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Green Crocs savor life on top of Super League
“We are here to stay,” Bursaspor Chairman İbrahim Yazıcı said. “We have been saying all season long that we are championship material. So our success is neither accidental nor coincidental,” he further noted.
The TFF also imposed a 3-0 defeat on Diyarbakirspor in the March 6 game, which was abandoned in the 17th minute with the score 0-0. Home fans in Diyarbakir threw stones at players and officials, hitting assistant referee Kemal Yılmaz and visiting veteran Bulgaria goalkeeper Dimitar Ivankov.
The TFF will meet again on Friday to decide what action to take after Diyarbakırspor’s match on Sunday against İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor that was also abandoned, this time in the 87th minute after fans invaded the pitch.
If Diyarbakırspor is declared the loser by default again, it will be automatically relegated -- according to the TFF rulebook.
Rampaging Crocs
The Diyarbakır events are disheartening, but they should not be allowed to eclipse the
outstanding performance of Bursaspor this season. As we condemn the perpetrators of the unruly acts at the Diyarbakır Atatürk Stadium, we must not forget to give praise where praise is due.
Life in topflight Turkish soccer has not been a bed of roses for the Bursaspor Green Crocs, and they have come a long way to achieve what has been achieved thus far.
Founded in 1963 and promoted to the Turkish Division One League (now the Turkcell Super League) in 1967, Bursa’s greatest achievement was clinching the Turkish Cup in 1986.
They were relegated to the second division the 1985-86 and 1986-87 season and returned to Division One after winning the Turkish Cup in 1986 and a Council of State ruling in 1987. Bursaspor again went down in 2004, but the Crocs fought their way back to the Super League in 2006 by winning the Division Two championship.
All hail Ertuğrul
For 40-year-old coach Ertuğrul Sağlam, it is a personal triumph for this young man who had been declared persona non grata on Oct. 7, 2008.
Sağlam has also proven beyond reasonable doubt that he is one of the best coaches in the land. Little wonder he was recently voted one of the top 20 most promising coaches by the respected soccer magazine Champions.
There are nine weeks to go and anything can still happen. And even if Bursaspor does not win this year’s league championship, it will go down in history as one of the Anatolian teams that challenged Turkish soccer’s status quo.
In 2006-07 it was Vestel Manisaspor and last season it was Sivasspor. These are good signs that İstanbul’s hegemony over the Turkcell Super League will be broken -- sooner rather than later.
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