Text/Huang Sijun
Yesterday, there were two things in German professional football that happened off the pitch but had a significant impact on the results on the arena, one in the Bundesliga and one in the Bundesliga. In the Bundesliga, Last Friday night's home match in Bochum against Borussia Mönchengladbach was interrupted in the 69th minute when assistant referee Kittelman was hit in the back of the head by a plastic cup thrown from the stands. The Sports Court of the German Football Association ultimately ruled that Bochum was responsible for this, so boreunding's 2-0 lead at the time of the game was counted as the result of the game, and Bochum lost all three points.
In the Bundesliga, Munich Turkish Forces announced that they were withdrawing from the Bundesliga at the end of this season due to the inability to maintain the club's operations until the end of the season, and they scored zero 30 points in the first 31 rounds, relegating at the bottom, and their results in the first 31 rounds were all voided, which had a significant impact on the competitive situation of the entire league. It was also the first time in the history of the German professional league that a team had withdrawn from the tournament in the middle of the season.
Turkish Forces Munich withdrew
Bochum paid for the fans for the accident for 3 points, while the Turkish forces in Munich paid a much more painful price due to severe financial difficulties – from relegation in the Bundesliga to return to the amateur league.
As the name suggests, Munich Turkish Power is a club founded in 1975 by Turkish immigrants. The Munich club, which has been playing in amateur leagues for many years, has also experienced bankruptcy and restructuring, and it was not until 2016, when Turkish entrepreneur Hassan Kifran took over, that development finally took to the highway. Under the leadership of Kivran, the majority shareholder (who holds 89% of the club's joint venture) and the club's president, Turkish forces achieved three consecutive promotions, a historic promotion to the Bundesliga in 2020, the first time in the history of the team to compete in the professional league. And at the beginning of 2020, Kivran also set a goal of being promoted to the Bundesliga in 2023.
Kivran brought Turkish power from The 6th Division to Bundesliga, but now there is no way to continue.
Contrary to expectations, Turkish Forces' professional league journey not only hit the epidemic, but also at the competitive level far from being as smooth as Kifran had imagined. In the first season of the Bundesliga, the much-recruited Turkish forces were only 13th. And in the process, rumors of financial difficulties abounded. On Christmas Eve 2020, Kivlan abruptly announced his withdrawal. But half a month later, after in-depth discussions with the club's management, he changed his mind. After some tossing and turning, the competitive and financial situation of the Turkish forces has not improved at all, but has continued to deteriorate. Entering the season, the team was caught up in a relegation battle and changed coaches twice.
On January 31 of this year, the Turkish forces filed for the bankruptcy of the plan. According to the regulations, their league points will be deducted by 9 points. And because they did not fill the liquidity gap by January 20 as required by the German Football Association (only about 50%), they were deducted 2 points, for a total of 11 points. But because the Turkish forces appealed, the points were not immediately deducted. It wasn't until March 18 that the 2-point deduction officially took effect, so the 32 points they scored in the first 31 rounds of 8 wins, 8 draws and 15 losses became 30 points, and they could still rank 5th from the bottom, that is, just above the relegation zone. Now, with their decision to retire from the tournament and no longer participate in the remaining 7 rounds of the season, those 30 points are directly cleared to zero, and their ranking has directly become the bottom 1.
Munich Turkish Forces became a rushing passer in the German professional league.
The reason why Turkish forces withdrew from the competition was due to the failure to find new investors as desired. General Manager Max Cottney said: "The club will be able to keep the game running until new funding from a third party is available. Expected revenue from tournament operations as of the end of the season cannot be used to cover operating expenses for the same period. Unfortunately, despite the tremendous efforts of the past few weeks, we have not been able to find new investors. "After relegation from bundesliga, it is unclear which level of amateur league Turkish forces will start from scratch next season.
Lying innocently with a gun, Saarbrucken was furious
Compared with the future of Turkish power, people are more concerned about the competitive situation in the Bundesliga this season. As the results of the first 31 rounds of matches in which Turkish forces participated were all invalidated, the points and goal difference of the other 19 teams changed to varying degrees.
The biggest impact was originally Saarbrücken in no. 3 (promotion and relegation play-offs), who had originally completed a double-run against Turkish forces, but now lost six points out of thin air, while the three main promotion rivals Magdeburg, Kaiserslautern and Brunswick all lost just three points each. So Saarbrücken, who changed 55 points to 49 points, fell to fourth, was surpassed by Brunswick, who changed 54 points to 51 points, and was further outdone by Magdeburg (66 points to 63 points) and Kaiserslautern (57 points to 54 points). No wonder Saarbrücken immediately issued an official statement expressing strong dissatisfaction, criticizing the So-called bankruptcy rules of the German Football Association as "unacceptable both athletically and economically, and must be changed." "The point is that Saarbrücken himself made no mistakes, but he paid for the mismanagement of the Turkish power.
On 28 February, Saarbrücken (Yellow) beat Turkish forces 5–1 away, a bitter victory that is now void.
The relegation situation has also been greatly affected. Turkish forces automatically occupied a relegation spot, and Berlin Victoria, Fair, Würzburg kicker and Hafelser, who were originally behind them, all rose by one place, and the promoted Maberlin Victoria, who also led the standings at the beginning of the season, was able to temporarily leave the relegation zone.
For the "explosion" of the Turkish power, Manuel Hartmann, the general manager of the German Football Association in charge of league operations, is deeply sorry, "This is a sad day for the Bundesliga. Of course, Turkish Forces Munich and its associated employees have suffered the most. At the same time, when a club withdraws from the competition in the middle of the season, it will also have a negative impact on the entire league and competition. Our goal is for this sort of thing to happen only once in Bundesliga. Zeroing out all of Turkish Power's results is a rule-by-rules process, but Hartman acknowledges: "In this case, this is not the ideal solution." ”
Manuel Hartmann described the withdrawal of Turkish Power as "a day of sadness for the Bundesc".
Hartman revealed that before the start of the season, the Turkish power's manual expenditure on match operations was around 3 million euros, but as the season progressed, this figure increased to about 5 million, "The gap of 2 million euros is quite a big liquidity gap, and now it has caused this disaster for the club." ”
How did that 2 million come about? It mainly appeared between June and October last year, that is, the summer transfer period. In the summer window last year, Turkish forces signed up to 19 new signings, including players with Bundesliga and Bundesliga experience, such as Mafraj, Knell, Frenezzi, Shato and others. With the addition of these players, the total salary expenditure naturally rises. Now that the tree has fallen, the monkeys will disperse.