Galatasaray-Fenerbahce: It Contains High Amount Of Technology

On Sunday, Turk Telekom Arena Stadium hosted a derby played between Galatasaray and Fenerbahce. Football fans were looking forward to seeing an exciting match, goals and a wonderful derby night. As Galatasaray was the fittest team in the league, and they were the home team, their fans were really hopeful to win. Since Fenerbahce defeated Yeni Malatyaspor last week, and they were the derby-lucky team, their fans were hopeful too.

If you consider this piece is about the derby, I suggest you to read my previous pieces. Football is not football only. Football doesn’t explain the life, but the life can show you if you see. Today, I will try to express technological reality in football, new fan order and football’s future. For sure, I won’t leave the GS-FB derby. You will read what happened either in the derby or in Turkish football.

SAME AS IT EVER WAS

Firstly, the result is 0-0 draw. Fenerbahce did not manage to penetrate GS’s defence and enter to GS’s box with several men. Galatasaray tried high press, but the players’ distance from each other was so wide. FB got narrow and made passes fast.

After the match, sports commentators, newspapers and the public opinion were talking about different things. One of them was a banner which GS spectators unfurled. Some football fans made a connection between that banner’s meaning and a terror organisation’s message. (This organisation tried to make a military coup in Turkey.) I won’t detail because as you can understand it, you have to have background information. It is so political.

The other thing talked after the match was referee decisions (as always) and GS’s fans reaction against the side referee. In the 59th minute of the match, the fans threw a lot of plastic water bottles and one of them hit the assistant referee.

THE FUTURE OF THE STADIUMS

“Virtual Reality” technology has been spreading. Football can’t remain unresponsive. I think stadiums will change accordingly. Imagine that you are at home, You are crossing your legs. You are so comfortable and wearing your VR glasses. When you wore it, you feel you are at the stadium. Is it necessary to go there physically? If you ask “what about togetherness, tribune culture etc.?” I can say that our brains can’t perceive the difference between real and imagination/dream. That’s why when you wear VR glasses, you will feel yourself in the tribune with friends or other fans. Maybe if you pay more money, you can watch the game from a player’s eyes.

CONSEQUENCE

After all derbies, we talk about what fanatic fans did. Life is changing, so football has to adapt to it. VR is coming soon. Turkish football and fans should try to break old habits. Fan culture will enter into a big change. Unfortunately, I know that old habits die hard.