Aydınlar takes reins of the toughest sports job in land |
 "Uneasy lies the head that we-ars a crown," Shakespeare says with all certainty in “Henry IV.” And so Mehmet Ali Aydınlar, from now, should not expect to sleep soundly after his election as the 39th president of the Turkish Football Federation (TFF).
Aydınlar officially took over from out-going President Mahmut Özgener at a handover ceremony held in İstanbul on Thursday. And so the 57-year-old Aydınlar now presides over what is one of the toughest, if not the toughest, jobs in the land. In Wednesday’s TFF presidential election that was held at Ankara’s Sheraton Hotel, only 204 members of the 300 eligible to vote cast their ballots. Aydınlar garnered a total of 201 votes, three of which were invalid. But it nonetheless was still more than enough to give the new president a victory by an overwhelming majority.
Messages of congratulation poured in from far and wide: Fenerbahçe, Beşiktaş, Galatasaray, Orduspor and many other clubs across the country hailed Aydınlar’s election as the new TFF boss.
Problems lie ahead
The TFF president had a taste of the problems to come when Black Sea club Trabzonspor, the runner-up in the 2010-11 Spor Toto Super League, boycotted the vote -- citing the non-inclusion of any Trabzonspor member in Aydınlar’s executive board list. “I am starting a brand-new job and therefore want to start without problems,” Aydınlar said in his election victory speech. “Hence, I intend to keep an equal distance from everyone,” he noted. He thanked all the TFF members and delegates and also stated in unequivocal terms that he was a proponent of fair, transparent and just governance.
But Trabzonspor Chairman Sabri Şener felt hurt and angry about the exclusion of his club from the executive board list and therefore blew his top:
“We knew that [Press Advertising Agency Director-General] Mehmet Atalay was only a candidate theoretically,” Şener said. “He is a Trabzon man, and we told him we would support him if his candidacy was confirmed,” he stated.
“But after Atalay withdrew his candidacy, we threw our support behind Mr. Mehmet Ali. I had talked to him [Aydınlar] and told him of the things we were highly sensitive about. And then I recommended three names to him to include in the Executive Board, and I told him to choose two. But he said he could only take one because of the quota,” Şener stated. “And today I read in the papers ‘Trabzon is remonstrating,’ and Aydınlar is also saying we are trying to defuse any tension.”
“But if this grave mistake and injustice is done to Trabzon at the beginning, who knows what will happen in the future? Maybe they feel it is their right to do injustice to Trabzonspor. Fenerbahçe has four members on the Executive Board, Galatasaray four and Beşiktaş four. There are even friends from [second division] Konyaspor and Kırıkkaespor,” he lamented.
“Aydınlar used his discretion, and so there is nothing else I can say. But we also are under no obligation to vote. Let him be elected with his own votes. And his saying that he does not want names from anyone is not right. In other words, he is saying, ‘I will pick the names and you will vote for them,’” he argued.
“In the final analysis, we as Trabzonspor have many delegates [in the TFF], but they will not take part in any congress. Aydınlar says, ‘I will maintain a distance.’ Maybe we will expand this distance by severing all ties with him,’” he stated categorically. The TFF boss is usually a man the club chairmen, administrators and fans love to loathe. He is blamed for any wrong or controversial calls or blunders made by referees on the pitch, and he is also held accountable if the national team fails to deliver.
Aydınlar was very successful as the director of the Fenerbahçe Acıbadem volleyball team. But he is now in a higher and more lucrative realm -- that of the beautiful game -- where fierce rivalry, name-calling, finger pointing and outright animosity know no limit. It is undoubtedly a Herculean task for Aydınlar, but not at all mission impossible. Today’s Zaman wishes the new TFF president all the best in his new job.
List of Turkish Football Federation members
Executive board list: Mehmet Ali Aydınlar, Göksel Gümüşdağ, Lutfi Arıboğan, Hüsnü Güreli, Kemal Olgaç, Erhan Kamışlı, Cüneyt Tanman, Yunus Egemenoğlu, Servet Yardımcı, Mehmet Baykan, Mehmet Akif Üstündağ, Ergün Tekin, Erdal Atalay, Arif Koşar and Hakan Kanık. Executive board auxiliary list: Sedat Artukoğlu, Mehmet Öztürk, Asım Atmaz, Yemen Ekşioğlu, Ali Düşmez, Adem Yılmaz, Aydoğan Cevahir, Emre Alkin, Cevat Ay, Ahmet Çelebi, Mehmet Hanifi Işık, Gökhan Ayaydın, Ziya Erbaş and Yusuf Kenan Yılmaz. Supervisory board list: Hamdi Topçu, İsmail Gerçek, Hakkı Koçak, Mehmet Ali Kaynar and Kenan Özsaraç.
Ankaraspor back in Bank Asya League 1
Ankaraspor, relegated from the big-time Super League to the Bank Asya League 1 (second division) in 2009-10 because of shady deals with “brother” club Ankaragücü, and then to the third division this past season, was reinstated into the Bank Asya League 1 on Wednesday by the new administration of Mehmet Ali Aydınlar.
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