Besiktas host Stoke City in Istanbul

After mix-up in the air Stoke City finally made to Istanbul late on Tuesday night!

They landed at the wrong airport .....

Stoke City's plane ended up on the Asian side of Istanbul Sabihan Gokcen airport rather than the European side,Ataturk International airport!

After getting stuck on the runway there one hour, they made it to Ataturk International airport....

Stoke city cme to Istanbul without their stars...

Stoke boss Tony Pulis left Striker Jon Walters at home...

They have already qualified but they need at least one point to clich the top spot in the group...

Tony Pulis is expected to play a second-string side against Besiktas in Istanbul.

Besiktas on the other hand will be missing Quarisma who is out with injury..

A win against Stoke, could put Besiktas on top of the group...

Besiktas is already is in the last 32 in Europa league...

But a win in Istanbul in front of their rowdy fans, could be morale boost for the team..

According to reports Besiktas coach Tayfur Havutcu who was realesed from jail yesterday pending a probable trial in February on charges of match-fixing, will be attending the match also..

Tayfur Havutcu,will not be coaching any time soon....

Portuguese coach Carlos Carvalhal will be in charge....


German midfileder for Besiktas Fabian Ernst said "I think our chances are good. We played a good away match at Stoke but lost a bit unluckily so we are looking forward to revenge.''

Stoke city is on top with 11 points while Besiktas is on second with 9 points..

A win will put Besiktas on top and a draw will be good for Stoke to stay on top!

With the help from 12th man(Besiktas fans) Besiktas just might surprise Stoke City!

The match will start 20:00 local Turkey time(13:00)ET

Follow me on Twitter for updates all the time....
https://twitter.com/turkishsoccer

TURKISH SUPER LEAGUE WRAP: GALATASARAY GOES ON TOP

The busy week ended with a change on top only with goal difference....

Galatasaray perhaps is the best team of the week, in my opinion....

They have beat, two important opponents in four days, last week...

Galatasaray scored six goals and only allowed only one goal...

First they beat Fenerbahce in the Turkey's derby match then four days later they trashed Trabzonspor in Trabzon!

Galatasaray wounded Trabzonspor with former Trabzonspor boys too..

Former Trabzonspor players Selcuk Inan and Ceyhun Gulselam scored in the match!


This was the first win against Trabzonspor for Galatasaray in three in half years....

After 58 weeks, Galatasaray captured the first place in Turkey....

Galatasaray and Fenerbahce are dead luck at the top with 31 points and Galatasaray is in first place because of goal difference....

On Monday night, Fenerbahce beat struggling Bursaspor in Bursa with net score 0-2

Fenerbahace's captain Emre Belozoglu and Cristian argument started on the pitch and went on, in the locker room.

After the match Fenerbahce coach, told Turkish media he was not happy what he witness on filed and of filed...

Today, Fenerbahce suspended Emre Belozoglu indefinitely.......


The third place team Besiktas after beating Manisa in the week 14 mid-week match they draw with Istanbul Buyuksehir in Istanbul!

Besiktas will host Stoke City on Wendsday in the Europa League match..

Besiktas along with Stoke is going to the last 16 party in Europe....


Besiktas is only three points behind Galatasaray and Fenerbahce....

As I have been saying on Twitter, Trabzonspor is losing blood....

They will face Genclerbirligi this Wendsday ,in the postponed match...

This match and this weekend match against Fenerbahce in Istanbul will be very crutial for Trabzonspor!

A loss of points from these two matches, will hurt Trabzonspor playoff chances!

WHO IS UP..... WHO IS DOWN.....

UP.....GALATASARAY...FENERBAHCE... BESIKTAS...ESKISEHIR

DOWN...BURSASPOR....ORDUSPOR....GAZIANTEP...KARABUKSPOR....

If Bursaspor and Karabukspor does not shape up, they will say good bye to Turkish Super League!

two weeks to go to winter brake, this coming weekend matches will be very crucial for teams on top and the bottom too...


Week 16, will start on Friday with Orduspor vs Galatasaray match and will end on Sunday with Fenerbahce vs Trabzonspor match...

The match of the weekend will be Fenerbahce vs Trabzonspor match....

There are two coaches has been sacked in the Turkish Super League...

Orduspor ,before very important Galatasaray match on Friday , sacked their coach Metin Diyadin, after losing their five strait matches...

On the other hand, Ankaragucu sacked their coach Ziya Dogan too..

For daily updates and news from Turkish football and more follow me on twitter...

https://twitter.com/turkishsoccer

WEEK 16......

16 Dec 2011
19:00 CET Orduspor ? : ? Galatasaray
17 Dec 2011
12:00 CET Ankaragucu ? : ? Gaziantepspor
12:00 CET Karabukspor ? : ? Mersin
15:00 CET Eskisehirspor ? : ? Kayserispor
18:00 CET Bursaspor ? : ? Antalyaspor
18 Dec 2011
12:00 CET Buyuksehir ? : ? Sivasspor
12:00 CET Manisaspor ? : ? Genclerbirligi
15:00 CET Samsunspor ? : ? Besiktas
18:00 CET Fenerbahce ? : ? Trabzonspo

STANDINGS.,....

1 Galatasaray 15 9 4 2 24-11 31
2 Fenerbahce 15 9 4 2 23-14 31
3 Besiktas 15 8 4 3 23-16 28
4 Eskisehirspor 15 8 2 5 18-15 26
5 Manisaspor 15 6 6 3 16-14 24
6 Buyuksehir 15 6 5 4 20-15 23
7 Mersin 15 6 5 4 15-13 23
8 Kayserispor 15 7 1 7 18-16 22
9 Trabzonspor 14 5 6 3 19-17 21
10 Sivasspor 15 5 5 5 22-26 20
11 Genclerbirligi 14 5 4 5 18-19 19
12 Antalyaspor 15 5 4 6 13-16 19
13 Bursaspor 15 4 5 6 16-16 17
14 Orduspor 15 4 5 6 13-15 17
15 Gaziantepspor 15 3 5 7 12-16 14
16 Karabukspor 15 3 3 9 15-21 12
17 Samsunspor 15 2 5 8 9-18 11
18 Ankaragucu 15 1 3 11 15-31 6

Besiktas coach and seven others released from jail in match-fixing probe

Good news to Besiktas fans and some others ....

Besiktas Deputy Chairman Serdar Adalı, Besiktas protocol and security chief Ahmet Ates, coach
Tayfur Havutcu, İstanbul Büyüksehir Belediyespor (İBB) players Ibrahim Akın and İskender Alın,

Sivasspor goalkeeper Korcan Celikay and Diyarbakırspor player Abdurrahman Yakut, who were released.

But, this does not mean they are of the hook ,just yet!

They are still suspect in the Turkish football scandal...

They will wait for their day in the court...

The trials will start on February 14,2012!

However, the suspects have been prohibited from traveling outside of the country.

After Turkish president Abdullah Gul, signs the new Law , there will be more releases from custody pending trial....

Parliament passed a law at the weekend reducing prison sentences for match-rigging from a maximum 12 years to three years!

There are now 23 jailed suspects out of a total of 93 suspects in the investigation, and 14 players stand accused for their alleged involvement in the match-fixing scandal.

What is so interesting , European football's ruling body UEFA has yet to comment on the latest developments in the case!

WE are waiting......

Trabzonspor did it, Inter did not!

Let me say this before I say anything...

Trabzonspor and Trabzonspor fans will never forget Inter Milan!

The score came out of Milan in the last minutes of the match, against CSKA Moscow ,really hurt Trabzonspor and their fans...

Let's not forget ,Trabzonspor is the only team who got four points from Inter in this group...

Maybe just because of that, Inter Milan did not want Trabzon in Champions League anymore!

Going down to CSKA in the very last minutes was not pleasant!


On the other hand, I wrote it here, before the match, a lot of pundits in Europe thought , Lille was going with Inter !

They were fooled by Trabzonspor and Inter too.....

But, Trabzonspor had a Turkish wall with Tolga Zengin guard in the goal!

Lille, could not go through that Turkish wall.......

Goalkeeper Tolga Zengin made some huge saves as Trabzonspor scraped a 0-0 draw at Lille that put Trabzonspor and Lille out of the Champions League.


Lille finished bottom of Group B and failed to even qualify for the Europa League,while Trabzonspor earned a spot in the Europa League!


Tolga Zengin kept out attacks from Moussa Sow and Eden Hazard, and it looked like Trabzonspor was heading into the next round until CSKA's late goal secured a 2-1 win at Inter.


That was bad news for Trabzonspor and Trabzonspor fans!


But, I could say this being there for the first time, Trabzonspor did well..

After Manchester teams and some of the Europe big names eliminated from Champions League, I think , Trabzonspor will have a better competition in the the Europa League..

After all, Trabzonspor still in Europe.....

Trabzonspor or Lille?

A lot of pundits in Europe are saying Lille will join Inter Milan to reach last 16 in the champions league!

That could well be on paper, but, they could well be wrong too!

Trabzonspor, could well surprise Lille in France and join Inter Milan!

Players like Halil Altintop and Burak Yilmaz, could well make a diffrence in this match.


*If this match ends as a draw, Trabzonspor will qualify for the last 16 and Lille for the Europa League as long as CSKA do not win against Inter.

*If the game ends as a draw and CSKA do beat Inter, Trabzonspor will make the Europa League while Lille will be eliminated from Europe.


Trabzonspor-Lille game will take place at the Lille Metropole and kick off at 20.45 hours (French local time).




FC Internazionale Milano 5 10
Trabzonspor AS 5 6
LOSC Lille Metropole 5 5
PFC CSKA Moskva 5 5

TURKISH SUPER LEAGUE WRAP: TOP THREE..FENERBAHCE, GALATASARAY AND BESIKTAS

After the week 13, in the Turkish Super League, we have a new top three in the standings!

While Fenerbahce and Galatasaray kept their place in the standing ,after Manisaspor could not win away match in Mersin, Besiktas captured the third place after they beat Orduspor, Monday night in Antalya, Turkey.

Besiktas made the biggest jump from sixth place to third place...

This was huge win for Besiktas!

In the week 13, there were two teams, that won their away matches...

Galatasaray won in Ankara against Genclerbirligi and Eskisehir won in Bursa...


With a win,Galatasaray kept second place and Eskisehir moved ahead of Bursa,Mersin and Orduspor


BUSY WEEK,,,,,,,,,,

This will be another week and weekend, we will see matches played almost every day until Monday!

Another jam-packed week with Turkish football and more.....

As you know on Wendsday, Trabzonspor will play agaiinst LIlle in the Champions league matches...

Week 14, matches will be played on this coming Wendsday and Thursday and on the weekend we will see, week 15, matches starting on Saturday and ending on Monday night in Turkey..

Perhaps, the most important match of the week 14, will be Turkey's derby match between Galatasaray and Fenerbahce...

The derby match, will be on Wendsday night at 19:30 Local Turkey time.......

Two hours later, Turkish football fans will watch Trabzonspor vs Lille match same night!

There will be three matches on Wendsday and five matches on Thursday in the week 14...

Two days later, week 15 ,will take a start on Saturday and will end on Monday night...

There will be one match on Saturday(10 Dec 2011 ), five matches on Sunday and three matches on Monday night...

So, get ready watch and follow a lot of Turkish football this week and this weekend and more!

This week and this weekend could be very crucial for Turkey's top teams , Fenerbahce and Galatasaray!

After playing the derby match on wendsday they have very difficult matches on the weekend..

Both of them will travel and play in away matches!

While Fenerbahce travel to Bursa , Galatasaray will have a longer journey...

They will travel to Trabzon to play Trabzonspor...

Both of these matches will be on Sunday(11 Dec 2011)....

Besiktas and Manisa also will compete for third place and more this week and this weekend!

Besiktas will face Manisa in Manisa on Thursday and than Besiktas will host Buyuksehir at home on Sunday while Manisaspor will travel to Sivas on this coming Monday...

These matches will be playing in the mid-week and weekend could well change a lot of things on top and the bottom...

At the end of the week 13, Fenerbahce have a three point cushion on top but, the match on Wendsday against Galatasaray is very important...

A win, could open the gap on top but a draw will keep the gap same with Galatasaray..

In a case of Manisa or Besiktas winning their match in the week 14, could put them in a good position for first place....

On next Monday night(12 Dec 2011), after Bursaspor vs Fenerbahce match, we could well see whole different top three in the Turkish Super League,,,,,,,,

Lastly, it has been long time, we haven't seen Istanbul big guns(Fenerbahce,Galatasaray, Besiktas) in the top three in Turkey!

Could they stay there?

Time will show..........




WEEK 13 RESULTS/////

02 Dec 2011
FT Sivasspor 2 : 2 Trabzonspor
03 Dec 2011
FT Fenerbahce 4 : 2 Ankaragucu
FT Gaziantepspor 1 : 0 Samsunspor
FT Genclerbirligi 0 : 1 Galatasaray
04 Dec 2011
FT Antalyaspor 2 : 1 Karabukspor
FT Bursaspor 0 : 1 Eskisehirspor
FT Kayserispor 1 : 0 Buyuksehir
FT Mersin 0 : 0 Manisaspor
05 Dec 2011
FT Besiktas 2 : 1 Orduspor


WEEK 14 MATCHES (MID WEEK)

07 Dec 2011
FT Eskisehirspor 1 : 0 Antalyaspor
FT Galatasaray 3 : 1 Fenerbahce
FT Karabukspor 0 : 0 Gaziantepspor
08 Dec 2011
17:00 CET Ankaragucu ? : ? Bursaspor
17:00 CET Buyuksehir ? : ? Mersin
17:00 CET Samsunspor ? : ? Kayserispor
19:30 CET Manisaspor ? : ? Besiktas
19:30 CET Orduspor ? : ? Sivasspor

***************************************

WEEK 15.....(WEEKEND MATCHES)

0 Dec 2011
18:00 CET Gaziantepspor ? : ? Eskisehirspor
11 Dec 2011
12:00 CET Antalyaspor ? : ? Ankaragucu
12:00 CET Genclerbirligi ? : ? Orduspor
15:00 CET Besiktas ? : ? Buyuksehir
15:00 CET Mersin ? : ? Samsunspor
18:00 CET Trabzonspor ? : ? Galatasaray
12 Dec 2011
17:00 CET Kayserispor ? : ? Karabukspor
17:00 CET Sivasspor ? : ? Manisaspor
19:00 CET Bursaspor ? : ? Fenerbahce


standings......
1 Fenerbahce 13 8 4 1 20-11 28
2 Galatasaray 13 7 4 2 18-10 25
3 Besiktas 13 7 3 3 18-14 24
4 Manisaspor 13 6 5 2 13-8 23
5 Buyuksehir 13 6 3 4 19-14 21
6 Trabzonspor 13 5 6 2 19-14 21
7 Eskisehirspor 13 6 2 5 16-15 20
8 Mersin 13 5 4 4 14-13 19
9 Orduspor 13 4 5 4 11-10 17
10 Bursaspor 13 4 4 5 16-14 16
11 Kayserispor 13 5 1 7 15-16 16
12 Genclerbirligi 13 4 4 5 15-18 16
13 Antalyaspor 13 4 4 5 12-15 16
14 Sivasspor 13 4 4 5 18-23 16
15 Gaziantepspor 13 3 4 6 12-15 13
16 Karabukspor 13 3 2 8 15-19 11
17 Samsunspor 13 2 5 6 9-16 11
18 Ankaragucu 13 1 2 10 15-30 5

93 suspects charged in Turkish match-fixing probe

Turkish prosecutors investigating a match-fixing scandal in Turkey are expected to file indictments on Monday against 93 suspects, including the chairman of champions Fenerbahce.

More than 30 players and officials, including the Fenerbahce chairman, Aziz Yildirim, have been in jail pending trial, since the scandal broke over the summer, forcing the Turkish Football Federation to delay the start of the season by a month.


On Friday, Turkey's president, Abdullah Gul, vetoed legislation approved by parliament that would have reduced jail sentences for match-fixing crimes from a maximum 12 years to three years.

The president based his decision on concern that the public would view the change in the law as being made to benefit certain individuals and that the reduced penalties would not act as a sufficient deterrent.

Under pressure from Uefa, the TFF barred last year's champions Fenerbahce from the Champions League. Runners-up Trabzonspor replaced them.

Among the games under investigation are Fenerbahce's 4-3 victory over Sivasspor, which clinched the title on the last day of the season and the cup final between Besiktas and IBB. Besiktas have returned the trophy pending the outcome of the investigation.



Fenerbahce chairman Aziz Yildirim, who has denied any wrongdoing, could be sentenced to a total of 114 years in prison if convicted on charges of establishing a crime-ring, swindling, and match-fixing, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.

Yildirim and 30 others, including former Giresunspor president Olgun Peker, remain in jail and it was not clear when they will go on trial in connection with the scandal involving 19 allegedly fixed games last season.

A total of 93 people have been charged. Prosecutors said the investigation was focusing on officials of eight clubs, including two other top clubs -- Trabzonspor and Besiktas.

According to Anatolian news agency , the indictment described Peker and Yildirim as the ring leaders in a broad match-fixing scheme.

Prosecutor Fikret Secen said suspects who remain free were barred from attending sports events as spectators. Among them were players from Galatasaray, Fenerbahce, Bursaspor and Eskisehirspor.

Fenerbahce went unbeaten through the second half of the season and beat Trabzonspor to the title on goal difference. Officials with Trabzonspor, which replaced Fenerbahce in the Champions League, also have been implicated, along with officials or players from several other clubs.

Other clubs mentioned in the indictment were Besiktas, Trabzonspor, Istanbul Buyuksehir Belediyesi Spor (IBB), Sivasspor, Manisaspor, Giresunspor and Mersin Idman Yurdu.

Last term's cup final between Besiktas and IBB is another match under investigation. Winners Besiktas have returned the trophy pending the probe's outcome.

One of two deputy presidents of the Turkish Football Federation (TFF ), Goksel Gumusdag, was among those indicted on match-fixing charges.

Istanbul court has 15 days to decide whether the case is strong enough to go to trial.