© EuroFootball.com
Today, the Turkish Football Federation held a press conference, during which they announced that the head coach, Senol Gunes, is being dismissed.
Although the coach's contract was supposed to end only on July 13 of this year, the president of the federation, Haluk Ulusoy, stated that the board decided that a new coach is needed, who would have time to decide before the qualifying matches for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
"We have to participate in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, as that championship will be held as if in our own homes," Ulusoy said, referring to the fact that there are many Turkish immigrants living and working in Germany.
The former coach sitting beside the federation president looked very gloomy and when asked to comment on this decision, he replied: "I wanted to continue the work that was going well for me, but I respect this decision."
The president announced that Gunes, who led the Turks to 3rd place in the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea for the first time in the country's history, should be replaced by another Turk.
This coach's chair shook after the 2004 European Championship qualifying matches in Portugal, where the Turks finished second in their group behind England and lost to Latvia in the playoffs.
Although Gunes led the Turks to victories, he has difficulty finding common ground with the fans, who claimed that the victories were not due to the coach, but to the talented players.
Originally from the province, Gunes had never coached any team in Istanbul, so he was relatively unknown as a coach.
However, in the seventh and eighth decades, Gunes defended the goal of "Trabzonspor" and won six Turkish championships.
