Speaking about their choice of Italian coach Vincenzo Montella instead of local names to be the technical director of the National Football Team, Mehmet Büyükekşi said, “We have had a stance since we took office. Until now, it has always been a continuation of the past. No innovations have been made or it is a little late in making innovations.” It has been ignored. Or it has not been dared. We are aware of it now, we are making an effort to see how it can be better in every aspect. We want to do new things. Again, let’s talk about this independently of people. The mentioned coaches have already served in the national team before. Some of them were successful, some of them were successful. “What a difference it would be if we brought the same teachers again.” he said.
Emphasizing that they have to think about the future of Turkish football, Büyükekşi continued as follows:
We have made an academy mandatory for clubs, and we also train the coaches. We made a protocol with the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Youth and Sports 3 weeks ago. Currently, there are no physical education teachers in primary schools, only classroom teachers. There is often no physical education in physical education classes. We chose 16 provinces. Among these, there are those with Super League teams, and there are also cities such as Bursa, where football is more popular. We will select a total of 320-350 pilot schools, 20 from each city. We will provide 16 hours of Grasroots training, the first stage of coaching, to approximately 3,500 teachers free of charge. 12 hours of this training will be online and 4 hours face to face. In this way, we will reach 100 thousand children, regardless of whether they are boys or girls. We have 14 regions. We are restructuring all of them. We will recruit nearly 40 scouts and coaches to these regions. Our regional coaches will review the talented students identified by our trained teachers and direct them to teams. There is physical education in secondary schools. Likewise, we will provide training to 3500 physical education teachers to obtain their C Coaching license. We will reach 100 thousand children with them. Thus, we will reach 200 thousand children between the ages of 6-13.
Explaining that football departments will be opened in sports high schools, Büyükekşi said, “A child who is in the infrastructure academies of our clubs who are determined to become a professional football player will receive education at the Football Vocational High School, but will go to school once a week. This also exists abroad. That is, twice a day, in the morning.” “They will train in the afternoon and in the afternoon. This will be for players playing in the academies of Super League and 1st League clubs all over Turkey.” he said.
“WE WANT A NATIONAL TEAM THAT CAN ACHIEVE A CERTAIN SUCCESS”
Underlining that they aim for sustainable success, TFF President Mehmet Büyükekşi said, “We beat Croatia, but we want this not to be a coincidence. The Turkish National Team should now be such a team that it should participate in every World Cup and every European Football Championship. It has been 21 years since the World Cup.” “We want a national team that can participate in all of them and achieve a certain level of success.” He commented:
Büyükekşi also stated that they will start a new campaign in the Super League against swearing, violence and throwing foreign objects on the field.
“WE ARE LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS OF 9 YEARS LATER”
Stating that they have made innovations in many aspects in professional and amateur leagues, Mehmet Büyükekşi shared the following views:
We made it obligatory for BAL to play 3 players under the age of 22. 45 minutes in the starting 11. It is mandatory to play 2 players in the 3rd League, and 1 player under the age of 23 in the 2nd League. Here, we obliged the teams to play approximately 2 thousand players under the age of 23. Hopefully, if it is successful, we will increase it by one next year. Now, if we can reach an agreement, we will bring it to the 1st League and the Super League. But the Super League wants there to be 11 foreigners. If you integrate the parts, we are laying the foundations for 9 years later. We want sustainable success.
“PLAYING A MATCH IN SAUDI ARABIA IS VERY VALUABLE IN TERMS OF IMAGE”
Mehmet Büyükekşi said that playing the TFF Super Cup match between the last champion Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe, which won the Turkish Cup, in Saudi Arabia will contribute to the brand value of Turkish football.
Underlining that they carried out this process together with the clubs, Büyükekşi said:
They ask, “Why will the Super Cup match be played in Saudi Arabia?” We first talked to our clubs, they said we want it. We then started negotiations with Saudi Arabia. Currently, playing matches in Saudi Arabia is very valuable not only economically but also in terms of image. Neymar, Ronaldo and many world stars play in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia made a 5-year agreement with the Italians and the Spanish. Our referee Halil Umut Meler also officiated the match in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is a candidate for the 2034 FIFA World Cup. They will get it 90 percent of the time. We also announced our support. We wanted to hold the Super Cup in Germany. Germany did not allow the two Turkish teams to play a match for security reasons. We said let’s do it in England. Same situation… No European country allows it. Azerbaijan says ‘Come and do it with us’, but there is no money there either. Saudi Arabia transfers world stars to its country by paying around 120 million dollars. Organizing the Super Cup in Saudi Arabia will be beneficial for the brand value of Turkish football.
Stating that they have not yet made an agreement with Saudi Arabia, Büyükekşi said, “Do not believe what others say that you have not heard from us. There is no problem on the part of our clubs, but we are looking for how we can provide more profit to our clubs. We are making countries compete for this. Maybe we will not be able to reach an agreement with Saudi Arabia. It did not happen then. I will tell the public what is unfinished. Some people also criticize whether the Super Cup match will be played on December 30. We asked our clubs about this and they accepted it. Even the football players are playing on December 31. They said we need to move past these. If we reach an agreement with Saudi Arabia, we will announce it. . How did we agree, what did we do? It will have such and such advantages. It is not the first time it has happened. A Super Cup final was played in Qatar before. We are interested in both the image of Turkish football, the Super League and the economic betterment of our teams. “We are trying to make it benefit as much as possible.” made his assessment.
“REFEREE ERRORS ARE NOT UNIQUE TO TURKEY”
Mehmet Büyükekşi also responded to the criticism about referee mistakes. Stating that these mistakes were also experienced in other countries, Büyükekşi said:
Referee mistakes are not unique to Turkey. Recently, in the Liverpool-Tottenham match in England, the assistant referee raised the flag for offside after Liverpool scored a goal. However, the referees in VAR did not see this flag and thought that the referee had also awarded a goal and said, “Your decision is correct” through the headset. By the time the VAR referees realized that the goal had been disallowed, it was too late. As a result of a big mistake, Liverpool’s goal was not counted. We established the Referee Academy. We gave a raise to our referees, whose salaries have not been increased for 7 years. We increased their per-match wages. There was a system like this. When the MHK changes, all the Provincial Arbitrator Presidents of 81 provinces change. The new MHK president changes everything. He has the authority, because he throws. We have changed this now. We changed the instruction. From now on, the first arbitral tribunal presidents will not be appointed. We explain the test. They will apply first. After that, they take the written exam. After that, he takes psychotechnical tests and then an interview. The interview is conducted by a committee. After that, when that referee is eligible to come there, he will stay there for two years. No one will be able to change it. The same thing will happen in two years. We reduced the starting age of refereeing to 15. We will start the psychotechnical tests from the very beginning. All of these rules are set by the UEFA convention. We act accordingly. It is not possible for some things to happen from today to tomorrow. Need time. We have 4 referees whom we promoted from the 1st League. All the others are former referees. On the other hand, we eliminate. We’ve eliminated about 5 so far. There will be a reclassification in December. Some will rise again, some will fall. We rejuvenate. But we don’t have the patience. There are always thoughts in the back of our heads like there is a conspiracy against us.
“WE ARE APPOINTING A REFEREE COACH”
Stating that they are working to make refereeing attractive, Büyükekşi said:
Europe is having a big problem finding new referees. There are 50 thousand referees missing in Europe. There should be 270 thousand referees, there are 220 thousand referees. We also receive support from UEFA, we are also starting in Turkey. They will start in Europe. We will make encouraging advertisements, announcements and cooperate with universities to make refereeing attractive. We have a foreign coach for our VAR referee. UEFA’s best VAR referee trainer. He comes every two weeks and stays for 4-5 days. They watch the matches together with our VAR referees. After the match, he immediately shows our referee where he did right and where he did wrong. We brought in a foreign coach from the Netherlands for performance measurement. There is a huge improvement in the fitness performance of our referees between August and this month. All the work and training of the referees are followed with digital watches. We have another project. We appoint a referee coach. We will give 2 or 3 referees to this referee coach. This referee coach will follow the referee’s match live or on television and have the analyst analyze the referee’s mistakes. The referee will come to the academy in a day or two. Here, the referee coach and the referee will watch that match again together. It will show the referee’s mistakes. He will tell you what to do. This will be done regularly every week. There will be one-on-one training.
“WE SHARE EVERYTHING TOGETHER WITH ITALY”
Speaking about the joint organization of the 2032 European Football Championship with Italy, Büyükekşi explained this process. Stating that they made great preparations, Büyükekşi used the following statements:
There is bureaucracy involved. A bureaucracy that starts from the President and continues. The President says, ‘If the championship is held in our country, we will not receive any taxes or anything on other issues. We sign by committing to solve all kinds of problems, from safety to cleanliness to traffic, for it to be built in our country. After that, 21-22 ministers, all of them sign their own branch. I’m signing too. 10s, hundreds of files. After that, it is not enough, where will the match be played? For example, it will be played in Kayseri. Kayseri Governor signs, Kayseri Mayor signs. After that, he wants the project of those stadiums. All their individual signatures. Signature of the architects… In accordance with UEFA European standards, everything is signed again, such as how long it takes for the audience to be evacuated in this stadium. Preparing all of these has both a burden and a financial burden. We did these for both the EURO 2028 candidacy and the EURO 2032 candidacy. I went to all UEFA events. I went to FIFA’s Ordinary Elective Congress in Rwanda. Countries that want to enter the FIFA Board of Directors there are asking for votes from us. We also have EURO 2028 and 2032 candidacy. I vote for you, but will you vote for us too? I say. I met with all of them one by one. First, we tried to increase relations and dialogue between countries. We made an effort to get them to support us. Later, the Italians came to Istanbul and made us an offer for EURO 2032 joint candidacy. We share everything together with Italy. Everyone needs to finish their preparations by 2026.
Finally, President Büyükekşi emphasized that the new logo, anthem and website work for the Trendyol Super League is continuing and said, “On the one hand, we are working on a new logo for the Super League. We are working on the anthem. On the other hand, we are working on a 3D website. We aim to generate income from there. We do these. “We’re trying to get it done by January 1.” he said.