Turkey National Women’s Volleyball Team, which had a dream summer last year and achieved historical success by winning gold medals in the FIVB Nations League (VNL) and the European Championship, achieved the best result in its history by placing fourth in Paris 2024 this year.
National players, whose viewing rates increased with their success and kept millions glued to the screen, caused a fierce competition in the broadcaster TRT. In the first months of the year, it was revealed that the announcer Mehmet Sevinç, who had been at the microphone for the most important matches for a long time, left TRT, while Sevinç later criticized another TRT announcer Kerem Öncel with harsh words in his statements.
‘THE QUALITY OF EXPRESSION IS CLEAR’
Evaluating the matches to be played in the summer months on YouTube broadcasts, Sevinç stated that he could not watch the matches on TRT and said, “Unfortunately, we cannot watch them in Turkish, the quality of expression is known.”
While Sevinç’s statements confirmed the allegations of competition on TRT, Kerem Öncel made very serious accusations about Sevinç in his post on his social media account in the past months and used scandalous statements about the two national athletes.
‘EVEN HIS FATHER IS NOT KNOWN’
According to Öncel’s claim, Mehmet Sevinç said to a pregnant female officer working at TRT, “I will not talk to you. The father of your child is unknown.” Oncel claimed that Sevinç was not limited to this, but also used insulting expressions towards Hande Baladın and Melissa Vargas, and that these were recorded in the minutes during the internal investigation.
DELETING THE SHARES WAS NOT ENOUGH
A remarkable step was taken by TRT about Öncel, who later deleted the posts and apologized to his followers. Oncel, who has been narrating both national team and club matches together with Sevinç for years, became the sole arbiter of TRT after Sevinç.
However, After the posts that became trending on social media, Öncel was suspended by TRT. Oncel, who was not at the microphone in the Champions Cup final played between Fenerbahçe Medicana and Eczacıbaşı Dynavit, has not been given the commentary of any league match broadcast on TRT so far.
