When Jose Mourinho came, I thought Fenerbahçe would participate in the Turkish Ziraat Cup. I was guessing that a monument of professionalism like Mourinho, who takes even the match seriously and goes out to win every match and every cup, would change Ali Koç from his mistake of not participating in the cup.
It is difficult to understand how Mourinho approved the decision not to participate in the Turkish Cup!
Yes, the format of the Ziraat Turkish Cup has changed to selecting teams that will play with the big four teams. I believe that the Turkish Cup should be played in a single-match elimination format, as is normally the case in many countries. If the reason was heavy match traffic and low income, Fenerbahçe management could have called for a change in the format at the beginning of the season, but they did not.
I see Fenerbahçe’s failure to participate in a cup that has a 63-year history, due to Ali Koç’s arbitrary decision, as a great injustice to both the fans, the reserves, young people who did not have the opportunity to play in the league, and Turkish football. It is not right to consider the Turkish Cup only in terms of financial income. For example; The fate of Kerem Aktürkoğlu, whom no one knew while he was playing for Erzincanspor, changed after he played against Galatasaray in the Turkish Cup!
If Fenerbahçe cannot make it to March in Europe this season and loses the championship in the Super League, it will end another season without a trophy!
If you win a cup every 10 years, you cannot gain new fans!
It is also interesting that combi boiler owners are not angry about this situation. You pay a lot of money to watch your team in the stands, but the team withdraws from the Turkish Cup!
The last thing a professional club would do is for Fenerbahçe, whose founding purpose was to participate in every competition and achieve success in the sporting field, to withdraw from the cup.