http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/3107398.stm Not feasible to take such a simple step which could help defuse a potentially violent situation? Suker is an idiot, these 'not feasible' steps could help save lives and allow for a peaceful game. But of course, that's not in Turkey's best interests is it? I'll be so happy if we beat them, the way some of these people have behaved has been appalling and they need to pay for it.
To be honest do you honestly think a photo of turkish and english players standing together is really likely to diffuse any of the bad blood between the two sets of supporters? it sounds more like PR than anything else, the cause is noble the idea is shameless PR.
It doesnt suit the turks to have a calm atmosphere at the game. If they really wanted to ease the tension they wouldnt be coming out with all these inflammatory statements in the press. The turk FA president has been spouting more crap. It reminds of the build up to the irish playoff game in 2000. Similar stuff was being spouted in the press after the turks accused the irish of giving them bad information about local hotels or something.. the game exploded in violence at the final whistle.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not touting this particual photo call as some magic solution on it's own. It's more the symbolic nature of it, and surely it could lead to other things which would help calm things down. Doing something is better than doing nothing except trade verbal hot air.
Right. It's not the effectiveness of this particular scheme that is in question. Only a Turk would deem something like this as "not feasible."
"... Only a Turk ..." ? Oooh those dastardly evil Turks. What repugnant evil scheme will they unleash on the world next? Bad bad people they are. Young Jedi vanquish them he must. Seriously could someone consider the fact that Hakan Sukur the person, not Hakan Sukur "the Turk", is simply not interested for personal reasons. He seems to be whining about not wanting to travel for the photo shoot in a "why me" sort of attitutude. He's going thorugh a midlife crisis right now and is struggling to restart his career this fall with another stint at Galatasaray. I think he's got bigger issues on his mind, like getting back in the starting-eleven at Gala, than doing good samaritan actions for the benefit of Turkey and England.
I know there could be more to this story, but it does appear that Mr. Suker is a bit of a selfish primadonna. Can we can the "Only a Turk.." style racial nonsense?
This just shows the type of person Hakan Sukur is. He is ignorant, and doesn't care about other peoples safety. What sendorange wrote is spot on "Not feasible to take such a simple step which could help defuse a potentially violent situation?" It might not work, people might not take notice at all, but it could help the situation and he's not exactly breaking a sweat of getting his photo taken with the likes of Michael Owen.
Perhaps he feels that Owen's boyish charm will make him look less handsome in the photo, thus depriving of valuable marketing opportunities?!?!?!
Guys sorry but Hakan Sukur just made a statement claiming he received no such request and that the newsstory appearing in the English press was a lie. He also stated that had he received such a request, he would've been more than happy to accomodate it to ease the tension between the two sides. Of course this statement of his probably won't appear in the English media.I wonder why? You decide. Here's a link to the source, a daily Turkish sports newspaper. A friend of mine roughly translated it for me, if there's anyone you know who knows Turkish you can ask them to help you out, but here's the link: http://www.fanatik.com.tr/haber.asp?PID=249&HID=4&haberID=136904
hey guys, here is a simple solution to ease the tension between the two teams and its fans: why not arrange a dinner & dance party a few days before the match for the players and coaches from both sides. I can just picture Beckham dancing to Turkish music while Sukur rocks to some harcore English punk rock!!!
That didnt take long..lol back again after walking out of here and vowing never to come back 3 or 4 times... Cheers for posting a link to an article you dont even understand. would've thought that you would be able to speak the language seeing as you're so loyal to them.
Oh that's great, a self patriotic turk who can't even speak Turkish. What a website eh, "Fanatik"....that says a lot about Turkish mentality. The headline says "English lie", I know that much.
Oh please, I trust the BBC who used actual quotes from Suke rather than some propaganda site posted by Matt Scholer. Funnily enough right after the first storm over the Turkish FA Chief Haluk Ulusoy's quotes, Matt Scholer came along to claim that Haluk Ulusoy never said it and had vowed not to speak to the media again. Yet lo and behold two days later Ulusoy was mouthing off again about how Sven would have his coaching reputation destroyed in Istanbul and never issued a statement denying his original quotes. Unless Suker issues a clear statement of denial and takes action against the people allegedly falsely reporting him then it's clear that he did make those quotes, and as usual people like Matt Scholer will bury their hands in the sand and try to lie their way out. What a joke.
lol I can seethere's no point because you prefer to dismiss any alternative viewpoint simply because it's not what you want to believe. It's either your perception of events or nothing in your eyes. When you think of it, a turkish newspaper printing such an article makes more sense because they have direct access to hakan sukur, who happens to be in istanbul currently. BTW: it's not a 'propoganda' site, it's a newspaper site. The English sources are quoting Sukur from England without talking to him personally. So if this decleration or statement was made by Sukur, instead of denying it, you have no other choice but to accept it. Perhaps you can criticize Sukur and claim he's playing both sides, but you cannot reject the article just because you want to, or just because you feel it doesn't serve your beliefs. As for the name, it's turkish SPORTS newspaper, what name did you expect? The london daily news? Is the name of a newspaper what gives it credibility? Also: coming from people who take the word of the Sun seriously, it's enteertaining to see you'd question the validity of a newspaper with little or no information about that paper, its history, its image, its circualtion, its credbility, etc. etc. I'm not going to say one side or the other is correct. I will however request people be more selective in what they choose to believe. The English newspapers have started a smear campaign-so everything they print might not represent reality in full. Especially if it's the Sun which is notorious for 'stretching the truth'. AS for the BBC, I'm surprised they'd print such accusations without getting in touch with Hakan Sukur personally. It seems as if they trusted other sources for this particular piece of news. Just be selective and question what you read.
LOL listen to yourself, you're the one that does that. We base the majority of our opinions (whether they're right or wrong) on the compelling evidence presented to us, you base yours on what you want to believe and your own head-in-the-sand denials. How do you know that the BBC sources have not spoken to him directly and yet your source has? Please post proof of both of these things. The BBC and other newspapers have contacts spread internationally, so the fact that your source in Istanbul makes no difference. In fact if anything it makes a negative difference to its reliability, as they have a vested interest in protecting Suker. By doing so they earn favour and what better way to help him out by to quickly issuing a statement of "it's all just English lies" when Suker is caught out in something negative when he should have thought twice before opening his mouth? I think the "English Lie" headline is enough to destroy any feeble credibility that paper has. Much in the same way a newspaper over here running the headline "Turks are Evil" would be rightly dismissed. As for your attacks on The Sun, no-one is saying that their a bastion of truth or journalistic integrity, but every once in a while they're still right. Although in this case their irrelevant as they're not the sole source. Hang on, on the one hand you're making points about how people should immediately assume your dodgy source is the truth, when you can't even read it properly, then in the next paragraph you start claiming that people should be more selective in what they believe?? Let's get to the real truth here - you have in your mind the idea that all of the Turkish players and FA are innocent, and anyone who says otherwise is a liar and trying to "smear" them. Well I hate to break it to you, but that just isn't the reality by a longshot. Your players and FA chief have a long history of this kind of behaviour, and I have seen nothing to prove their innocence in these recent outbursts. The BBC have quoted the Hakan Suker and Ulusoy directly, how on earth is that participating in some long-running smear campaign? I think you'll find that's just your paranoia and inferiority complex striking again. If the Turkish players and FA want to stop any negative stories about them then the solution is simple, they should start behaving properly and stop making stupid comments to the media. End of problem.
Perhaps Suker has a crush on Owen and is afraid that he will be rejected by Mikey!?!?! Or maybe that everyone will find out?!?!
can you stop calling him Suker like he is Croatian. His name is Sukur. And btw the headline doesnt say something like English men Lie. It says English lie. Meaning that, there is a single lie. So it doesnt mean something like you understand. It is a misunderstanding of the language for you, I guess. And the author of the article is also surprised. He says ' The most reliable English source (BBC) acts like a tabloid'.
Oh please "English Lie" is still a stupid title, because even if it's only referring to one incident I can see no reason for use of the word "English" other than as a nationalistic attack. Why not have "BBC Lie"? A bit more accurate and less of a generalisation, yes?
It's called Home Field Advantage. You gotta take it any way you can get it. If our players are going to be afraid to play in Turkey they are not going to do as well. That is why we have teams travel to our home fields to play and why they have us travel to theirs.