We were discussing Turkish football with Anders Nielsen, a Danish TV producer who makes a documentary on Turkish fans for Brandzation’s prospective enterprise, a Carlsberg-sponsored online TV channel on football.
It was Sunday. Just after Fenerbahce’s Super Lig victory against Galatasaray...
And three days before the upcoming victory against CSKA in the UEFA Champions League that moved Fenerbahce up to the list of Europe’s Top-16...
The latter victory was more important, not because the fact that a win against Galatasaray is not a big surprise for Fener fans anymore, but because it gave Fenerbahce a distinguished title: “Turkish team with the best ever Champions League record: 11 points in the Group Phase.”
In the middle of this triumphant week, Anders was keen to learn more about Turkish football fans and their passion. He watched not only the derby game between Fenerbahce and Galatasaray, but also a minor clash in Turkish Super Lig.
He contacted me after being advised by Nathan and I tried to explain why I had become a Fenerbahce fan during my childhood. During a 10 minutes long shoot in front of Galatasaray High School in Pera, I told that the main reason was more about what Fenerbahce represents in the Turkish society and how I had perceived it.
I told that I am a Fenerbahce fan, because I associate myself with the fan typography that the club seemed to have in relation with other big Turkish clubs.
Reconsidering what I told him and realizing that there is nothing about this subject online in English, I decided to summarize the sociopolitical roots of the three big clubs in Turkish football in a rather crude way, but then it would still be crystalized why I had "chosen" Fenerbahce.
So just for the record.
* It is dubbed as the “People’s Team” from the beginning of its history. Its historical identification has come along with the victories against the football teams of foreign occupying powers, generally English ones, during 1918-1923 period.
* After the foundation of the Republic, Fenerbahce started to represent the main pillars of the new national state: republicanism, modernism, secularism. The presentation of Ataturk as a role model Fenerbahce fan is not a coincidence here.
* It is generally accepted that Fenerbahce has got more fans than any of its rivals; so we can say that its fan base is wide and a typological standardization is not very easy. But it is clear that its elite (the Board and the Congress) is mainly consisted of the middle class nationalist bourgeouise, including major contractors, mediocre industrialists and small entrepreuners.
* The widespread popular support makes the club an important arena of struggle for political parties (especially center right) or businessmen. If you study Turkish cinema (especially during 1970s), you would see Fenerbahce themes in movies much more than any other team.
* The club agenda is generally the country’s agenda, as it is told by renowned sports columnist Islam Cupi; “If there is no Fenerbahce, then there is no Turkey.” You can also see many parellelisms between the history of the club and the country.
* Fenerbahce represents the metropolitan identity of the Asian side. It has got an exclusive –not inclusive- stance in relations with the fans of other teams. It is impossible to make any of Fener fans accept that another team can be as cool as theirs. Its motto, “The Only Giant,” is a proof to its exclusive perspective.
* If you consider the game on the pitch, Fenerbahce fans long to see a show: a personal display of the football ability and technique. Scoring a goal is not so imporant; a stylish flair, a thunderous dribbling or a smart pass is enough to cheer Fenerbahce fans. So you shouldn’t be surprised that you count five Brazilians in the line-up today or that Jay Jay Okocha –a football wizard- was once the dearest favorite of Fener fans.
* Its backbone is still Lycee de Galatasaray, a high school that was founded as an academy for Ottoman sultans in 19th century. As a result of the Imperial modernism style, the high school is more or less Francophile. It gives Galatasaray two distinctive features: The aristocratic climate of Neo-Ottomanism and the elitist-liberal mood of being close to the Western bourgeoise.
* Emphasizing "Galatasaray Ethics and Tradition” is just an instance of the elitist stance. If you’re not graduated from the Lycee, then you won’t be welcomed in the Board even if you can manage to seize in somehow.
* So it is no surprise that Galatasaray fans –unlike Fener supporters- easily name their legendary players or managers with royal titles: Fatih “the Emperor” Terim or Hakan “the King” Sukur. It is also not amazing to see that even those legendary figures are excluded from the elite of the club, the “Lycee clique” which considers Terim or Sukur as pariahs, while insisting that they, as the ruling minority, are the real owners of the club. Another instance for the royal-elitist style is the symbol of the club: Lion.
* Galatasaray represents the cosmopolitan identity of Pera, once the center of foreign missions in the Ottoman capital. One of club's main mottos shows us that the club is somehow obsessed with its history: “The History Writes the Facts and Galatasaray Writes the History.”
* Galatasaray fans want to see an intellectually organized game on the pitch. They don’t care about personal shows a lot. They like to see stability and durability which can give them a secure time, instead of moments of joyful bursts.
* Like Fenerbahce and Galatasaray, Besiktas carries the hallmarks of its historical center as well. The club has been found as a local team and insisted to stay local for a long time. The district, Besiktas, was once a suburb of Istanbul where old seamen and janissary soldiers who fell from royal favour were living. As a result it has been a relatively poor neighbourhood for a long while. So the club started to give a strong voice to the underdog.
* That’s why it is not surprising to see that the socialist ideals were once embraced only by some Besiktas fans. It is dubbed as “team of the coach drivers” during the early years of the last century, it has slowly turned into the club of the proletariat. Until late 1990s, Besiktas fans were happy for being "the last among the equals,” the antonym for primus inter pares. When considering the fierce rivalry between FB and GS, Besiktas fans were happy to be the local, but proud voice of the city. That’s why they like the slogan, “Eagles Fly Alone.” However, this “small, but sincere” attitude is disappeared after the current president took office. Now the club’s strategy is not different than any of its over-commercialized rivals.
* After the decline of the Soviet Union, the radical leftist vein in the club gradually disappeared. Even though it seemed that the club embraced the liberal ideals (at least on the level of the Board), the hardcore fan groups are still radical. Proud of being “color-free” (black and white), they present the club as an egalitarian model. They have been very fond of many black players in the team (Pascal Nouma is still a phenomenon) and they showed it with a motto: “We Are All Black.”
* Traumatizing effects of the victory of neoliberalism over socialism affected the club’s identity dramatically. Current anarchist tendencies seems like the remnants of this trauma. You can see it if you study the main fan group, Carsi. They have a motto which is being used as a template: Carsi is Against ..... (fill in the blanks). They are against everything, including themselves.
* The club represents the local, authentic and even exotic identity of downtown Besiktas. As the district witnessed a dramatic transformation from being a poor, working class suburb into a rich, central, metropolitan hub, the club has also taken its share.
* Besiktas fans want a hardworking, passionate team who fight on the pitch till the end. Showing your personal skill as a footballer or proving your tactical organization as a team is not very important for them. They want to see a Besiktas player to run amok, sweat like hell and even punch the opponent, if necessary.
* * *
Actually this long, but still raw analysis is unnecessary, because you can easily “read” a summary of sociopolitical differences between three clubs and their historical roots by inspecting their stadiums which represent their identities.
Fenerbahce stadium is the biggest and the most “modern” football stadium in the country. Its fans refer the stadium as “the temple” and they are proud of its ambiance, almost as frequently as they swank about the relatively significant revenue that their club gain every year from the seasonal ticket sales, thanks to the greater fan support and the superior facility.
For Galatasaray fans, being proud of their stadium has got other reasonings. Even though the current situation of the stadium is somewhat shabby, they believe that it is "sacred" because once it was the home of Metin Oktay, the gentleman goal scorer and the "King without a Crown". Its history is not limited with Oktay, because it also bears the memory of the UEFA Cup success.
And what do Besiktas fans love about their stadium? Not about being the most profitable or the most historical one; but they love Inonu Stadium because it is a small, hence a beautiful piece in their very homeland. Just above the shoreline that the main bazaar where the fan groups are located, the stadium is on top of a hill, enjoying a great panaroma of Bosphorus: Probably the only football stadium in the world with such an adorable view. Being local is being universal for its spirit, as Besiktas fans feel.
To conclude, I have chosen Fenerbahce during the years that I was not a child anymore, but neither an adult yet; because I had sensed that its historical identity is what I would like to associate with myself.
Though I still can sympathize with other Turkish fans who support their own teams passionately, because this city, Istanbul, was famous for its derbies even thousands of years ago. If you consider the fierce rivalry between Byzantine chariot teams starting by 4th century, you can also understand why this challenge is more or less about politics even if we don’t approve it.
