Fenerbahçe close the season trophyless

The 2015-16 season ended with disappointment for Turkish powerhouses Fenerbahçe as they lost the Ziraat Cup final to rivals Galatasaray. Despite the Yellow Canaries signing famous stars such as Luis Nani, Robin van Persie and Simon Kjaer as well as local stars such as Vokan Şen, Şener Özbayraklı and Ozan Tufan, they were unable to collect a single trophy over the course of the season. After losing the Spor Toto Super League title to Beşiktaş and having been eliminated in the UEFA Europa League, Fenerbahçe's only hope for a trophy was the Ziraat Cup. However, archrivals Galatasaray won the Ziraat Cup late Thursday, defeating Fenerbahçe 1-0 in the southern province of Antalya. It was Galatasaray's third straight cup victory and the 17th time they have won the competition in all.

The cup win goes some way to appeasing fans after a campaign that had been an unmitigated disaster for last season's league champions, who had three managers this season and ended sixth despite the presence of stars like Wesley Sneijder and Lukas Podolski.

At least Galatasaray were lucky enough to win a trophy and what is more they gained the right to enter European competition, although they are banned by UEFA. They had only one chance to go to Europe: to beat their archrivals Fenerbahçe in the Ziraat Cup final. If Galatasaray had not lifted the Ziraat Cup, they would not have been able to qualify for European tournaments next year. Since they are banned by UEFA 1+1 years due to their financial irregularities, they will serve their ban this year and so they will be able to join in the European tournaments in the 2017-2018 season.

To add insult to injury to Fenerbahçe, they now hold the record for the most amount of defeats in Ziraat Cup finals. They have played 16 times in the cup final but have lost 10 of them. The Yellow Canaries have lost all their derby matches in the finals.

Galatasaray became the first team ever to win the Ziraat Cup three consecutive times (2014, 2015, 2016).

Not hiding his anger and frustration, Fenerbahçe President Aziz Yıldırım reacted to the rivals fans who accused him of match-fixing. Yıldırım said, "I did not do any match-fixing. If anyone proves that I did, I will jump from a bridge. But Galatasaray match-fix all the time. I don't want to talk much about this issue. I have proof that Galatasaray fixed matches.

Yıldırım also said, "It is rumored that Fethullah Gülen made Galatasaray champion by praying in 2000. We as Fenerbahçe do not have such a thing, but today we are a club that has played in three semi-finals in Europe."

Yıldırım said that they did not join in the cup ceremony because of the verbal abuse from rivals fans. "The rivals fans swore at our players. One of our players, Gökhan Gönül told me that they started to swear ahead of the cup ceremony. I do not talk in order to change the agenda. I talk about truths."