The penalty is one of the most exciting positions in soccer.
When the ball is placed on that white spot, the 7.32-meter goal becomes smaller and smaller for the player who will take the penalty, and larger and larger for the goalkeeper.
Although it may seem like the easiest way to score, the world average is that 3 out of every 4 penalty kicks are converted into goals.
Who will take the penalty is another mystery.
Each team has a first, second and third penalty taker who are appointed before the season.
Sometimes a soccer player takes the ball and says he wants to take a penalty.
At that moment, all eyes turn to the bench. If the coach gives the go-ahead, this extraordinary request is granted.
Sometimes the stars of the team will face off in a penalty shootout.
If the manager has influence over the stars in the team, he decides who will take the penalty.
Sometimes, in this case, the tribunes step in and start cheering in favor of a player.
If the manager lacks authority over the star players and has little credibility with the fans, he will listen to the voice of the stands.
If the penalty is converted into a goal, no problem. But when the penalty is missed, the manager saves himself by throwing the blame to the stands!
But do the tribunes always make the right decision?
One of the first groups that comes to mind when it comes to fan groups in Turkey is the Çarşı Group.
This fan group, which has a decibel record that has gone down in world football history, has also made history with its creative actions during the Gezi Resistance by being tried in the ‘coup attempt’ case.
For me, it is a source of pride that Beşiktaş, of which I am a supporter, has such a fan group.
Despite this, can we say that Çarşı always cheers the right way and makes the right decision?
The year 2000. A season in which things did not go as desired at Beşiktaş.
The famous cheer is on the lips of the Çarşı: Ahmet Dursun, let Seba go...
As a matter of fact, as a result of those chants, the 16-year era of Süleyman Seba at Beşiktaş came to an end.
Beşiktaş won the Super League 5 times, the Turkish Cup 4 times, the Presidential Cup 4 times, the Prime Ministry Cup 2 times, the TSYD Cup 6 times and finished second in the league 8 times during Seba's 16-year reign.
While three of these championships have been won in consecutive seasons, Beşiktaş is the only team to be the undefeated champion of the Turkish Super League.
In the 25 years after Seba, there were only 5 championships.
The club has seen the highest levels of indebtedness in its history. Worst of all “To play fair and win with honor” The last 25 years have taken a lot away from the spirit of Beşiktaş.
He even saw a disaster like Yildirim Demiroren!
Years later, Ahmet Dursun visited Süleyman Seba and apologized.
‘My Turkish was very poor, I thought they were saying something good’ He said.
Süleyman Seba expressed his resentment “What happened when we left” "I am very grateful to you.
Ahmet Dursun made 112 appearances for Beşiktaş, where he played for 4 years and scored 53 goals.
So he played with a goal average below 0.5.
In the following years Beşiktaş had strikers of much higher quality and goal contribution than Ahmet Dursun. But it never found a president like Süleyman Seba.
Moral of the story:
Tribunes don't always make the right choice. They may have emotional preferences far from rationality. Because they act with the feeling of being ‘fans’.
In football, it is not possible to get the result only with the emotions of your own fans.
Moreover, if your supporters outnumber your arch rivals Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray, you need to have different formulas for success.
But if the club doesn't have a strong president and a competent manager, every season ‘flash transfers’ and ‘with star footballers’ and then throw in the towel in the middle of the season and make the same mistakes the following season.
Especially if you open your stands to the fans of the opposing team and make decisions based on their chants, you are open to all kinds of manipulation.
The next thing you know, your ‘star’ footballer, whom you even threw away the values of the club for the sake of pleasing the tribunes, will appear as a rival in your arch-rival's jersey the following season because he pays more!
Does this have anything to do with the CHP? No matter how one understands it...