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I'll admit I knew next to nothing about football in Turkey before City employed Erol Bulut, but I'd always imagined the sport was very popular over there. However, it turns out the Turkish top flight is seriously small time by comparison to most European leagues, which is a surprise to me considering the population of the country.
The crowds for Dimitrios Goutas's last two home games for Sivasspor were as low as 2,026 and 3,350, and he'd apparently played in front of a league crowd of just 963 back in January.
Meanwhile, the attendance for Erol Bulut's final home game as manager of Gazientep, which happened to be a 2-1 defeat to a Sivasspor side featuring Goutas, was 4,710. But that was considerably bigger than some of their crowds earlier in 2022/23 campaign, which apparently got as low as 600.
If the figures I've read are correct, just eight teams in the Turkish Super Lig averaged crowds of more than 10,000 last season, while only four averaged more than 20,000.
It's no wonder these guys look so pleased to be working in the Championship.
yeah I hadn't realised there were a couple of huge clubs and a load of tiny ones, I think there are some pretty big cities in Turkey , so I wonder why that is.
https://youtu.be/x_MyT2nnXw0
I doubt there will be many scenes in the championship like this either mind you.
I would imagine many of the better Turkish players ply their trade in Germany, which has a large Turkish population. Like you I'm quite surprised at the very small crowds their club sides get. Will be quite a culture shock to our new recruits.
Where was the big earthquake and did that affect the attendance?
I'm with you though assumed there would be a big following.
I think Bursaspor used to get some pretty decent attendances, just looked and apparently they're now in the third tier so not sure what's happened there.
I often wondered if CCS would ever get like this?Originally Posted by The Lone Gunman
https://youtu.be/aX8s_wI_gP8
Maybe it will now eh?
what kind of potato was used to film that?
Bulut had left Gazientep before the earthquake.
As for Sivasspor, no idea where that is in relation to where the earthquake happened, but their league crowds were around the 3,000 to 4,000 mark months before it occurred.
They did get some bigger crowds in the Europa Conference League (17,864 v Fiorentina), and a few league crowds that were larger (12,622 v Fenerbache, 9,532 v Galatasary), but overall their crowds were League Two level.
Crowds in Poland also surprised me, I saw internationals, champions league & top division. Only Legia & Lech over 20k, the average is only 9k.
My local side LKS get 9k playing in the equivalent of the Polish Championship, their rivals Widzew get 17k in the top division. Gross 26k in a City with a population of 700k (same size as Newcastle or Nottingham)
They might not have big crowds, but they looked fanatical when ive seen them
I was on a cruise once, we had stopped in Antalya, got to a market and wandering around like you do
then we heard people blowing whistles, must have been every bloke under 50 ran in the same direction, I thought " somethings going down, lets get out of here " so ran in the same direction, got to the main road to see these same men hurling stones at coaches driving past, I spoke to someone while avoiding rocks bouncing of bus windows, turned out to be local rival going to a game, it was mental
So basically more of them welcome some older ex star at the airport than actually attend the matches.
I am surprised.
I know what you mean about the small crowds. I was in Istanbul last autumn, and tried to get tickets to see one of the big clubs. They have a weird system there, where you have to be registered online before you can buy tickets, and that was a struggle in itself. We wanted to see Galatasary, but it was sold out, so we ended up going to watch Kasimpassar, who play in the same Division - the Turkish top flight. We got there early, just in case, but it was like going to watch a non-league side - this is a club in the centre of Istanbul, but there were probably less that 2500 fans there. That said, they were all very friendly, you could move around the ground at half time if you wanted, and we had a great time. Their shirts were only £20, so we got one each (Galatasary shirts were about £50).
But the strange thing was, that because Glatasary were at home that evening, the city was full of their fans - they were everywhere - so there were riot police outside Kasimpassar's ground, with water cannon and everything, in case there was a clash of fans. It was slightly surreal - there were more police than fans.
kasimpassar fans must enjoy being the underdog, in the same city as Besiktas, Galatasaray and Feberbahçe
Crowds look quite typical for a lot of leagues, with a few big clubs, handful of those pushing, and a lot of smaller teams. See Portugal, Scotland, Belgium, Poland etc..
But yeah, Turkey is a big country with lots of people. I've always found it interesting about the capital Ankara, who's teams seem to get dreadful crowds. I've been told they all support the big Istanbul teams which seems remarkable to me
I had a few dates with a Turkish woman from Bridgend who was originally from Istanbul and a big Fenerbache fan
She was nuts
Eventually married some Italian bloke who owned a chippy
Do you usually share fruit with Turkish women Sludge ?
I had a bite of peach 🍑
Not especially relevant, but I had a check on the crowd for the game in Turkey when we played Gostepe Izmir in the Cup Winners Cup in 69/70. There was a pretty impressive 24,000 for the first leg in Turkey where City had a nightmare first thirty five minutes when the tie was all but put beyond them, Goztepe (as they're now called) were 3-0 up by that time and that turned out to be the final score. The return leg saw sub Ronnie Bird score late on to give City a win on the night, but they went out 3-1 on aggregate at the Second round stage.
I think Goztepe are the only Turkish side City have ever played. They're in the Turkish second tier now and judging by this thread's content, they don't play in front of 20,000 plus crowds too often these days.
It seems to me that the Turkish set up is similar to the Scottish one, but with three, not two, really well supported clubs who clean up when it comes to trophy winning - the rest are also rans, but with Goutas being rated Sivasspor's third best player last season by the who scored site, he should be okay in the Championship. The third best player in an SPL side (not Celtic or Rangers) would tend to be of Championship quality.
Most Turkish fans support either Fenerbahce or Galatasaray (and to a lesser extent Besiktas). That's why crowds are low elsewhere.
Same in Greece. Most support either Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, or AEK (except in the north where it's PAOK or Aris only).
Sludge would have a field day with all the plastics in the southern Med.
Talking to the locals in Istanbul the other week, many weren’t aware of the Turkey/Wales game. I found that strange, I always had the impression that it was a passionate, football mad country.
I sometimes here the Championship is the 4th most supported league (in the world i doubt it, still skeptical in Europe) and the average attendance is about 16k. I suppose it would make sense if you ever thought about it.
I have worked and lived in Turkey. Most of the football supporters there support Fenerbahce or Galatasaray as their first team with their local team coming a very poor 2nd. So, definitely even more 'plastics' in Turkey than the UK.
I went to see Antalayaspor in their opening game of the season back in '98/99. I was surprised at how sparse the crowd was. They were in the top division and had finished mid-table the previous season.
Apparently, the city of Gazientep (where Bulut was last working) has a population of more than 2,000,000, but they average crowds of between 4,000 and 5,000 for their Turkish top flight matches.
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