It is not possible to deny the contribution of media that introduces the sports and makes it widespread. However, I have recently noticed some mistakes, which made me surprised, in the media. One of them is the 28th Women’s Turkey Championships of First League that Eczacibasi Zentiva triumphed. We are a society that exaggerates all the victories too much. I assume that the media tried to reflect the importance of this championship by taking the previous championships of Eczacibasi Zentiva, which has a successful history, into account. I suppose they would like to remind us all of the championships in the Women’s First League via this datum, but I would like to recall that they skip an issue by putting it forth this way: 22nd Women’s Turkey Championships of First League was played last year. This means 28 championships in 22 seasons… This is really impossible to achieve.
It is certainly not possible to ignore very important championships that Eczacibasi Zentiva succeeded. This selective and unique team deserved all those 28 championships in this branch. However, some of them belong to the Women’s Turkey Championships which was present before the Women’s First League set up. Before the Season 1986-1987 Women’s First League had not existed. Firstly, events used to start as a Local Competition in each city. Then the Turkey Championships used to be arranged as the regular system in Boys’ and Girls’ Leagues. The teams that are successful in their own cities used to participate in this championship which took a few rounds. After the Final Round, teams used to finish as the Champion, the second… etc. According to the rankings, they used to represent Turkey in European Championships League, European Cups and in the other championships.
The rankings of Women’s First League now determine which teams represent Turkey in the tournaments. Here is the similarity when compared with the past. However, some of the volleyball writers, who do not search for the volleyball history, acknowledge people in the wrong way by declaring the 28th championship of our team in a league that has been played 22 times. As far as I remember, along with Eczacıbaşı; Emlak Bankası, Güneş Sigorta, Vakıflar Bankası, Vakıfbank Güneş Sigorta also won the title and represented our country in the European Championships Cup in this 22-year-period.
There was another mistake in a newspaper about the sports hall that Volleyball Federation planned inside Burhan Felek Sports Complex. It was about the distraint of the sports hall, which was about to be completed, by its contractor. As it is known, distraining of a property that belongs to the government is not possible. It continued that there was a conflict between the Volleyball Federation and the contractors, so the case was taken to be concluded by the court. The ones who read this article can remember that it claimed that the Volleyball Federation did not pay for the construction. In fact the truth was that the Volleyball Federation did not pay since the contractors did not fulfill their commitment. Therefore the consignment is aborted and transferred to the court.
Again the same newspaper, the same writer with the title "Filede Isyan" (Rebellion in Volleyball)... There are two subjects in this article. The first one is about the increase of the prices regarding to the foreign players licences after the third player, and the other one is about the idea of playing the Turkey Aroma First League with the juniors. These two topics were confirmed by some of the people, whereas they were critisized by the others. As seen there is no such a rebellion regarding to this topic, moreover there are clubs that confirm it. The reasons of the clubs that ended their activities are none of them. They declared they could not find sponsors. If the clubs that belong to the city governments cannot find sponsors, then no other clubs can find.
The decision of the federation that encompasses the juniors and the seniors playing together and grouped together under the same system of points for the season of 2008-2009 is a nice one. However, it may not fulfill its aim if applied immediately due to the unpreparedness of some of the clubs regarding this particular topic. I think that the federation should implement this decision following the season of 2011-2012 and clubs should not bring the players transfered in the last 3 years to play in the junior teams. Therefore, clubs will have the opportunity to bring up players from its junior teams and prepare them to play in matches to come along.
As for the other subject, this is not an erroneous application. Clubs take advantage of the whole foreigner quota thanks to the low costs of the foreign players that owns the same quality compared to the homegrown ones. When a limit is set for the foreign player transfers, it becomes unfair to the clubs competing in European Cups. On the other hand, it becomes, this time, unfair to the youngsters when this limit is abolished. Then, the federation attempts to balance this situation by increasing the costs of the foreign player transfers following the second one.
Another topic is the interpretation mistake concerning the commentation on the recently ended World Grand Prix. The young volleyball sports commentator realizes a nice presentation by conveying plenty of information about the players, teams and their performance in the recent years and their coaches. Yet some mistakes are made on the commentaries regarding certain topics. I presume that this stems from the insufficiency of the technical and tactical information related with volleyball. For instance the commentary, during the preliminary rounds of the World Grand Prix, on Seda staying at the number four position when our team is to receive is told as this is a special tactic of Alessandro Chiappini, the coach of our team. The interpretation is that the coach plans to, after Neslihan returns to the team, benefit from both of these scorers and that he is experimenting on such a tactic. Yet all the coaches make the opposites play in position number four in such a situation. Thus this young commentator, who has not noticed this tactical implementation we coaches exercise or does not know much about volleyball, leads the audience to a confusion by saying that this is a new implementation.
At some other channel during the broadcasting of the play-off matches, on the other hand, a commentator claimed that the referee misjudged a certain rule, though this rule has actually changed, and that he should have judged as the rally should have been repeated. The mentioned rule by the commentator is that the act of ball being stuck between the hands of the opponent players as a consequence of their block attempt over the net should be judged as a double fault and that the rally should be repeated. The volleyball audience was, once more, misled.
There are more of such examples to mention, actually. Since one of our former federation presidents Ahmet Gülüm, federations gave the necessary importance to the media. Everyone admits that volleyball should occupy wider places in the media. Nevertheless people pertaining to the media or contributors of volleyball for their interest should take the public opinion of volleyball more seriously. They should enlighten us and convey their thoughts in an objective manner. I think that our volleyball and our community that aims better and better positions deserve such manner.
Take care until next time.
Jeyan ERBEN
info@voleybolunsesi.com
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Then Like Now – 6 -- [26/04/2010 15:25:10]