The knowledge of experience can't be created just by living through the experience, true critical examination is a must for someone to call themselves experienced. That is why not every experience adds something to the intellect, and sadly, sometimes we live the unpleasant experiences without learning anything from them.
When I see how Turkey reacted to the two most important events in football last week, the national team's elimination from the World Cup and the amputee football team's European title victory, my idea that Turkish football is merely live through the unpleasant moments is reinforced.
The superficial discussion over motivation and the insincere glorification of the amputee national team by those who do not even care about them give away what is wrong with Turkish football.
The consensus is Turkish national team players should be ashamed by the courage and strength the amputee football team players showed while they showed no spirit in the qualifications. That is the perfect slogan all the panicked executives in the Turkish Football Federation would love to resonate, given that its utmost superficiality conceals the real problems in Turkish football.
Nevertheless, the media and the public is so interested in the notion of being an amputee and trying to evoke emotions rather than rationality, the story of the amputee football team or the quality of their strategies and tactics are forgotten. The thing that matters is the fact that the players are amputees and they are successful, while the so-called healthy athletes are unsuccessful. The agitation of this issue is utterly disgusting and disrespectful to people who desire to live as normal citizens, with special rights.
If the media had been sincere about the success of the amputee football team, we would have seen reports, interviews and stories about the background of their journey, and if the public had been sincere, they would ask how the amputee football team achieved this success. Nevertheless, emotional agitation is easy and simple, unlike asking real questions like why Turkish football has collapsed financially and administratively or why the country cannot raise new young talent.
It seems that the national team coach, Mircea Lucescu, also was not able to learn the real lesson in his team's failure, given that suggesting Turkey does not have enough talented players is no different than claiming that the players are not motivated enough. Rather, he could have said how absurd it was to appoint him in the most crucial period of the qualifications to save the day. As long as we are not asking real, significant questions, we cannot accumulate enough knowledge to make better football.