In a "major blow to troubled Turkish football," Yildiz Holding, a conservative conglomerate known for its confectionary and biscuit business and close ties to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that is one of Turkey's largest sponsors of football, said in a letter to the Turkish Football Federation that "it would no longer fund the sport because of violence and tensions associated with it and government efforts to politically control the beautiful game," according to James M. Dorsey of the HUFFINGTON POST. The company's reference to tensions "was not simply a reference to stadium incidents" but also to Erdogan's interference in a match-fixing scandal, attempts to depoliticize stadia, and legal proceedings against members of Carsi, the militant support group of storied Istanbul club Besiktas JK. Carsi, one of Turkey's most popular fan groups, "stands accused of being a terrorist organization whose members sought to overthrow the government." Match attendance "has moreover dropped dramatically as a result of a fan boycott of Passolig, an electronic ticket system, that critics charge is designed to give the government access to fans' personal data." A recent match in Istanbul's 82,000-seat Ataturk Olympic Stadium between Besiktas and Eskeshehirspor Kulubu that would normally have been attended by some 20-30,000 spectators "drew only 3,000 fans." Yildiz Chair Murat Ülker said in his letter to the Turkish federation, according to Hurriyet newspaper, "I have to let you know that unfortunately, today it has become meaningless to support teams or games thanks to such a fall in interest and value ... When we became a sponsor, what we had in mind was the development of Turkish football, raising new players and success in Europe and the world. However, at the end of the day, we could not find what we were looking for" (HUFFINGTON POST, 1/15). The HURRIYET DAILY NEWS' Özgür Korkmaz wrote Yildiz Holding "has poured" around $215M into football in the last nine years as the main sponsor of the national team and Istanbul clubs Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray. Ülker: “Violence, fighting and tension have become associated with the game. The brand value of football has dramatically decreased and matches have lost their attractiveness, with stadiums being empty and the overall atmosphere not matching with the concept of fair play" (HURRIYET DAILY NEWS, 1/15).
