Going to a Football Match

Oftentimes Americans, even the most devout Red Sox or Eagles fans, can't fathom the supreme importance of football in many countries throughout the world. For many, football is much more than a spectator-sport; it is a way of life, a secular religion. Their pantheon consists of sweaty, head-butting gods who are capable of some pretty sweet jump-kicks. It is no different in Turkey, where football mania is alive and well. As I mentioned before, the three most famous Turkish teams are all based in Istanbul: Besiktas, Galata Saray, and Fenerbahce. There are also other famous teams in Turkey, but the names begin to be get uncreative, simply havingthe word "Spor" added to the name of the home town: BursaSpor, TrabzonSpor, BalikesirSpor, ErzurumSpor, etc. When I first came to Istanbul, it was obvious that I needed to "pick one," the same way I felt obligated in my Florida youth to decide if I wanted to be a Gator or a Seminole. I obviously know absolutely nothing about the actual sport of football, so I decided to make my choice based on the teams' colors:

Besiktas: Black and White, Eagle. Cool Mascot, but black and white aren't even colors. A little too drab for me!

Galata Saray: Red and Yellow, Lion. Nice combination, but especially with the lion mascot it smacks way too much of Gryffindor. 

Fenerbahce: Blue and Yellow, Yellow Canary. Nice, crisp color combination. The canary is cute 

as well. Also, I like the name, "Fener" is Lighthouse, and "Bahce" is Garden. I think we have a winner! 

Therefore, for completely arbitrary reasons, I have elected to be a supporter of Fenerbahce. This especially became important when applying for my ATM card with a local bank here. The teller turned to me and said, "Which team do you want?" I blinked at her, "What do you mean, team?" She gave me a hard look and said, "Your football team. Which one do you support? Our cards have the football teams' logos on them." "Can't I just get a plain card?" I asked. She shook her head no, "It is possible, but the regular cards take two weeks longer than 

the team cards to arrive. So just pick one." 

Naturally, we had to go to a football match at least once while we are here. For goodness sakes, I pass the enormous Besiktas stadium everyday to go to my Turkish lesson! A couple of weeks 

ago some friends came into town and we decided to go to a match between Besiktas and TrabzonSpor. This actually was a pretty big match, as TrabzonSpor has been the only team outside of the big Istanbul three to win the big national cup. I was very excited to go, as Besiktas fans are notoriously crazy and enthusiastic. To infiltrate the match, I would have to blend in as best I could as a Besiktas fanatic. I went so far as to paint my nails black and silver, and I bought a Besiktas scarf. It is funny how seat assignments matter in some places and not in others. While in Turkey seat assignments are very important on buses and movie theaters, which is an unfamiliar concept to Americans, at major sporting events, the seat numbers on our tickets are virtually meaningless. No matter, we actually ended up standing in an area better than what we originally had on our tickets anyway. We sat right next to the famous section of the Carsi, the most hard-core Besiktas fan group. My friend Tracey told me that the Carsi (in Turkish translating to "core" or "center") is a card-carrying group of fanatics who gather every game at

 the Kazan Pub in Besiktas and then walk together past the Dolmabahce Palace to the stadium. You know they are crazy because on their logo the A in Carsi is the anarchy symbol. Apparently, in order to join this group one has to demonstrate memorization of all 200 or so Besiktas songs. That was the one thing that surprised me at the game; everyone was singing the entire time, no matter what. The Carsi songs are also known to be very political, criticizing the government, poltical events, and sometimes even themselves. I don't think that the fans are supposed to be that dangerous, but I was surprised to see that the small group of TrabzonSpor fans were roped off into their own area, and they were surrounded by five columns of empty seats and a physical barrier of police officers on both sides. I also noticed that at the end of the game as everyone was leaving the entire section of TrabzonSpor fans were forced to stay in their seats until the Besiktas fans had pretty well dispersed. I guess the police were being very cautious, and that it just isn't easy cheering for the opposing team at a home game in Istanbul. Watching the game was a lot of fun, especially because Ceylan actually knows a lot about football and could explain a lot of what was going on to me. The weather was freezing though, and it began to rain at one point, so when the game ended in a tie, we were all ready to go home and get warm!