Mehmet Büyükekşi, President of Turkish Football Federation, made statements at the press conference held between TFF and Double Pass. President Büyükekşi touched upon the decision taken regarding the teams withdrawn from the league, MHK President Lale Orta and important issues regarding the number of foreigners.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM MEHMET BÜYÜKEKŞİ’S WORDS:
Our clubs need to allocate resources to their infrastructure and develop them. We want the players who are trained in the youth academies to be promoted to the A team of their own club first, and then to be transferred abroad in the next step.
Real football academies will be established in the clubs and the wages of the coaches will be covered by the TFF for a period of 6 months. Academies will be audited by the TFF and support mechanisms will be operated according to the audit results. The coaches, who will be selected according to certain criteria, will receive training according to their respective age groups. Coaches who have completed their training will provide training to our children and young people according to the age groups they have been trained in.
We have taken the decision of the board of directors to impose an academy obligation for the Super League and TFF 1st League clubs next season. Today, we will notify our clubs. “Within the scope of young football player development, we are also implementing the B team application, in which teams in the Super League can participate in the 2023-2024 season, starting from the 2024-2025 season.
“WE DECIDED BY LOOKING AT THE PAST EXAMPLES”
You know, our board of directors made a decision on February 10, right after the earthquake. We accepted the demands of clubs who want to withdraw from the league in provinces affected by the earthquake and declared a state of emergency. We registered the matches they played. As they withdrew from the league, we decided that they would be declared a 3-0 forfeit in the next matches. The league has continued since then. These clubs were declared defeated 3-0 in the matches they will play in the 2022/23 season. A total of 9 teams withdrew from the league. We have decided that all of their remaining receivables will be paid as if they had not been withdrawn.
“THE MATCHES THEY PLAYED ARE DEFINITELY NOT DELETED”
While making this decision, our board of directors did not take a hasty decision, as is mentioned by the public. Specifically, we looked at past practices before this one. For 30 years, jurisprudence has been formed. Starting with Samsunspor in 1989, then the 1991 earthquake, then the flood disaster, the TFF board of directors has always taken the same decision. In order to avoid confusion in the public, I would like to underline the following; If a team withdraws from the league in any way, it may be an earthquake or other issue, then their next matches will be automatically forfeited 3-0. The matches they played will never be deleted. These matches have been registered. There have been red cards, yellow cards and payments related to these matches. It never has been. Not in the coming years.
“WE HAVE AN EARTHQUAKE IN THE MIDDLE”
The app is extremely open and transparent. It’s always the same as in the past. The matches played so far have been registered. Any reason, not an earthquake but another reason, for example, it’s been 3-4 weeks, Alanya Kestelspor had a traffic accident. 9 players were injured. He made a request to us. We told him, ‘The matches you have played so far are registered, you can withdraw from the league if you wish. We said, “Either you continue like this or if you withdraw, we will not relegate you.” We did this, we did not take any new decisions. They have already played matches until this time, they will be defeated by 3-0 in the matches they will play from now on. If there had been no force majeure, these teams would have played 3- Teams that withdrew from the league would have been relegated because they were forfeited 0. There is an earthquake in the middle, we gave them an opportunity not to be relegated.
“THE ASSOCIATION OF CLUBS DOESN’T HAVE DECISION-MAKING AUTHORITY”
The Association of Clubs does not have the authority to decide on this issue. TFF makes the decision. According to the decision of the clubs, this will not work. Even so, we received an application on Friday evening. 6 clubs want it. 11 clubs have decided to the contrary. Let’s not bother the public. It doesn’t help anyone by directing the public with things that won’t happen and doing these things from the media on the one hand and social media on the other.
“CHANGING THE PRESIDENT OF MHK…”
We have no plans to change the chairman of the Central Arbitration Board. This week, only the referee of the derby match was appointed manually. MHK made such a request. There may be such practices in Belgium as well. Sometimes they can assign the hardest match manually. We allowed it. For the sake of transparency, we have specifically disclosed this.
We will decide on the number of foreign players by the end of this month.