The Turkish Super Lig

[The Lone Gunman]

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.

[Rjk]

Re: The Turkish Super Lig

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.

[Moodybluebird]

Re: The Turkish Super Lig

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.

[Harry Paget Flashman]

Re: The Turkish Super Lig

Where was the big earthquake and did that affect the attendance?

I'm with you though assumed there would be a big following.

[Rjk]

Re: The Turkish Super Lig

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.

[goats]

Re: The Turkish Super Lig

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.

I often wondered if CCS would ever get like this?

https://youtu.be/aX8s_wI_gP8

Maybe it will now eh?

[Rjk]

Re: The Turkish Super Lig

I often wondered if CCS would ever get like this?

https://youtu.be/aX8s_wI_gP8

Maybe it will now eh?

what kind of potato was used to film that?

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: The Turkish Super Lig

Where was the big earthquake and did that affect the attendance?

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.

[Des Parrot]

Re: The Turkish Super Lig

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)

[blue matt]

Re: The Turkish Super Lig

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

[Trigger]

Re: The Turkish Super Lig

So basically more of them welcome some older ex star at the airport than actually attend the matches.

I am surprised.

[tforturton]

Re: The Turkish Super Lig

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.

[Rjk]

Re: The Turkish Super Lig

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

[JamesWales]

Re: The Turkish Super Lig

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

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: The Turkish Super Lig

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