Sunday’s Turkish Super Cup between Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe barely lasted a minute. After Mauro Icardi’s opening goal for Galatasaray, within the first minute, the Fenerbahçe players left the field. Dries Mertens kicked off at ‘Gala’. The competition leader and reigning champion decided to turn it into a practice match without an opponent.
The Super Cup has been the topic of conversation in Turkey for several days. Michy Batshuayi’s Fenerbahçe is at loggerheads with the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) and therefore decided to send an U19 selection to Sanliurfa, in the southeast of the country, where the match took place.
The Super Cup, the proceeds of which are to go to the victims of the earthquake of February last year, was initially scheduled to be played in Saudi Arabia at the end of 2023, but was canceled because both clubs were not allowed by the local authorities to wear shirts with it shows the image of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey. Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe wanted to celebrate the centenary of the Turkish republic.
© REUTERS
‘Fener’, cup winner in Turkey last season and currently number two in the competition, criticizes some of the federation’s decisions. The club has to play against Olympiacos in the quarter-finals of the Conference League on Thursday evening and had therefore asked the association to postpone the Super Cup. A round earlier, the club from Istanbul had gone quite smoothly past Union to the last eight. In addition, Fenerbahçe also demanded a foreign ref for the Super Cup, because the club often feels disadvantaged by the Turkish competition management.
The club complained at a press conference about “injustices and double standards” in Turkish football. “It’s time for a complete reset,” Koç declared. “We must rise up. The course of the competition is partly determined by the referees.” According to Koç, Fenerbahçe had already “lost too many league titles in dubious ways”.
However, the Turkish association dismissed both questions and also imposed suspensions on two Fenerbahçe players after the disturbances in mid-March on the field of Thomas Meunier’s Trabzonspor.
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2024-04-07 19:06:12
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