One of the things that is just a plain mistruth in all this damn R*ngers business is the wildly held thought that this – the best wee country in the world – would be the only ones to befall poor football administration and decisions being made to favour a few and not the good of the game.
A quick look a numerous South American leagues and what has happened in Switerland this season (two teams out of business – one for the 2nd time in 7 seasons – FC Sion being deducted 36 points after direct UEFA threats to the Swiss FA and 4 teams being denied league licenses for next season due to financial irregularities) show that bampottery is widespread.
Turkey’s Sportoto Super Lig has just joined they asylum.
The league was plunged into chaos after accusations of wide spread match fixing during the 2010/11 season. Champions Fenerbache were the biggest casuality of these accusations. They were forced to withdraw from last seasons Champions League. Investigations are still on-going but the final judgments have found all clubs innocent. But….The Turkish Football Federation had already protected their interests if the worst was to happen.
After such scandal The Turkish Football Federation decided to change the format of The Super Lig so it would seem more attractive to those who pay the 6th most valuable tv deal in world football. A deal surely out-strips the product on offer? They implemented play off’s to win the league title.
So, after 34 games the top four get their points total halved and then play each other home and away to win the league. This split would see 6 potential explosive Instabul derbies (which the below happened in the first one) and the possibilty of Galatasaray who had won the league after the normal 34 games throwing it away (they didn’t).
The Turkish Football Federation also amended Article 58 of their rules, which before stated that any team found guilty of match fixing would face automatic relegation and now state that the teams will only get a 12 point penalty.
The fear of them losing a lucrative Tv deal – it was a possibility that all Istanbul teams could have been relegated under old article 58 – has seen them amend the rules to save a gluttonous tv deal, which if lost would see the league economy delve to apoplectic depths.
It’s a good job we don’t have a decent Tv deal. There would have been no need for the games rulers to use vaseline.
The TFF have said they have no evidence of match fixing after their own investigation. Yet the police seem to have enough to have made dozens of arrests.
An astonishing but not surprising decision from the TFF who seem to fly in the face of justice to save the commercial value of the product.