This past Sunday I witnessed a game that I'm sure would have every American crying out for justice, if only it hadn't of happened in a place all too familiar with football violence. I'm talking about one of Turkey's biggest games. It's the Besiktas v. Galatasaray derby, of course. Just imagine over 70 thousand fans filled inside Besiktas' Ataturk Olympic Stadium (The namesake couldn't have fit any better for what ensued) as they faced their bitter rivals Galatasaray. The visitors from the other side of the Bosphorus were winning 2-1 with stoppage time approaching when all of a sudden Galatasaray's Felipe Melo got a red card. Things were heating up as people slowly started to jump out onto the pitch with one person even running up and trying to hit Galatasaray's Emmanuel Eboue. All this madness took place while the stone faced referee waited to take action since there were only 2 minutes left. However, things got way too carried away and soon fans equipped with plastic chairs stormed the pitch. After watching all the clips of the mayhem online I realized this was nothing new to Turkish football, but then some of the comments written by the Turkish faithful made me think more in depth. Judge the credibility yourself, but according to some comments online a pro government group was apparently responsible for inciting the pitch invasion. This so-called pro government group's goal was to make the Besiktas Ultra fans, known as Carsi Group, look like the ones responsible. All this ties in to the protests against the Turkish government back in the summer. The Corsi Group doesn't shy away from their involvement in the protests with chants like "Taksim is everywhere" and "revolution is everywhere." Hence, the irony involved with the namesake of the stadium Ataturk. The protesters are against a government that's slowly and manipulatively trying to get Turkey away from Ataturk's Western ideals and more towards a secular Muslim state. Still, without getting too in depth on the history and issues lets stay focused on the football. The point is, one of the biggest games of the season in the Turkish league ended with the match getting abandoned with politics being the perpetrator. One might argue that it's Turkey and these types of things happen there all too often. That might be the case to some extent, but the Turkish league has really grown in the last couple of years to include huge names in football like Dirk Kuyt, Wesley Sneijder and Didier Drogba, who was one of the players that had to run off the pitch during the ensuing mayhem. Even the sidelines had their draws with the likes of Slaven Bilic (Croatia's former smoking rock star coach) and Fatih Terim (coach of Euro 2008's comeback kings Turkey). Basically the idea here is that no matter how big of a spectacle football is it sometimes is too representative of a society's ills. One doesn't have to look too far from Turkey to get that impression. Just look at the 1990 game between the Yugoslavian League's two biggest rivals Dinamo Zagreb and Crvena Zvezda. Long story short the fighting between the Croat and Serb fans on the field that day showed just how much football was intertwined with politics. Many people to this day still believe that match was a catalyst for what would be the war in the Balkans. However, it never is solely the football that leads to such political tension. It's more like the football stadium and the pitch are the ideal place for any unrest to take place since even in times of peace it's the hotbed of any gathering of peoples. With regard to the fighting in Zagreb, just weeks before the match Croatia had voted in a pro nationalist party, which focused on Croatian Independence. All it took was the perfect place like a football match against your bitterest rivals to incite unrest. Even the World Cup qualifier between El Salvador and Honduras, leading up to Mexico 1970, was regarded by some people as the match that led to war. Though a war did ensue after the heated game it was years of tension between the the countries that really led to the bloodshed. The match itself was just another example of how much a football match brought out the tension within people. In that case, football has to be looked upon as something that can go either towards the good or the bad. It can lead to seeing the beautiful game and feeling the most compelling emotions or it can lead to the dirty side also known as politics.
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