This meeting was supposed to be one of the great posters of this European weekend but it ultimately took a particular turn. Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray crossed swords this Sunday evening, on the lawn of the GAP stadium in Şanlıurfa, as part of the Turkish Super Cup. A match that smelled like gunpowder between the two behemoths of Turkish football. But this Istanbul derby had the backdrop of another powerful story which has caused a lot of ink to flow in the Turkish press in recent weeks. In order to protest against the recent violent brawls between supporters, Fenerbahçe decided to convene an extraordinary general assembly during which several decisions were taken, including the decision not to play the match this Sunday against Galatasaray unless they it was postponed to a suitable date and that the arbitrator was foreign.
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With the final not having been postponed, the team fielded a starting eleven made up entirely of U19 players. Even more powerful as a symbol, after Mauro Icardi opened the score in the 50th second of the match, the eleven Fenerbahçe players returned to the locker room, forfeiting and refusing to play in these conditions. The Galatasaray players will therefore face their bench teammates in a full-scale training match. This is not the first time that the Istanbul club has put pressure on the Turkish football federation and league. Indeed, a few weeks ago, Fenerbahçe published a press release in which it threatened to leave the Süper Lig, the Turkish championship, to participate in a division of another foreign country ready to welcome this great historic club.
Pub. 04/07/2024 8:51 p.m. Updated 04/08/2024 09:15