Once active in Europe, today with 34 defeats in series: Yeni Malatyaspor writes history as the worst professional team ever. The reasons are enough and are partly tragic.
Yeni Malatyaspor is much more than the last in TFF 1. Lig, the Turkish second division. The club from East Turkey writes history this season – tragic history. With 34 defeats from 34 games, a goal difference of 13: 125 and a total of 21 points (!) Malatya has long been a relegation.
What sounds like a bad joke is the reality of an association that, according to a series of catastrophic circumstances, can hardly keep up.
Between ruins and transfer ban
Review: On February 6, 2023, an earthquake with the strength 7.8 hits the region around Malatya – the “centuries event”, as it is later called. Right in the middle: Yeni Malatyaspor. The association not only loses players, staff and infrastructure, but also a face of the team with goalkeeper Ahmet Eyüp Türkaslan. Malatya subsequently withdraws from league operations for the 2023/24 season – a rare but permitted step.
You wanted to come back in the 2024/25 season, but it was already clear at the beginning of the season: it won’t be a normal year. The stadium in Malatya still served as accommodation for earthquake victims. The home games had to be played away – including in Ankara and Gazantep. Sometimes you traveled over 600 kilometers to “home games”. Malatyaspor was a hiking circus.
“Our players are more demoralized than ever,” it said on October 17, 2024 in a statement on Instagram after another quake had shaken the region. “Yesterday’s day brought us into an even more difficult location.”
Club President Sahin Altunok asked for the league operations to be suspended again – in vain. As a result, Altunok resigned from his office at the beginning of the year.
And the players? They had to continue fighting. There are hardly any professionals, instead many young kickers without experience. In addition, the club may not sign new players due to FIFA sanctions. The transfer lock braked any hope of reinforcement.
From Europe to the third Turkish league
Anyone looking at the table today sees numbers that write football history: 0 wins, 34 defeats, 125 goals. That means an average of 3.7 goals per game.
In 2019, Yeni Malatyaspor against Partizan Belgrade played for a place in the Europa League
The development was not foreseeable for a long time. In 2017, Malatyaspor rose to the Süper Lig as second -placed TFF 1. Lig. Two years later, the team even reached the UEFA Europa League with fifth place. The little club from Malatya had suddenly arrived on the big football stage. In qualifications, it was shortly failed due to Partizan Belgrade.
But what followed was an unprecedented descent: descents, financial problems, pandemic, natural disasters. The low point? The current season in which the club was deducted 21 points-three of them for a non-appearance in week one, another 18 by fifa penalties from old procedures.
And now? There are four games this season. Games that are about nothing more than honor. It’s about not to arise without a fight.