted, simple isn't it?, yes of course it is! .
From the group we find on Facebook ex pat Pamela gets in touch with us and says a group of fans meet at the Dealzyildizi Hotel round the corner from the ground before the game so me and Alison head into Fethiye early afternoon find a couple of bars on the harbour watch the world go by for a bit and discuss how excited we are if a little nervous about what to expect.
We get a taxi to the meeting point a stones throw from the ground on the outskirts of the city and as our cab goes past the ground to the adjacent hotel that all bar one of the stands are built on temporary scaffolding with seats bolted on and you start to realise that this football club is run on a shoe string budget and we may not be as far from the non league scene we all adore as you may think.
As for our meeting point we soon discover the hotel is actually a backpackers and the bar was a terrace at the front which had a fridge and your choice was either the local brew Efes, cans of Fanta or, die of thirst!, and with the barman refusing to give us the WIFI password because we hadn't booked a room! (cheers pal) We couldn't get online to tell Pamela we had arrived.
We are sat having a beer when a group of lads come in and sit behind us, they are all English living in the hills of Fethiye and I smile as I listen to one guy when his pal asks him how he thought Fethiyespor would get on this season his answer was 'win the league!', see, opening day optimism you cant beat it can you?.....
Pamela arrives and welcomes us and goes over to meet these guys, they all hug and talk about the season to come not having seen each other for a couple of months. This is the beauty of the game we love that no matter who you support or wherever you are in the world football brings people together and that its not just about the game its about meeting up with like minded friends for a catch up, have a beer and go to the game together.
We leave the hostel and walk to the ground having been advised that we need to get a ticket from a man sat in a hole in the wall in the stand!,we find the queue and said man sells us two tickets for a general admission price of 200 Turkish Lira which is about £5 each....yes it is cheaper than Heys!.
We are told an outrage has gone on with fans as admission prices had been doubled by the club for this season which was announced only days before this game and only one stand was open along with the visitors section, the other two stands were in such a poor state they had been condemned by the local authority as they were not safe to sit end and so we entered the stadium a little nervous as to what was going to happen.
We get into the stand and easily find seats just before the teams come out and look to my right to see a man stooped on the fencing propped up by two of his pals looking into the crowd and not at the pitch orchestrating about 300 fans who are all chanting and banging drums for everything they are worth. The sound was amazing, I look to my left to the away section where twelve (yes i counted them) Kastamonuspor supporters were gathered, Kastamonu is located eight hours drive to the north of Fethiye and I think I will never complain about all the trips to the Merseyside teams we have to do with Heys ever again as would love to chat with one of these fans to see how they organise an away day with a sixteen hour round trip!, I guess an overnight stay was involved taking in the sights of Fethiye!. In the Turkish Second Division an away day could be up to a 13 hour drive so this gives you an idea of how big Turkey actually is and no regional leagues here.
The teams come out and stand in a line in middle of the pitch, a minutes silence is given for Victory Day which is a celebration of Turkish troops victory in the battle of Dumlupinar, and then in the polar opposite of football in the UK the players come over to applaud the fans before the game kicks off!, I cant help thinking 'are they getting the applause in now in case they get walloped and make a hasty exit down the tunnel after the game!'?.
The game kicks off and Fethiyespor take an early lead after an error by the visiting keeper, the hardcore to our right go wild, its like a party they sing constantly (yes ok, a bit like me and Mike Taylor on our away days!) the visitors soon equalise with a free kick and then get on top of the game secoring again just before the break to go in 2-1 up at half time.
I walk down the front heading towards the other end of the stand to where the one block of toilets are located and notice several things, yes the hardcore mentioned are in the middle of the stand but either side is a very diverse set of supporters, a mix of families with young children, British ex pats and your average season ticket holder mulling about.
The facilities in the ground are the basics, no beer, in fact no alcohol at all just Turkish tea, coffee and small cartons of water like you would get with an aircraft meal and no merchandise but as I walk out of the toilets I see two men to my left stood behind what could only be described as an old pasting table which had four trays on it, one containing tomatoes, one with lettuce, one with onion and the other with pre cooked kebab meat. I can't resist giving this ago and he takes some freshly made Turkish bread goes to each tray makes me one and charges 150 Lira (£4), it tastes delicious and far better than offered in many take aways and has me thinking how good it would be if we could get these on at Heys, they would go down a treat!
I walk back to my seat, people are tripping up over the lose wooden flooring and some fans smoking cigarettes in the seats, this place is primitive for sure but you can't help feeling you are into something amazing, an experience that gets the pulse racing but we hadn't seen anything yet as the second half was about to begin.
After a temperature of 36 degrees during the day the sun sets over the stadium and as the picture below shows its a mightily impressive sight with the houses at the far end not only see the sunset but can see the majority of the pitch for the footy too.
The second half gets underway, the visitors start the quicker and go 3-1 up early on and the local 'hardcore' go quiet for a while but are re ignited as they pull one back and then equalise on seventy-four minutes, the home crowd are roaring them on for a winner and the intensity is amazing as its game on but as the hosts press for a winner they get caught down the left in the final minute and the ball comes over for a free header six yards out at the far post to put Kastamonuspor 4-3 up then, like the flip of a coin the atmosphere suddenly changes and as the visiting dozen fans celebrate a few of the more 'vocal' home fans run towards the stand on the left where they are located, start swearing in Turkish and making hand signals that suggested they didn't want to discuss the match over a pint after the final whistle!.
The game ends no applause at all from the home crowd of around 3000 and its an eerie silence in the stand other than a few locals rushing out of the ground to 'meet' the travelling fans, me and Alison hang back for five minutes as do a lot others and then drift off safely.
So a narrow 4-3 defeat for Fethiyespor, the standard of football was not great with many defensive errors and careless play from both sides and some very dubious refereeing decisions ,no star imports here just young Turkish lads giving 100% which in turn made it a thoroughly entertaining game with the visitors just about deserving the win in the end.
Safe to say this game was a real eye opener, a great example of the passion that football is in another country and a realisation that just like us at Prestwich Heys, Fethiyespor have very little but the fans turn up get behind the team and make a Saturday afternoon (or whenever you play) special.
A realisation kicked in on the taxi journey heading back to Oludeniz that the standard between the Turkish Second Division and the North West Counties is not actually as big as you may think, it appears unsurprisingly that money does not drift down the leagues in Turkey either and we all have to battle on with what we have, but this experience watching Fethiyespor is another example of what watching the beautiful game is all about.
MATCH STATS
FETHIYESPOR 3-4 KASTAMONUSPOR
TURKMEN 3,54 YAVUZ 15, 45+2
DERELI 74 ALTINOZ 48
CELEBI 86
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