Turkey to play Kosovo under shadow of Arda Turan saga

The Turkish national football team will play a crucial 2018 World Cup qualifying stage game at Kosovo on June 11, but the competition on the pitch is the least of coach Fatih Terim's problems.

The national team has been involved in a scandal since June 5, when team captain and Barcelona player Arda Turan verbally and physically assaulted a veteran journalist on the team plane. 

Turan was kicked out of the squad after the incident, and hours later he announced his retirement from international football in a press conference boycotted by sports reporters.

He did not offer an apology at the press conference for his attack on 62-year-old journalist Bilal Meşe, instead saying "I feel light as a bird."

He later told daily Hürriyet that he did not apologize to coach Terim, saying Terim had "thrown the players to the media." 

The scandal surrounding Turan is just the most recent trouble for Terim's squad, which has been under fire especially since the failure at the Euro 2016 Football Championships in France last summer.

Turkey won the ticket to the tournament with a last-second goal in its final qualifying match but failed to advance from its group with one win and two losses. The failure came amid a bitter debate over the promised bonuses to the team. Media reports at the time suggested that captain Turan and his teammates were not happy with the amount of bonuses, which were around 300,000 euros per player. Turan denied the reports as "fake news" to justify his attack on Meşe this week.

Turkey's situation is not too bright on the pitch either. Terim's men are in fourth place in Group I with eight points in five games and five points behind leader Croatia, which is followed by Iceland at 10.

The group...