Inside Prem side's sister club where fan attacked player with CORNER FLAG with Solskjaer a victim of amazing rise
FROM a fan hitting an opposition goalkeeper with a corner flag to beating Istanbul giants Besiktas - Southampton's sister club in Turkey, Goztepe, have come a long way.
It will be no consolation to fans of the managerless, already-relegated Saints, but owners Sport Republic have overseen an impressive return to the top flight for their Turkish venture.
Advertisement
5
A Goztepe fan whacked a rival goalkeeper with a corner flag in a fit of rage in 2022
Credit: Twitter / @cicibilgili
5
Goztepe fans are renowned for being some of the most passionate in the world
Credit: Getty
And
Both played in this month's 3-1 win at Besiktas - now managed by former
The game brought back memories of their 1960's and early 1970's heyday when the leading club in Turkey's third biggest city, Izmir, regularly gave the big boys from Istanbul a bloody nose.
And the Goztepe fans' passion is making it a thrilling ride.
Advertisement
READ MORE SPORT STORIES
Rasmus Ankersen, Sport Republic co-founder and Goztepe chairman, said: 'The intensity is something you just don't see in modern football.
'The fanbase is very emotional and very aggressive.
'The volatility of it - It's like playing with rocket fuel.
'When everything goes in the same direction, as it has for big parts of this year, it's unbelievable.
Advertisement
Most read in Football
CASINO SPECIAL - BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS
'But when it's not, the pressure the fans can put on their own players from the stands is huge.'
Sport Republic bought 70 per cent of Goztepe from oil tycoon Mehmet Sepil in August 2022, seven months after their takeover at Southampton.
Inside Prem side's sister club where fan attacked player with CORNER FLAG and ultras boot off over pre-season results
The London-based firm, co-founded by former Saints chairman Henrik Kraft and backed by Serbian billionaire Dragan Solak, became the first foreign investors ever to take control of a Turkish club.
Advertisement
Goztepe, who sank as low as the fifth tier in the 2000's, had just been relegated after a five-year stay in the Super Lig.
Things did not start well for the new regime.
Manager Ahmet Balci was sacked after a handful of games. Successor Ekrem Dag oversaw an upturn in results but in late November 2022 came the day of shame that went viral on social media.
Goztepe's home clash against Izmir rivals Altay had already been halted in the first half so that ambulance crews could attend to fans injured during clashes in the stands.
Advertisement
But then a Goztepe fan invaded the pitch,
Players and stewards restrained the attacker and the game was abandoned.
5
Goztepe have risen from the fifth tier in 2008 to pushing for a Champions League spot
Credit: Getty
5
Southampton have endured an historically poor Premier League season while sister club Goztepe have been thriving
Credit: Getty
Advertisement
Goztepe recovered from the embarrassment to finish sixth and reach the promotion play-offs.
But they fell at the first hurdle and Dag left the club in the summer, with Radomir Kokovic promoted from within to take charge.
The Serbian lasted less than four months and Sport Republic turned to Stanimir Stoilov in November 2023.
Former Bulgaria international Stoilov had an impressive coaching pedigree, especially for someone managing a second-tier side in Turkey.
Advertisement
He had enjoyed historic success in the first of two spells at Levski Sofia that came at either end of a long career that included taking charge of the Bulgaria and Kazakhstan national teams.
After Stoilov's arrival, Goztepe lost only two more league games for the rest of the season and their second-place finish earned them a return to the top flight.
TURNING OF THE TIDE
Before the home games at the 20,000-capacity Gursel Aksel that were crucial to promotion, Turkish pop star Levent Yuksel led the crowd in spine-tingling renditions of his famous song Med Cezir ('Tide').
It has become Goztepe's version of 'You'll Never Walk Alone', a love song about loyalty to a partner repurposed to express devotion to a football team.
Advertisement
The supporters sing about the highs and lows and after admitting 'There's no way to give up on these tides', they raise the volume.
'My storm, my disaster, my longing,' they yell, 'it's not enough - making love is not enough, how pretty your violence is, oh how sweet your kindness, I want to love you more and more, I'll follow you until I die and never let you go'.
But it's not just the Altay goalkeeper who has tasted the other side of Goztepe fans' passion.
The joy of promotion was quickly forgotten after a minor setback last summer.
Advertisement
Ankersen said: 'We lost our first friendly game to Charlton during our training camp in Slovenia.
'There were big protests against us for not doing more transfers... I had to do a press conference to calm everyone down.'
There was more unrest when Goztepe had to play their first home game back in the top flight on a neutral ground because their own pitch was not in good enough condition.
Ankersen said: 'We did not have a CEO at the time so the Chief Financial Officer was the leading executive.
Advertisement
'Our fans still travelled in huge numbers and there were 10,000 people all jumping up and down, calling for him to leave the club.'
But confidence was pretty high that Goztepe would make a good fist of the Super Lig, with a top-10 finish as the target.
The gap between the top two tiers in Turkey in terms of quality and financial might is not nearly as big as in England and other countries.
"A REVELATION"
Sport Republic and Stoilov have built the second youngest squad in the league and made them play with a kind of English-style intensity and physicality that is unusual in Turkish football.
Advertisement
They have also focused on set-pieces and become one of the most potent teams in the world from dead-ball situations.
In Goztepe's second game back in the Super Lig, an equaliser in the 95th minute by on-loan Brazilian striker Romulo earned a morale-boosting 2-2 draw from 2-0 down at home to Fenerbahce, managed by Jose Mourinho.
Then in late November, Stoilov's side won 4-2 at Besiktas and a good spell took them as high as fourth in the table.
Observers feel Goztepe have been unlucky in the current run of 11 league games without a win which has ended their bid for a top-four place.
Advertisement
But there was nothing fortunate about their 3-1 win at Besiktas.
Solskjaer's side, which included former
5
Before a recent lull, Goztepe had been as high as fourth in the Super Lig
Credit: Getty
But the game turned on a professional foul on Goztepe's Juan by Besiktas centre back Tayyip Sanuc, which earned him a red card in the 36th minute.
Advertisement
Romulo - described as 'a revelation' by Ankersen - scored direct from the resulting free kick,
With less than 15 minutes to go, ex-West Ham full back Arthur Masuaku handled the ball in the penalty area and Romulo converted the penalty.
Soon afterwards Romulo, on loan from Athletico Paranaense, completed his hat-trick with a deft lob.
On Thursday, Goztepe will travel to Trabzonspor for the semi final as they aim to win the Cup for the first time since back-to-back successes in 1969 and 1970.
Advertisement
If the club went on to win the trophy, they would have the chance to relive another exploit of their glorious past.
In 1968-69, Goztepe became the first Turkish club to reach the last four of a European competition when they went all the way to the semi finals of the Fairs Cup, the forerunner of the Uefa Cup that was in turn rebranded as the Europa League.
A cup triumph would earn them a place in the play-off for Uefa's second-tier tournament.
Southampton fans, whose FA Cup win of 1976 put them on the map, will hope that Sport Republic can bring the good times back to St Mary's, too.
Advertisement
And that the Saints avoid the fate of Sport Republic's other club, French side Valenciennes, who are currently in the third tier after relegation last season.
As Goztepe's anthem says, fans have no choice but to ride the waves of football's ebb and flow.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RTÉ News
2 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Bulls need to keep the rag to beat Leinster
It didn't affect the results of their previous two meetings but Bulls figure they must be more disciplined than ever against Leinster in Saturday's URC final. Jake White's men finished second in the table behind Leinster but are bottom of the log when it comes to discipline. They had 16 players sin-binned and four red-carded, while Leo Cullen's men have had just four yellow cards against them after 20 games. The South Africans also overcame a yellow card in last season's semi-final against Leinster to prevail, while they survived a late red card in this season's round 13 game to win it at the death. In addition, they were also able to see off the Sharks last weekend, 25-13, despite having three players in the bin at various stages. While it may appear that their run-ins with the officials may be more a feature than a bug, Marcel Coetzee reckons improvement in that area is a must if they are to turn Leinster over for a fifth time in seven URC meetings at Croke Park this weekend. "I think it's something we addressed as a squad, you know," said the back row, who played for Ulster between 2016 and 2021. "It just makes things harder for you, and playing against a quality side like Leinster, you can't afford to have one guy in the bin or two guys in the bin. "You need all the feet on the pitch and it's going to take work rate to stop their onslaught, so we don't want to let the guy next to you down by being reckless and stuff. "So yeah, in soft moments we need to up our game and just keep building on our DNA that's been working for us this whole season." Bulls knocked Leinster out at the semi-final stage in 2022 and 2024 and 34-year-old Coetzee says they had a Grand Final meeting with the eight-time champions somewhere in the back of their minds. "It's a winning machine and they back their systems" "They're a championship side so they'll always be in the running, in the play-offs, they are always at the top of the log and you have to respect that," said Coetzee, who has 31 Springboks caps. "It's a winning machine and they back their systems and their structures. "Yes, that was a saying from coach Jake early in the season but you know play-offs, anything could have happened, it just so happens that the first team gets to go to the final and the second team gets to play them in the final. "Look, it's all excitement, it's all enjoyment. "We played each other a couple of times in the seasons prior to this and we know each other very well, and I think that's just going to make the contest more exciting this weekend." The Pretoria-based side will become the second South African team to play at Croke Park, the home of the GAA, after the Springboks lost to Ireland there in 2009. Coeztee said: "From what I've heard it's a very special place. It's got a great atmosphere when the crowds attend. "We talk about a special final, what a special event to play in. We at the Bulls are looking forward to the challenge.
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
‘This latest generation of AI could change every job': are fears of a slash and burn of white-collar roles well founded?
During Ocado's most recent earnings call, chief executive Tim Steiner said the group's advances in artificial intelligence and robotics had allowed it to fulfil online grocery shops at an ever faster pace. In 2012 it took 25 minutes of human labour to pick a 50-item order. That is now down to 10. But Ocado's technological progress means the company requires 500 fewer workers this year, after it already announced 2,300 jobs would be at risk in 2023. The UK company's move over many years to phase down human labour where feasible exemplifies workers' fears about generative AI: it may boost productivity, efficiency and profitability but it can also displace staff. Some businesses are yet to embrace the shift but many have spent more than a year experimenting and engaging in workplace pilots. READ MORE 'Companies are moving from asking, 'What is our AI strategy?' to experimenting ... implementing generative AI into processes,' says Karin Kimbrough, chief economist at LinkedIn. 'It is starting to change the landscape of work.' Now employees, bosses and policymakers are trying to decipher what exactly the benefits of generative AI look like. 'This latest generation of AI could change every job. I don't think that is too much of an exaggeration,' says Peter Cheese, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the UK's professional body for HR and people development. 'Of course you can see examples where AI in different forms is already making a difference to their workforce, but it's still early days for many companies.' [ Job numbers in occupations exposed to AI up 94% in Ireland since 2019 Opens in new window ] It is primarily changing roles, not eliminating them, enabling humans to focus on more value-add elements of their jobs. Many employers are cutting jobs under the guise of economic and political uncertainty. But high-profile examples of AI-driven lay-offs in recent months, from technology company IBM to language learning app Duolingo, are fuelling questions about whether a slash and burn of white-collar roles is under way. The 42-year-old billionaire Dario Amodei, who runs AI developer Anthropic, has warned the technology he and peers such as OpenAI are building could wipe out half of all entry-level office jobs in the next five years. Already, graduates account for just 7 per cent of hires across the 15 biggest technology companies, with the number of new recruits down a quarter compared with 2023, according to SignalFire, a venture capital firm. 'AI is starting to get better than humans at almost all intellectual tasks, and we're going to collectively, as a society, grapple with it,' Amodei told television network CNN last month. 'AI is going to get better at what everyone does, including what I do, including what other CEOs do.' Academics, recruiters and management consultants are split on whether talk of a bloodbath is just scaremongering or a clear-eyed view of AI's potential to shake up the labour market. But even if AI is not destroying jobs at scale today, it is certainly redesigning them and changing the equation between work, output and headcount. 'No sector is immune [to the impact of AI],' says Peter Brown, a global workforce expert at PwC. 'But it is primarily changing roles, not eliminating them, enabling humans to focus on more value-add elements of their jobs.' For now, Mike Clancy, general secretary of the Prospect trade union, which represents some 160,000 members across the public and private sectors in the UK, largely agrees. He says it is important to differentiate between industries. 'If you work in air traffic control, on transmission and distribution networks, run infrastructure or manufacturing processes, you have been shifting your talents to align with new technology for years and years. AI can help, but the human aspect will have to be retained for systems resilience.' By contrast, says Clancy, 'email jobs' – those reliant on text responses, from solicitors to customer service agents – would undergo 'spectacular shorter-term change' even if there was a 'long lead time to realising the benefits'. [ Challenge of AI is to bridge the culture gap between its creators and custodians Opens in new window ] Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, workplace experts have been trying to ascertain whether companies will opt to amplify their capacity by empowering staff to do more work alongside AI or seek to keep the same output while reducing hiring. Schroders is one example of the former. 'We don't see a short-term revolution and mass displacement of roles but we do anticipate these trends will drive an evolution over the next five to 10 years that will reshape workforces,' says Meagen Burnett, chief financial officer at the fund manager. Using AI to run analytics of the company's data, create reports and provide support with queries are examples of uses that could be 'transformative'. Having a more 'AI literate' workforce would make staff more productive, give them an edge and help them to deliver higher-value work, adds Burnett. Biotechnology company Moderna's recent move to combine its human resources and technology functions – opening the door to more automation – is another sign of how companies are beginning to think about workplace planning. Lots of traditional sectors are still grappling with the basics of governance and data protection policies in a world of generative AI IBM has gone further, using AI agents to take on the work of hundreds of HR staff. Klarna, the Swedish fintech, says its AI assistant now manage two-thirds of customer service queries, drastically cutting volumes handled by humans (the chief executive later admits such stark cost cuts lower quality). At Google and Meta, AI is reshaping engineering, recruiting and marketing, contributing to reorganisations and headcount cuts. Other companies are 'at the start of the journey', says James Milligan, the global head of technology at recruiter Hays. 'Lots of traditional sectors outside of tech – large private-sector companies, FTSE 250, Fortune 500 – are still grappling with some of the basics of good governance and data protection policies in a world of generative AI.' [ Can AI make my life easier? I spent a week living and working with chatbots to find out Opens in new window ] AI is already shifting the skills workers need. Those fluent in the new tools or who have experience deploying them in workplaces are being promoted, paid more and recruited aggressively. LinkedIn data shows a rise in hiring for roles including prompt engineer, head of AI and responsible AI use architect. A new PwC report, which analysed almost a billion job advertisements across six continents, found AI-skilled workers were being paid 56 per cent more in 2024 than those without knowledge of the technology, compared with 25 per cent more the previous year. It also found industries deemed 'most exposed' to AI experienced three times higher growth in revenue per employee than those considered 'least exposed'. For optimists, this is proof AI is making individual workers more valuable. 'Contrary to fears about job losses, job numbers – and wages – are growing in virtually every AI-exposed occupation, including the most highly automatable jobs,' the PwC report said. Yet there is a big question over how long this will last. PwC says AI-exposed jobs are growing more slowly (at a rate of 38 per cent) than less-exposed jobs (at 65 per cent). The number of roles such as financial analyst, legal associate or market researcher is increasing at a more sluggish pace than before. There is also a risk that workers get left behind. According to PwC, the mix of capabilities sought by employers is changing 66 per cent faster in occupations most exposed to AI, such as financial analysts, than in those least exposed, such as physical therapists. This acceleration makes it harder to keep up with demands for new skills, especially for mid-career workers who may not be AI natives, and those not working for large companies. In all analysed countries, women hold a higher share of AI-exposed jobs than men. Workers who see their responsibilities absorbed into new technologies are 'rotating towards skills generative AI can't do', says Kimbrough at LinkedIn. These individuals are 'disrupted' rather than 'displaced', she adds, meaning they are prioritising human-centric skills. Claudia Harris, chief executive of Makers, a tech talent and training platform, said 'a two-speed economy is emerging' between the companies investing in AI and those that are not. 'The dividing lines are not traditional. This is not about innovative industries versus not. This is about companies and cultures that are able to make this huge and decisive shift.' – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
Irish Times
3 hours ago
- Irish Times
The Irish-based company revolutionising rural deliveries with drones and robotic hubs
Etienne Louvet is the founder of Iona, a B2B company developing a high-tech delivery network that combines autonomous systems, robotics and drones to solve the problem of scattered delivery destinations and high-cost last-mile deliveries. Last-mile deliveries are often the most expensive part of any delivery service and a big overhead for logistics companies using conventional transport. Vans make sense for heavier loads taking direct routes. Drones make sense for lighter loads going to awkward or more remote places, and the Iona platform allows companies to integrate drone delivery into their existing fleets, thereby cutting costs, improving efficiency, reducing carbon emissions and gaining easier access to isolated and rural areas. The idea for Iona began to form in Louvet's mind during Covid when he was working on a paper about new delivery methods for autonomous logistics. What pushed him in the direction of drones, however, was seeing his 92-year-old grandmother struggling to get groceries and medication delivered to her home in rural France as the pandemic dragged on. 'Access to delivery is particularly crucial for rural residents and they need to be offered the same delivery price and the same goods as anyone else,' Louvet says. 'With Iona, logistics providers can turn last-mile into the most profitable segment while also expanding their capacity to offer additional services such as just-in-time and emergency deliveries.' READ MORE Louvet set up his company in London in 2021 but relocated to Ireland last year to overcome a number of challenges holding up its development including customs issues caused by Brexit and a desire to be closer to potential EU deeptech VCs, which are thin on the ground. Iona is based in Shannon with a berth at Dogpatch Labs in Dublin. The company employs 14 people. Investment to date is around €5 million, mainly from angel investors, and the company has been designated as a HPSU (high performance start-up) by Enterprise Ireland . Iona will make its money by charging customers a percentage on delivery revenues. Potential customers are logistics/delivery companies such as An Post or DHL and the Iona platform will travel internationally. One of the key features that differentiates Iona within its segment is its drones' ability to carry larger loads over longer distances – specifically, cargo of up to 20kg for distances of 100-200km. The company's patented Sonnet Quad drone (which Louvet says is a lot quieter than the short-hop delivery drones currently causing controversy in Dublin) features a tilt rotor for vertical take-off and landing and forward flight for hyper-efficiency. The unit itself is powered by batteries similar to those found on an e-bike and the highly specialised air frame is made in Galway. Iona's back office set-up comprises a robotics system that works in tandem with a series of strategically placed hubs to facilitate battery swaps and parcel dispatch, and an AI-powered digital infrastructure that underpins interactions with telecoms and fleet management systems, for example. 'We combine all of these elements into a white-label solution that will work for any delivery operator large or small. Indeed, companies can start with just one drone. We offer a very low break-even point per parcel so they can deliver anywhere and to everyone,' says Louvet, who adds that Sonnet Quad is uniquely optimised for rural last-mile logistics with a modular cargo bay and precise flight dynamics features that make it more efficient and adaptable than existing medical drones, suburban multi-copters or heavy-lifter unmanned aerial vehicles. Iona expects to go public with its technology in 2026 and as its drones will operate in Irish airspace they must meet the necessary safety and operational regulations. For this reason the drones are ultimately under the control of Iona as the certified operator. 'Flying autonomously and profitably in unsegregated airspace requires stringent regulatory approval, and our end-to-end platform is built around these requirements, allowing third party logistics operators to operate at scale confidently and cost-effectively,' Louvet says.
