Soccer as a Means of Political Sympathies: Reflections on Newspapers in 2015 Parliamentary Election Campaigns in Turkey

Soccer, which is popular with the large part of the world, has been regarded as a means to seize the power and protect it by the present governments. The relationship between soccer and politics has continued to exist symbiotically in Turkey as well as in the world. With the transition to democratic life in Turkey, political parties discovered soccer as a means to reach the public to affect their choices and carried out studies in this area. In this study, the reflection of the usage of objects that evoke a soccer club in minds by the leaders of political parties in their campaigns held before the General Parliamentary Election on 7 July 2015 on the newspapers was examined. Cumhuriyet, Habertürk, Hürriyet and Sabah newspapers, as they appeal to different political masses, were scanned as a sample since 26 April 2015 when parties began their election rallies until the Election Day. As a result, no matter which league they are in or what their success status is, political party leaders used the symbols of soccer intensely in order to reach the public in the rallies that they held except those in metropolises.