In the meantime, Beşiktaş is playing against Sabah FC in a friendly match for earthquake victims away from the league. Before the match, coach Şenol Günel gave attention to the remarks.
HERE ARE SENOL GÜNEŞ’S WORDS:
I came to Azerbaijan when I was coaching the national team. I see a lot of things have changed since then. I see the same change in football. Rasim Kara and Serpil Hamdi Tüzün served as coaches in Azerbaijan.
We do not experience foreignness in Azerbaijan. We see the concept of two states, one nation. The morning club has made a good investment, it has a good group of players. I find these changes positive. We will play a match for the benefit of earthquake victims. I hope it will be a good match. This is our only hope.
You miss the real problem when you talk about the number of foreigners without capturing the essence of the event. Football is all. We always talk about foreign players and referees. You will get a good foreign player by paying a lot of money, but is the financial structure of the club suitable for this? If appropriate, take it. The financial and administrative structures of the clubs need to be settled. Has he lived in our country, it is troublesome. I am not completely against foreign players. Before specifying the number of foreigners, structuring should be done. If there is a five-year plan, let’s start with eleven players, and after five years, let’s go down to seven. Let’s play the imported foreign players on the field. I have a foreign player in form, I say “I can’t play you because you’re not fit for status” that doesn’t happen. Let’s limit the number of squads in five years, send the rest of the players to the U-19 team, you can bring foreigners there if their age is appropriate. Thus, we create a pool every five years. When the system settles, you release the foreign number. What happens if you let go of what isn’t there now, what if you don’t? After that, Turkish players are expensive, you don’t produce them. Do you want to develop and race your own people, make football love you, do you just want to compete, do you want to do training and competition together? These things are difficult. Everyone says something, decisions are made according to the agenda.
Infrastructure is a long-term business. A strong organization must be established in the infrastructure. Its source is human. Some of our own people need to produce. If it is not enough, it must be foreign to complete the missing places. Apart from that, we should have our own people.
Every team has a field, a place to train. Facilities for education are important. People are important and of course organization is important. If football is loved this much, this should be done. I think there should be players from Azerbaijan that make a sound in Europe. If the beginning is made, the back will come. It was difficult for us, too, and their numbers increased. It should be educational for the player to grow up. Trainers need to be well trained. This is not possible without investment. In order to increase interest in football, there must be competition. I think that the four big clubs in our country shed light on the dynamism of Turkish football.
Our race continues in the league. We are lagging behind. We will play our matches without looking at our opponents. We will complete the league in the best way and look after that. We couldn’t be in Europe last year, we want to be in Europe next season. I work here because I became integrated with the Beşiktaş community.
As Beşiktaş, we stood by our earthquake victims and we continue to do so. Our President Ahmet Nur Cebi and the members of the Board of Directors and the president and managers of the Sabah club took the lead in the organization of this match.
Sabah FK is a very ambitious team. It has good players and the average age is not high. If they train players from below, they will be stronger.
I know that there are many Beşiktaş fans in Azerbaijan. We will have a friendly match. Even though it’s not an official game, the players need to make the fans happy.”