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    1. DC United parts ways with long time coach Ben Olson in the middle of dreadful season

      WaPo: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/10/08/ben-olsen-fired/ Olsen has been a fixture in D.C. United for over two decades. First as a player and then as the longest serving coach in the...

      WaPo: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/10/08/ben-olsen-fired/

      Olsen has been a fixture in D.C. United for over two decades. First as a player and then as the longest serving coach in the franchise's history. In fact, in all Washington sports, only legendary football coach Joe Gibbs had a longer stay at one team.

      Yet, he's always been a bit of an anomaly for such a long tenured coach. He never won the league championship, and only one piece of hardware (the somewhat obscure U.S. Open Cup, a tournament competition open to all professional and amateur soccer sides in the country) during his tenure. But he was known for his gritty game style that squeezed a lot of value out of one the most poorly funded rosters in the league for the decade he was at the helm.

      But the last year has been especially bad. After the departure of soccer superstar Wayne Rooney, the front office struggled to fill the big shoes left behind and the wheels began to really come off. The team is currently sitting with just two wins. While some of that can be ascribed to a slew of injuries, United has played matches missing 8 of what would likely be their starting 11 this year, Olsen has been seen on thin ice for a while for not being able to get beyond the occasional playoff appearance.

      It's kind of a mixed feeling among the fanbase, many of whom knew that it was time for the club to move on from Olsen, but at the same time he is a legend to the club for his long time involvement and glory days as a player. Still, some loyalists say the front office has dug their own graves with this move, as Benny was probably one of the only people in the world willing to coach the squad given how little the front office spends on its roster. Now they may be out of excuses as to why the wins aren't coming.

      7 votes
    2. Economic crisis of Turkish football clubs

      An announcement shook Turkish football seriously. Turkish Football Federation (TFF) announced spending limits for clubs. That is very low because club debts. Everybody knew it would happen one...

      An announcement shook Turkish football seriously. Turkish Football Federation (TFF) announced spending limits for clubs. That is very low because club debts. Everybody knew it would happen one day. But corona took early that crisis. All of big Turkish clubs near to bankrupt. Their total debts over 2 billion dollars. Clubs signed too heavy deals with goverment banks. Goverment and TFF try to keep up clubs alive.

      This isnt about only coronavirus or only Turkish economy. Clubs loaned more and more each year since the early 2000s. Presidents of clubs spend money badly, they transfer useless football players. And now money ran out ! And of course, turkish lira in crisis. Clubs gains with turkish lira, but spend with euro. And Lira still unstable. Euro/Lira increased from 7.7 to 8.6 in just one month. Its ~%10 lost only one month. Broadcaster company BEIN SPORTS, pay less money to federation for corona and lira crisis. Debts, income loss, lira crisis, corona. Everythings

      Yearly spending limits of some big FCs:

      • Galatasaray: 58m €
      • Besiktas: 35m €
      • Fenerbahce: 20m € (too low)
      • Basaksehir: 20m €
      • Trabzonspor: 17.5m €

      That values very low. For this budgeds, clubs cant transfers. Someones should make the team smaller like fenerbahce. Fenerbahce protest that limits but they have 600m $ unstructured debt and they can't show income ! I think if this year fenerbahce cant be champion and can't go to the Champions Leauge, their clubs will be mortgaged or to be sold in the near future. A very rich bussines man -Ali Koc- became president of this club and he transferred a significant amount of money to the club. But for two years he was not successful in terms of sports.

      There is also Başakşehir. Our champion, Basaksehir played really bad footbal againts Copenhagen FC and eliminated from Champions Leage. But Basaksehir is a brand-new club, in fact they were established in 2014. They have profesional management team and every year become better since 2014. Today, they became champions for the first time and may be the brightest club in Turkey. Some arabs from Qatar want to buy this club. Fans do not react to this. Because this 6-year-old club has almost no supporters. They became champions, but they didn't celebrate. (Ironically, I am one of the very few fans of Başakşehir.)

      Galatasaray is less worried about debts. Because they postponed their debts for 5 years (with insane interest rate) But still too many debt in 5 year. the 115 year old club has many lands. Club think they can pay off the debts by selling the land at in the good areas of İstanbul.

      Source:
      TFF Spending Limits: https://www.tff.org/default.aspx?pageID=687&ftxtID=33547 (Not in turkish)

      8 votes