Fenerbahçe lined up its U-19 team on the field this Sunday to play the final of the Turkish Super Cup against Galatasaray, in protest against what it considers permanent mistreatment by the referees and the Turkish Federation (TFF). ), and the players left the field after one minute of play.
The vice president of the club, which is second in the Turkish Super League after Galatasaray, had already announced this measure earlier this week and announced that the players would leave the field before the end of the 90 minutes, which would mean that the team would automatically lose. by 0 to 3 and his rival would take the title.
The match began at 8:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. GMT) and after only 50 seconds Galatasaray scored a goal through Argentine Mauro Icardi. Immediately, the Fenerbahçe players left the field of play and the referee picked up the ball and also left the field, ending the game.
Galatasaray Istanbul won the Turkish Super League in the 2022-2023 season and Fenerbahçe won the Cup. After the match concluded, the Galatasaray players remained on the field and divided into two teams to continue playing in front of the public in the stadium, which already showed only a quarter of the capacity filled with supporters of the League champion.
The Turkish media had already reported that Fenerbahçe’s first team had not even traveled to Sanliurfa, where the final was being played.
In fact, Fenerbahçe did not participate in yesterday’s press conference, which is usual before matches. The Turkish club has thus protested against what it considers permanent mistreatment by the TFF and the referees.
Furthermore, he wants to denounce the Federation’s rejection of his request that the final be postponed in order to have more time to prepare for next Thursday’s UEFA Conference League match.
This week, the TFF imposed a sanction of six home games without spectators, in addition to financial fines, on Trabzonspor, for the aggression of numerous fans against the Fenerbahçe players after the match on March 17.
Fenerbahçe denounced that this attack was a planned attempt to sabotage their success in the Super League, in which they are second, two points behind Galatasaray.
The Super Cup was going to be held on December 29 in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, but it was suspended when the players were not authorized to go out on the field wearing t-shirts with the face of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, with the message “Peace at home, Peace in the World.”
Today, when we take to the field not to win but to defend the truth, what we want to emphasize in order to summarize our attitude is this;
“Serving Turkish sports with its 117-year history, not only in football but in every branch we compete in,
bearing the traces of sweat and labor in its museum…
— Fenerbahçe SK (@Fenerbahce) April 7, 2024