- A couple people pointed this out below but it needs to be emphasized: everything is being poorly managed at the moment. Institutions are crumbling and the Turkish economy is in dire straits. Turkish clubs earn liras but have to spend in euros and dollars. This is a fundamental problem and the reason why the top three teams have lost their edge. Common Turks don't have enough money to afford to go to games either. I don't have any love for Bein, but they don't conspire against specific Turkish teams. However, because of Turkey's currency fluctuations, and Bein's intransigence, Turkish clubs are underpaid at the end of each season since they are paid in previously agreed-upon exchange rates -The security issues, while severe, are not as pronounced as before due to the implementation of the Pasolig security system, but this has also led to duller spectacles, or simply made it difficult for people to attend games. - The Turkish government is actively involved in Turkish sports in a way that raises too many concerns. Just because people have unqualified conspiratorial thoughts does not mean that there is no political engineering in Turkish football. Should we start with government/public funded teams like Başakşehir, or the questionable connections between Turkey's governing elite and Trabzonspor? Given the state of Turkey more generally, and past corruption/match-fixing scandals (as alluded to later in the video), we cannot confidently dismiss anything as a conspiracy theory. - The most fundamental problem of course is the inability of Turkish clubs to harness youth talent and sell them at a profit on a regular and sustainable basis. I'm glad the video hits this at the end. * Final point: Despite the present difficulties, even an easily resolvable problem seems to linger: lack of elbow grease. There are quantitative studies that explain some cultural and organizational issues too. Turkish football teams do not run as much as their counterparts and are overall lacking in the athletic department. Unfortunately, we do not seem to reward hard work and merit. Hoping to see that at least my club, Beşiktaş, will have solved this issue by next season thanks to squad reengineering under the auspices of a coach like Valerian Ismael.

Since my GF is from Turkey and a Galatasaray supporter, I was forced to have some closer looks at the Süper Lig. It is absolutely insane and the football tends to be absolutely awful. But at least you usually see at least one brawl per match and on average 2 penalties every 7 minute injurytime-period.

You posted this video at 19:05 in my time zone, which I'm taking as a slight against Fenerbache.

Assuming we blow the playoffs yet again I'd love to see a deep dive into Sunderland's long and drawn out downfall from Premier league regular to league one mainstay

That loss against Wales last year in the euros must have been a massive kick in the balls then, especially as their president went to the match as guest of Azerbaijans leader expecting an easy win while trying to score political points.

shit you not, I've been to Turkey last year, touristy city, none of the major players and seeing millions on millions of same football club merch in every shops that are not local, I just had to struck a conversation with one of the sellers asking how come there's Barca, Real, Chelsea on every corner yet there's almost nothing with local big teams? The dude LOOKED AROUND and just gave me a warning to keep it low for my own sake, since he found out I'm from Lithuania, he just said I should stick to the basketball small talk to get positivity on the streets, otherwise some maniacs could come for my throat. Whoa, your video explains a lot :DDDD

Just one comment on the 19:05 thing - I am a besiktas fan and it’s very common to post things on social media around that time just to stick a jab at one another, the teams were founded on 1903 besiktas, 1905 galatasaray and 1907 fenerbahce. It’s silly but it’s actually done

I wish there was a way to translate this video to turkish so that every turk can watch and get educated why our league is in a downfall. Excellent video man.

This has been going on for years. Thanks for covering it 🇹🇷🇹🇷

I have been waiting for this clip form Alfie since last year. Fenehbahce, Besiktas and Galatasaray are dreadful this year, with Galatasaray close to the relegation zone a few months back

Reading the title and description of this video and I was instantly reminded of the likes of Gaziantepspor, Kayseri Erciyesspor, Kardemir Karabukspor, Eskisehirspor...former Super Lig members who have since fallen into hard times due to financial issues. This year alone both Bursaspor and Denizlispor are in the relegation zone of the Turkish 2nd tier!

this will read.sound weird. when I was doing my dissertation, I realized just how in-depth your content is... the way you dig deep, contrast between leagues, draw parallels and site examples, find the stats, stay factual!! honestly your drive for quality content inspired me when I was running out of gas. I wish that you will get the credit and plaudits you deserve for the hard graft that you put into preparing these videos. big up yourself from Zimbabwe.

The fact that your Istanbul Basaksehir video got banned in Turkey means your channel is doing a very good job in your investigative journalism, enough to trigger autocratic despots into feeling threatened by the detailed analysis of your videos.

Imo, the problem is, as Turks, we always witchhunt and we do not look to ourselves. If we could overcome that, I think the league will be much better with all of its aspects.

In Greece, all teams have sole owners and many of them make release announcements like these weekly...

Probably the quickest half an hour of my life! Thanks so much for that, learnt a lot of interesting things that I never knew

Day 11: Considering that the last player who played in the miracle of Bern died about 5 months ago, I would really like to see a video about the whole story between Germany and Hungary, especially because it meant so much to at least the German population

The bein sports issues are ridiculous but as a Turkish fan the referee issues are real and corrupt. Already 2 referees have been sacked because of this but us still going on

Thank you for covering this, I've been asking for a while :)

First step in solving a problem is admitting that there is one. That's why criticism should always be welcome and one should always look at themselves for solutions. Yes, circumstances and outside factors will have an influence; others can be blamed, as well. But one has only so much influence on others and should prefer to invest energy and resources into doing their own part. If everyone was trying to look for problems, work on solutions and did their reasonable best to improve the situation for everyone, all problems could be solved. Sadly, too many never look in the mirror and too many think that criticism is the same as an attack. If you love something, you want it to improve. For that you need to find imperfections to work on. True friends tell each other uncomfortable truths. Find the people in your life that work towards solving problems, sort out those creating them and you'll have a good life. Same is true for football.

Love these mini documentaries!! Really informative cheers again keep up the good work 👏

It’s the revenue that makes it the biggest problem. Outside of turkey nobody watches their league. So big companies like Dazn or Sky don’t offer much, because it won’t give them any profit. Turkeys economy is also very poor and bad. That’s all.

Alfie, please make a video about 7 national legends that are forgotten internationally. In the Netherlands it would be Willem van Hanegem. By many Dutch people seen as a top 3 all time Dutch player, or at least top 5. He was the best player next to cruijff in the 60s and 70s. But abroad people seem to have forgotten a player who rivals Van Basten and Gullit in terms of skill.

Great research on the topic of Turkish football. I'm quite impressed every thing you said was pretty much on point.

Used to fall asleep to these vids but the 60000 ads on them means I can’t without skipping 2 minute long ads

Great video, Alfie. Goes a good way to explain why Acun Ilicali has invested in our club rather than the mess of the Turkish Super Lig.

Wait wait wait.... Ozil has fallen out with another club?? What on earth has happened to him? I used to be such a fan of his at Madrid and early Arsenal but it seems he just can’t keep his head down and play football anymore... just retire so we don’t have to hear about his drama any more

As a Turkish guy who’s really into the league, you did your homework fam this is some amazing content

Great video. I was wondering what's going on in Turkey but was too lazy to get into it.

Only just watched this video funny now that these 3 teams are back at the top of the Turkish league

i live in turkey and can still watch your Istanbul basaksehir video, just so you know. maybe it’s a regional ban but in istanbul it’s watchable

Very interesting video , you should do a video on bursaspor , they won the super lig in 2010 and are now fighting to not be relegated from the third tier , they also have a 45,000 seater stadium which is quite cool as it resembles a crocodile

Great video, thanks Alfie!

4 things actually - I always recall Trabzonspor being a good side since watching from the early 90's.

My team St johnstone played galatasaray earlier this season and I can confirm Turkish twitter is mental

Finally this kind of video 5/5 content. Turkish league will never be like Bpl, Bundesliga, La liga or Serie a. Which league and clubs should focused and learn from are Belgium, Dutch and Portuguese leagues, how to grow and scout players and sell them and how make your strategy for many years and just for next season like turkish clubs always do. You can see now that Turkish football is complete garbage, take a look national team and especially uefa club & country ranking. As a Beşiktaş fan i rather watch us asskicked with young talent on the field than ex superstars with big wages and lack of attitude.

It's truly heartbreaking to see the collapse of beautiful game in Turkey for almost a decade, which most of the sane fans have seen the writing on the wall back in those days. Frankly, it can be said that it has been some sort of a projection of decadence of welfare and economic turmoil.

Really good video, Alfie. Nicely done

I have always wonder why the odds for the big three in Turkey to win was so high this season. Last few seasons their odds were like Man City Vs any small club. Basically little odds. But this season, it has been the opposite.

7 Greatest Playmakers of all time. (Yes I know you've technically already made this list on The Sportser but I'm assuming you've changed your mind about the certain places of players or not either way I'd like to see it on this channel)

As a bettor I closely follow this league and am beyond excited to see this video! Been wondering what’s going on!

We need an update to this video. This is very tame in comparison to what is happening now

I've always thought the Turkish league should be stronger at least on level with Belgium and Netherlands.

This is quite a nice video. Unfortunately our football isn't doing well in terms of quality management. I'm glad that Galatasaray finally has management that just focusses on Galatasaray. I could almost believe that they could significantly decrease our depts in a few years.

This is a Certified Hood Classic …… 🔥. ⚽️

Falling out with teams seems to be an Özil specialty.

As a Fenerbahçe fan I'd like to provide further insight. We all unanimously hate Ali Koç at this point. His mismanagement of the club is insane and he continues with the whole "the world is against us" thing, with Fenerbahçe now suing the Turkish government for slander and defamation, claiming there is no such proof that they ever did it. When Fenerbahçe lost to dynamo Kyiv and our fans were stupid enough to chant "PUTIN" to anger the Ukrainians, a Ukrainian government official twittered against us and Ali Koç then too demanded an apology from him for doing so. Transfer wise we are not doing well either. We lost our best man - Kim Min-Jae - to Napoli, and wasted the money we got from his release clause. And while Fenerbahçe has currently an average age of 25,5 which is the same as Barcelona, and younger than Real Madrid and Manchester City, most of these people being foreign imports, with 50% of the team being from outside of Turkey. This has gotten so bad that we had to start our reserve players because the number of Turkish players that must be on the pitch according to the TFF's regulations wasn't high enough. We do have some young Turkish Talent in the club such as Çağtay Kurukalip, Arda Güler and İsak Vural. But two of these 3 don't even have the rights to play in the Europa League. I have no idea how we could ever think of even affording 1% of Ronaldo when we were about to sign him at the end of the transfer window.

One of your best!

Thank you Alfie for this video, as a foreigner living in Istanbul for the past 6yrs, i can say that you really hit home with your points. In all my years here, i have never been to any games due to fears for my safety, i also know many talented young footballers esp from Africa that come here with hope of making it as footballers, but are not given a chance mainly because they are not Turkish. Other countries give chances to youngsters from anywhere and eventually turn them to citizens of the said nation, but it is never done here. I play with some local teams and i can tell you that the level of these foreign youngsters is far higher than those of their Turkish counterpart, yet only about less than 1% of them get to play in the super league. I love this country so much and it pains me to see how much their football has gone down the drain. The people in general are very nice, friendly and welcoming, but once it comes to football, their fans turn to something else.

Excellent work.

Wow, I don’t know much about Turkish league, thanks for the info

Love the "what on earth" videos ...

Hey Alfie, could you do a video on the turbulent recent history of Goztepe in the Super Lig? They’re one of the Super Lig’s most well supported clubs (a bit like a Newcastle United, Sunderland or Strasbourg if you may). In the 2001/02 season, they finished seventh in the top flight, however from 2002 to 2008, they were relegated five times in six seasons, due to their inability to reduce their outstanding debt which resulted in the football club being banned from signing new players during that time. In August of 2007, a business based in Istanbul, vowed to take them back to the top flight making them one of the top five clubs in the country, but they were met with lots of suspicions from the fan base, and then they handed over the ownership to another bloke called Mehmet Sepil in 2014. Anyway, they’re back in the Super Lig as a solid mid table/weaker top half team. Why am I bringing all this up? Because apparently Abramovich is looking to possibly buy the club himself, after being sanctioned from the UK. It’s a crazy crazy story and may you could look into this, not to mention, they are not only a rare example of a club that is considered a neighbourhood club, as well as the fact that they’ve played in 3 different stadiums since 2011, but also in 1969, they became the first Turkish football team to play a semi-final of a European competition.

My guy Alfie talking about Cyprus, love you man

The stadiums built or redeveloped in Turkey in recent years are worthy of hosting a European Championship or even a World Cup (together with Greece maybe? Controversial I know) but sadly the country is in too much turmoil and instability to host such events. 😔

This one is definitely a rough ride, as well as being a new level of crazy

Great video! That sub-Saharan Africa club-based Best XI better be coming out soon lol

I love that opening picture :D Everyone smiles super nicely and then there is that strict looking Besiktas fan.

Another brilliant documentary about the issues that football faces

As a Leeds fan I'm certainly enjoying gala decline 😂

Good stuff Alfie 👍🏻🖖✊

great summary of the situation in Turkey. If a fraction of the Turkish population was aware of what has been explained here, the situation might have been different. One point to add to the whole scheme here is that, in the last 10 years while all football clubs have lost a lot of money with no gains, bet companies as well as agencies have made made huge amount of money in Turkish football market.

Alfie. Do a video about the rise of Brentford. They will in league 2 in 2010, and had financial issues, then were brought by Benham, and a now on the verge of surviving their first season in the premier league. Also I recommend you to make a what in earth is going on documentary about Birmingham City, there is a lot to talk about in terms of their fall, an owner who has been arrested for money laundering, point deductions, transfer embargos, many relegation battles.

4:44 I didn't realise Gino Di Campo was in Turkish Football 👀👀👀🤣🤣🤣

Alfie my man, one of the few positives of Turkish super lig is Atiba Hutchinson - please check him out - the guy is Benjamin button

Well,I very recently got interested in the turkish league, and I have a feeling I might watch the league but well, I will be keeping these points in my mind for sure.

How about “the best World Cup managers”, here in Canada we love John Herdman. Also, we are worried a bigger football world power might scoop him away

Can you do a What on earth is going on at Levante, Sampdoria or Bordeaux? Saint Etienne is also a video candidate due to their rare raise from the total ashes, similar to Leicester (not as clutch tho, lol)

I think we need a v2 of this video after all the absurd recent events in Turkey

Huge shame for Turkish football. 2023 is the country's centenary year and the UCL Final was held there, but NO single Super Lig teams will even play in UCL group stage!

This should be the only example needed, for fans to see were they stand on list of importance.

Ozil being linked to hull city?! 😳

Altough you are right with 90% of what you have said I don’t necessarily agree with the “aged star players being signed” is a argument thats going to stand too long. With failed major signings like Mesut Ozil for Fenerbahce and Radamel Falcao for Galatasaray, and the most recent pjanic, batshuayi (for loan) and alex teixeira coming on board for besiktas; failing to make an inpact and dismantling a working tactic, the turkish teams have generally dipped to a younger pool of players. One of the main reasons the big 3 have been very unsuccessful this year (apart from Fenerbahce) have been because of rebuilds taking place among these teams, especially galatasaray whom have signed many young players most notably being kerem akturkoglu. Although I beleive the scouting department for these teams can definitely be improved the general mindset has forcibly, and finally, changed. Heck, Fenerbahce (whom has finished 2nd) has the youngest team in super league and have not played any player above the age of 30 (apart from luiz gustavo) in matches consecutively in the second half of the league, with there even being pressure from the fans to play 17 year old wonderkid Arda Guler in every match. Obviously this is just one aspect of millions about turkish football that should be changed but I feel like the unsuccessful nature of the big teams in the last few years has forced a change in the mindset of fans and board directors which is a good thing. Hopefully this is one of many things we as turks improve about our understanding of football and can save ourselves from this terrible state that we call turkish football.

I really hope HITC makes a podcast one day. Sevens not Sport lol, it would be great to be able to get this more long form content on the go

Turkish league representation on this channel 👀

Day 1: 7 fixtures in recent history that favour the “weaker” team. (Eg: Bayern and Monchengladbach)

“Bien sports has paid off Alfie”-Fenerbahce fan probably

I love this series

Turkeys #1 export is KZfaq barber

Here is something everyone missed in the vid; the kid you see at 13:24 is arda guler who now plays for fenerbahce and is the best wonderkid in the country attracting 40k+ fans each week to the stadium, he holds a 2,5 lira coin because his nickname at his old academy was "the 2 and a half"

I didn't know things were going down the tubes the way they are in Turkey. But I should have known. lol. The last news I heard of from the Super Lig is when Van Persie went to Turkey. I've literally heard nothing that I can remember since then. lol.

Your videos are fantastic mate, just a bloody shame you're a Hull fan!

Trabzonspor have made me loads of winning bets (win with btts) this year. Thanks

I dont know shit about football, but these "what on earth" videos are my jam

19:16 u should have mentioned Alexander sorloth story. He was linked with a move back to trabzonspor last summer and as soon as trabzonspor fans found that out 3 million people commented on his recent Instagram post saying come to trabzonspor

What on earth is going on at Scunthorpe utd request please. After seeing mansfields game against them (and the protests) may be worth a vid?

You should do a video about the Canadian football team

Could you do a video on Catania Calcio which is facing bankruptcy and have booted out of Serie C In Italy

What on Earth is going on at Hertha Berlin I beg

Besiktas wasn't the last turkish team reaching the round of 16 in the Europa league. Istambul Basaksehir also did it in 2020

I'd definitely be interested in subtitling this video for you as I'd love to get the message of this video accross to my fellow Turkish supporters.

A couple of years ago an earthquake took place on the eastern end Turkey. Consequently Football Association delayed some of the games, one including Fenerbahce. The psychopathic president of Fenerbahce Ali Koc reacted to delay and stated that the real reason for the delay was to de-rail Fenerbahce.

I told you, there’s going to be financial problems. The lack of UCL slots in other leagues compare to premier league where they have 4. You don’t get this problem because basketball is 5v5 and a team can have a total of 15 players. Compare that to this sport where it’s 11v11 and a team can sign 30+ players. The amount of wages between sports is a big gap. To sustain a Basketball league is financially cheaper than funding a soccer league.

Youre just bantering us but Im all for it

Alfie X The Athletic was a crossover I did not expect

for 8:05 , i think its baseless but its popular in turkish football for clubs to post tweets etc. at their rivals's establishment year. for example if there is a transfer race between two rivals the winner would almost always announce the transfer at their rivals's establishment date.

CLUB STATEMENT: This video is very good!

Maaaaaaate I transferred Özil to my Hull side in FIFA 😂😂 you’re right, stranger things have happened. Jay-Jay Okocha transferred to Bolton after all 🤷‍♂️

The "beIN" company name is so hilariously confusing to us norwegians, as "bein" literally translates to "legs"

Basaksehir video is not banned, can access easily fyi. Inflation will hurt more than it help on the long run