Trabzonspor has won the 2019/20 Turkish Cup.
The Turkish season was concluded on Wednesday evening with the 2-0 victory of the Trabzonians over Alanyaspor, thanks to goals by Alexander Sørloth and Abdulkadir Omur. But despite the celebrations, Trabzonspor’s finish pales in comparison to their quite outstanding season.
The Black Sea club won the Cup and finished in second place for the first time in nine years. The team is playing attractive football, enjoying a human goal-machine named Sørloth.
But at the same time, Trabzonspor suffered from unfortunate circumstances throughout the season. Their striker, Daniel Sturridge, was banned from football due to allegations of betting on games. Their defensive midfielder and ex-Nigeria captain, John Obi Mikel abandoned the club at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they had two managerial changes. Besides, although they led the table most of the season, they lost the title to Istanbul Başakşehir in the final matchdays.
If that’s not enough, the club’s appeal to CAS has been declined, meaning a one-season ban from European football over Financial Fair Play allegations. UEFA said that the Süper Lig side had failed to meet an agreement reached in 2016 when the club was found breaking the rules. The ban applies to the next season and 2021-22.
Therefore, despite winning the Cup and finishing second, Trabzonspor won’t benefit in the continental level, giving their great season a bitter-sweet taste.
Eddie Newton’s Moment
But there is a positive side to Trabzonspor’s situation, and this side is Eddie Newton.
Newton is a former Chelsea player and a football coach, that worked at the London club as a coach and as an assistant manager in the past decade.
He has been working in Trabzonspor as an assistant coach since February. After Trabzonspor sacked Hüseyin Çimşir, Newton took charge and guided the team for two matches as a head coach. His fresh attitude helped the team to ease the tension and win the Cup.
It is unclear whether Newton will remain at the helm at Trabzonspor, but one thing is sure: in an era of growing Black Lives Matter protests across the world, it is highly refreshing to see a black British manager guiding a team to win a trophy.
It will be interesting to see if Newton, who kicked off a head coach career in style, will get his chance as a head coach in his home country one day, and not only Turkey.
Süper Lig Announces Changes
The news from Turkish football did not stop with Trabzon. On Thursday the FA announced several vital decisions, The most significant one was that Turkish Süper Lig is downsizing from 20 teams to 18.
The 2020/21 season will be the bridge in this shift, that saw all the relegated teams stay up for another season. Yeni Malatyaspor, Kayserispor and Ankaragücu, who finished 16th, 17th and 18th respectively will continue to play in the Süper Lig for another season. At the same time, Adana Demirspor will join them in a rare structure of a 21-team competition in the next term. With four relegation slots next season and one promoting team, the league’s new structure will be fully implemented by 2021/22.
Another important decision by the FA was related to the number of foreign players in Turkey. The Turkish Süper Lig has no limit on foreign players at the moment. It helps the big clubs attract some big names, and allows young Turkish players to learn or otherwise leave abroad and gain experience at small-medium size European clubs.
In the past months, the foreigner-rule was in the air, while some advised that the league will allow six foreigners only, but eventually, things stayed as they stood before, at least for now.
Photo via Trabzonspor official Twitter account.
