While watching Turkish Football Federation (TFF) Chairman Yıldırım Demirören explaining both the national team's and league's failures in an interview recently, I started to grasp a sneaky detail about administrating football.
The national team is having a real hard time in World Cup qualifiers and attendance rates are rock-bottom in the Super League, so Demirören knew that things were nose diving and he did not neglect that failure.
Nevertheless, with respect to the hard work of both Demirören and the TFF, his speech was not related to the failure of the national team and the league, it was more of a bureaucratic speech that focused on formal details.
Now, it is not a federation chairman's duty to cope with technical issues, you might say, but if the person on top does not express his football philosophy and goals publicly, how come he can be assessed by the public?
The chairman beautifully expressed the work they have done on infrastructure and broadcasting deals, which are crucial in many aspects.
But, no one was wondering how many new fields are being built or how much the TV channels will pay to the TFF, those are technical issues that can be done by anyone who is not even involved in football.
Added to that, the TFF is already praised for these aspects and as TFF chairman you cannot expect to be cheered everywhere you go because of new buildings or TV deals.The public wants to know why the national is team has failed.
Why no one wants to watch the national team and even some people have started to despise them?
Why is the national league not entertaining or exciting anymore?
Why is the league one of the worst leagues in terms of quality although financially it is almost equivalent to the European leagues?The only connection between football and people is an emotional, irrational and romantic connection that cannot be explained by financial or administrative details.
People do not benefit from new buildings or TV deals, there is no financial profit for them and they are mostly not even appreciated by footballers who earn their super-luxury living because of these people.
Therefore, when the TFF chairman on TV, they expect real, concrete answers for their real, concrete questions.That is the point where managing football and creating football disintegrates, and that is where we find meaning in playing football.
There has to be a clear philosophy from the people who rule football, which must be just, competitive and enjoyable.
The first two notions are topics of much longer and complex pieces, but it is almost certain that Turkish football has lost its connection with the notion of joy.
Restricting the TFF's responsibilities to technical issues leaves football tasteless and chaotic, and the only way to revive Turkish football is to build the philosophy that Turkey believes in.
If Demirören and his federation can make the national team and league truly the team and league of Turkey, which demands a more democratic, transparent and sincere processes, then the country can have great future in football.