A Turkish club has failed to book a place in the Champions League group stages via the play-off route for eight seasons now following Fenerbahce’s exit from the competition.
The Yellow Canaries lost 4-3 on aggregate against French giants Monaco – wining 2-1 at home and losing 3-1 away.
The Istanbul giants were fielding a defence that had only played together as a unit just once prior to the play-off clash but there has been a trend for nearly a decade of Super Lig sides failing at this stage now.
Fenerbahce, Bursaspor, Sivasspor and Besiktas have all failed to progress past the play-off stages. Generally Super Lig outfits have been woefully unprepared for such an important game during the pre-season period.
The play-off route can however, see teams pitted against some of European footballs giants. The latest draw saw Steau draw Manchester City, Monaco will face Villarreal and Porto take on Roma.
Fenerbahce will now take on Grasshoppers in their Europa League group stage qualifier. There could be up to four Super Lig sides in the group stages this season meanwhile Besiktas will be the sole Turkish representatives in the Champions League.
The Yellow Canaries missed out on a substantial Champions League entry fee which was estimated to be in the region of €10 million and that will go to Besiktas instead.
Besiktas will also receive the lion-share of the lucrative television rights deal as a result of being Turkey’s sold competitors.
In the long run however, Fenerbahce and Turkish sides missing out on play-off qualification hurts the league due to implications it has regarding the co-efficient points for the Super Lig.
The Turkish league is currently 10th in regards to co-efficient points just .300 away from 9th placed Belgium.
