Originally Posted by
tforturton
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.