unusual protest
Why did Fenerbahçe abandon the Super Cup after three minutes?
The Fenerbahçe players left the pitch in the third minute of the Turkish Super Cup against Galatasaray, this Sunday, as a measure of protest against what the club considers injustices against them.
Fenerbahce youth players leave the match against Galatasaray, for the Turkish Cup, held in Sanliurfa, Turkey. (Free Press Photo: AFP)
The club had begun its gesture of protest by lining up eleven players from its under-19 team and not from the first team at the start of the clash. Galatasaray scored in the first minute and shortly after the Fenerbahçe youngsters left the field, causing the referee to call a permanent interruption.
“It’s time to put things in their place in Turkish football”Fenerbahçe president Ali Koç had declared at a press conference organized before the match in Sanliurfa.
Stating that numerous leagues have “escaped” Fenerbahçe in a dubious manner, Koç denounced the existence of “a hidden network in Turkish football that, for years, has decided the development of the championship with the intermediation of the referees”.
Fenerbahçe had demanded that a foreign referee direct the Super Cup and had also requested its postponement to better prepare for Thursday’s first leg of the Conference League quarterfinals against Greek Olympiakos.
The Turkish Football Federation (TFF), in addition, He sanctioned two players last Wednesday of Fenerbahçe after the acts of violence that occurred at the end of the league match played in Trabzon, for repelling the attacks by a group of Tranzonspor fans that invaded the playing field.
Galatasaray presented for its part to his first team in this Sunday’s game.
The duel was initially scheduled for December 29 in Riyadh, but was postponed at the last minute after the Saudi authorities refused to allow the footballers to wear political messages on their shirts.
Both teams, who are fighting for the league title with seven games remaining, had then agreed to warm up with t-shirts with the image of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, to celebrate the centenary of the Turkish Republic.
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