Fenerbahçe Remove Stars From 21-22 Puma Kits - Here's Why
While announcing the Puma deal yesterday, Fenerbahçe President Ali Koc revealed that the club's jerseys wouldn't feature stars above the crest anymore.
This was confirmed just hours later when the first pictures of the Puma Fenerbahçe 21-22 home kit got leaked.
But why did Fenerbahçe make this decision?
First, a bit of background. The Süper Lig star system allows clubs to place a star above their crest for every five championships they've won.
Puma Fenerbahce 21-22 Home Kit Leaked + Away Kit Colors
At the moment, Fenerbahçe would be entitled to three stars, just like Beşiktaş. Galatasaray top the chart with 22 championships and four stars, while Trabzonspor have a single star on their shirts.
Generally only titles won since the inception of the Süper Lig in 1959 count towards the total, although there are a two exceptions for Beşiktaş and their 56-57 and 57-58 titles won in the Turkish Federation Cup.
The current controversy started when Fenerbahçe requested that a further nine titles won before 1959 should be officially recognized, which would bring the club's total up to 28 titles / 5 stars. A few other smaller clubs have joined this request while there's opposition from Fenerbahçe's main rivals, including Galatasaray.
Turkish Football Federation President Nihat Özdemir recently stated that a decision on the matter would be made shortly, explaining that it would not "please everyone".
We believe that the club's decision to remove the stars from the 2021-22 kits is to give a public display of disapproval of the current counts.
What do you think about this story? Do you prefer the look with or without stars? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
