Teams prepare for the next half of the season
K-PET Super League teams are making the most of the fourweek mid-season break.
Defending champions Yenicami, who finished the first half of the season on 33 points, two behind leaders Mağusa Türk Gücü (MTG), are welcoming players “returning home”.
The Lefkoşa side has seen Hasan Kaçmaz play this week following the return of Mustafa İnanç and Eray Halil Osman, while Zihni Temelci has gone back to Göztepe and Esin Sonay also departed.
Leaders MTG are also continuing their preparations for the next half of the season at a training camp in Antalya.
The yellow-and-green-stripe team is said to be engaged in “intensive training” under the watchful eye of coach Ali Oraloğlu, with two sessions daily joined by Sami Ergazi and Şenol Şöför, both of whom have also returned to the squad. Also participating is Nigerian-origin TRNC national Sadık Balarabe, who arrived at the camp on Sunday.
Çetinkaya, lying eighth on 24 points, also gathered for a training camp on Thursday and are due to remain there until tomorrow, with technical director Hakan Sermaye declaring that although the club had been seen as a candidate for relegation, “we are preparing for the second period . . . and will not be an easy ‘Turkish delight’ to swallow”.
Mr Sermaye added that a mid-season parting of the ways had been agreed with Mete Sağır, while the future of two other players remained uncertain, with İskele’s Gençler Birliği keen to acquire both Abbas Osum and Yontaş Dumlupınar.
Osum had “become emotional” following injury, he said, and wanted to play for a team closer to his home in Topçuköy.
Meanwhile, Gönyeli, which won promotion to the Super League this season and remains a title challenger, finishing the first half of the season fifth with 26 points, is said to be battling financial problems after failing to find a sponsor, with reported delays in the payment of players’ salaries.
Elsewhere, 14th-placed Gençler Birliği is planning a friendly match with Türk Ocağı as mid-season preparation, with club chairman Rifat Berkel also taking part in training “to boost morale” among his players.
Baf Ülkü Yurdu, lying seventh, ended a four-day training camp yesterday, led by technical director Kemal Yürekli at the club’s own grounds.
The Football Association (KTFF) released statistics for the first 15 weeks of the season, which showed that 394 goals had been scored. The 90th has been by far the “busiest” minute for scoring, accounting for 34 last-gasp goals, compared with 18 goals netted during the final, 45th minute of first-half play across the league.