Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Who says politics and sport should never mix?

I was away for this and so have cut and pasted an article written by Ozgur Korkmaz, a Gencler fan who is the sports editor of the Hurriyet Daily News and who went to the match along with a few other Gencler fans to show their solidarity. Sounds like great fun. This is just an excerpt, for the whole piece - click here

Adana Demirspor, a team in Turkey’s third division, hosted Italian Serie A club A.S. Livorno Calcio on Friday night. A lower-division team playing at home against an Italian club was a story in itself, but what happened from there was beyond the imagination of even the most optimistic true football enthusiasts in this country.

Photograph from AA

Spectators entering Adana’s 5 Ocak Stadium were welcomed by “Bella Ciao” on the loudspeakers, a song sung by the leftist anti-fascist resistance movement in Italy. A huge banner hanging on the fences surrounding the pitch read “Hasta Siempre,” or “Always,” around an image of legendary Cuban revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Another banner bore a picture of Turkish poet and communist Nazım Hikmet along with his famous verse, “To live! Like a tree, alone and free; like a forest in brotherhood.” People waved red flags, some with the photo of Deniz Gezmiş, a prominent Marxist-Leninist activist and one of the founders of the Turkish revolutionary movement of the late 1960s. Gezmiş was hanged in 1972.

For a match in Turkey, the atmosphere was absurd. But it was no coincidence. The teams on the pitch were Livorno Calcio, world-renown for its supporters’ firm communist stance, and Adana Demirspor, founded by railway workers in the city and the closest thing Turkish football has to a workers’ team.

4 comments:

  1. Hey there. Ankaraspor sent down?

    http://www.milliyet.com.tr/Spor/HaberDetay.aspx?aType=HaberDetay&ArticleID=1139779&Date=16.09.2009&b=Ve Ankaraspor dustu&KategoriID=6

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  2. I don't know why exactly, but Beşiktaş also claims to be a brother team of Livorno. Can someone explain why this is? Besiktas never struck me as a particularly working class team.

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  3. Well said Battle Damaged Kanka .... after all, which team is their other brother team from Ingallind ??? None other than ....

    Tottenham Hotspur ........ and

    have you ever seen a poor working class Spurs supporter ?? Easy answer ..... NO !

    Perish the thought that anyone should think that I am a religious bigot, but ....... the fact that Tottenham Hotspur is well known to be heavily subsidised by the Jewish community should give a clue to my statement !!

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  4. in turkey,politics is not effective on inside of the tribunes if we look to celtic-rangers derby.it has a historical backround and they are fully opposite groups.in turkey for the people it is important being a member of their teams.beşiktaş and adanademirspor known as socialist tribünes but also this teams have fans from another political ideology.

    and there is not a rivalry against the teams welded by political ideology.

    but when d.bakırspor play against any western teams it's happening quarrels both sides welded by politics.

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