"There is no right or wrong, not anymore. There is only being in - and then being out." says ruthless Frank Underwood of popular TV series, "House of Cards," briefly summarizing the Machiavellian philosophy.
The rules are rigged in the new world order, and there are only two kinds of people, winners and losers. It is clear that the UEFA chairman Aleksander Ceferin is a winner. But, he lost the moral values that define the good on the road of victory. Hypocrisy is now a value, and it cost Turkey dearly in their journey for EURO 2024. When the chairman of the organization that evaluates your bid confirms its strength, you naturally take his word for it. But as you can see, reason is dead, and long live Machiavelli!
As I wrote in my previous pieces, Aleksander Ceferin acknowledged Turkey's infrastructural capacity for hosting a European Championship. In June, he had an interview with CNN Türk and said that Turkey has more than enough hotels.
Now, it would be naive to think that the Turkish officials first heard this in an interview; they must have tested the water beforehand and asked if their infrastructure for hosting EURO 2024 was sufficient. I doubt that they got a different answer. Then, there remain only two possibilities – either Ceferin lied to Turkish officials and the Turkish public, or he does not know what he is talking about.
Let's assume that he was not well informed by his officials and did not actually know Turkey's situation. What about the UEFA report that derives two different conclusions from the same premise? The UEFA report stated that Dortmund, one of the cities in the German bid, had a limited accommodation capacity. But the report also says that campsites and short-term rental locations mentioned in the bid would minimize the effect of this problem.
When it comes to Turkey, however, the same capacity problem is again pointed for Turkish cities like Trabzon, Konya, Eskişehir and Gaziantep, but despite the practical solution of guest houses and university campuses, the UEFA report states that limited capacity is still a concern. Now you may say that one city versus four cities made the difference between the German bid and the Turkish one. But there is a logical fallacy in this argument. The solutions offered in both bids are not finite solutions, in other words, these solutions do not drain when used in a city. The same solution can be used in Trabzon and Konya at the same time. Thus, Aleksander Ceferin's attempt to justify UEFA's decision through hotel capacities is fallacious.
Secondly, the human rights part of the UEFA report was another reason propounded by Ceferin. The report states that Turkey offered "no specific project related to the EURO tournament to ensure the protection of human rights." But it also says that "the TFF meets the overall political, social responsibility and sustainability criteria." As you can see, the second proposition already eliminates the first one but still, Ceferin tried to use it. If TFF met the conditions, then there was no reason to expect a "specific project" from them. Human rights are a matter of political institutions, and if those institutions do their job, as the report acknowledges, football federations can only throw a cherry on top with their limited political power.
I must say that the human rights part of the report was the weakest link in the whole evaluation process since UEFA officials did not do detailed research. They claim that Germany offered a specific project on human rights, but the project does not even include a mechanism about how the project will work. "Clear allocation of responsibilities and an effective management structure" or "Strengthening integrity and acceptance through dialogue" seem like they are taken from an undergraduate student's PowerPoint presentation. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw these lines as the basis of a "specific project."
A serious organization would not be afraid of more serious questions and bring the case of Mesut Özil into the report. They had a case in which they could assess how tolerant and diverse the German Football Federation (DFB) was, but they simply ignored it and wrote down everything German officials told them. It is so sad to see a European Championship was awarded this way, but it was a good lesson for Turkey to be aware of the new rules of the new era.
