The European Club Association (ECA) meeting was held in Istanbul, hosted by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF). UEFA Deputy Secretary General Giorgio Marchetti, ECA board members, TFF President Mehmet Büyükekşi and board members and managers of European and Turkish clubs attended the meeting held at TFF Riva Hasan Doğan Camp and Training Facilities.
Making a statement before the meeting, TFF President Büyükekşi said, “Today we are hosting the European Clubs Association meeting in Istanbul. We are very pleased with this. The format of the European cups has changed from the next season. UEFA’s deputy general secretary said that the clubs in Europe and Turkey “The managers are here. A presentation will be made to them and they will explain the format in detail.” he said.
Reminding that Turkish football rose from 20th to 9th in the UEFA country score rankings in the last 2 years, Mehmet Büyükekşi continued his words as follows:
“Next season we will compete in the European cups with 5 teams. Having five teams will be much more important for the country score. There is not a huge difference in points between the 6th, 7th and 8th teams in the country score ranking. We can catch up with them. The position Turkey will take here is extremely important “This meeting will be enlightening for the position we will take from now on. One of the most important things in football is to develop new relations. We see these meetings as extremely useful in strengthening bilateral relations with UEFA and the managers of European clubs.”
“PLAY-OFF SYSTEM IS NOT ON OUR AGENDA”
TFF President Mehmet Büyükekşi stated that the play-off system is not on their agenda for the championship in the Super League and said:
“Currently, our league champion participates in the Champions League, and the team that wins the Turkish Cup participates in the Europa League. We have changed the format of the Turkish Cup starting from next season. We are making the cup more exciting. Hypercube company will participate in the play-offs in the Super League. We had a study done to ensure that there would be no play-offs. Since our clubs do not find the play-off conditions appropriate, we do not have play-offs on our agenda at the moment. One of our goals is to reduce the Super League to 18 teams. After being reduced to 18 teams, we will continue on our way without play-offs. This year, there will be 4 teams. “Next season, 4 teams will be relegated, and the next season, 3 teams will be relegated and the Super League will become ideal.”