Turkey – that is tea, coffee, honey and...futnet!
Will Turkey become a promised land for futnet? It may not look like it yet today, but it is quite likely to change in near future. In March the head of UNIF Technical Committee Mr Vlastimil Stehlík visited Turkey to lead a UNIF refereeing course and to discuss the situation of Turkish futnet with the Turkish counterparts. Here are his impressions.
In March I took part as a lecturer in UNIF Futnet Refereeing Course in the Turkish town of Izmit. The initiative started late last year when the representatives of Turkish futnet contacted UNIF Secretary, asking about the possibility of Turkey’s membership in the association. Turkey had been participating in international futnet events already for some time and had also organised several championships, but was often associated with a certain lack of reliability of some of its previous officials. However, after an intense communication between UNIF Secretary and Turkish representative Mr Omer Kaya it was clear that these new officials are not only reliable but also very willing and able to do something for futnet. Their first proposal was praiseworthy - to organise a refereeing course for the participants from the entire Turkey! UNIF and EFTA, of course, welcomed this initiative.
UNIF head of Technical Committee (centre) and mayor of Izmit (right)
After my arrival in Istanbul I was met by Mr Kaya who took me to Izmit, an industrial city and a harbour in the Asian part of Turkey. This city which with its suburbs has around 1.5 mil inhabitants is today the main stronghold of Turkish futnet and has a great potential embodied by Mr Mehmet Zeki Kutlu (pictured above on the left), a teacher at the Sports Faculty of Kocaeli University. Both Mr Kaya and Mr Kutlu work also at Izmit's city council - Mr Kaya as a youth manager and Mr Kutlu as a sports advisor. The fact that the city is favourable to sports in general and futnet in particular was proved also by my visit to Izmit's mayor Mr Nevzat Doğan (pictured above on the right with Mr Stehlík in the centre) which took place in a very friendly atmosphere - in fact, all the people I met in Turkey were very friendly which was one of the most pleasant discoveries during my stay.
The course took place at Kocaeli University, some 10-15 km from the city, which consists of many faculties and campuses for around 60 000 students! There were around 25 participants, almost half of them girls. The course comprised theory and practice, the latter one took place in a beautiful university sports hall. All participants passed the final exam and I am sure that many of them could be very useful for our Refereeing Committee.
In the evening Mr Kutlu, Mr Fatih Trabzon and myself talked over dinner about the future of Turkish futnet. We all agreed that the new Turkish Futnet Federation will play an important role in UNIF and EFTA. This year the Federation would like to organise three professional tournaments for best national as well as international foreign players. They would also like to take part at an EFTA international competition as observers and send at least three women and three children to International Futnet Camp this summer in the Czech Republic. Of course, they also count with the participation of their national teams in all categories in this year’s World Championships. On the other hand, they offer to EFTA and UNIF their contacts with futnet in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Azerbaijan and we also talked about possible contacts with UAE, Lebanon and Egypt. Next year Turkey will host the Mediterranean Games and the Turkish Federation would like to use the opportunity to present futnet as a demonstration sport.
I had a very good impression of my visit to Turkey because all the people I met were really nice, bright and hard-working and, above all, very keen on futnet. If at least some of the plans we talked about work out, it will greatly benefit our sport also on an international level. Let us not forget that Turkey is a country on the rise, with around 72 000 inhabitants of whom almost half are younger than 35 – that is a potential that no other European country can boast. If futnet catches on at secondary schools and universities – as it is the Federation’s plan – we can soon expect a Turkish attack on the medals in most important competitions. And the range of traditional Turkish specialties will be extended by a new one called futnet.