An analytical look at the Turkish football crisis in Riyadh

According to the international group Tasnim news agency, last night (Friday) in A strange thing happened at Sabiha Gökçe Airport in Ankara, Turkey. Hundreds of fans of Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe teams went to welcome the players after the cancellation of the game in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and carrying large pictures of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, welcomed the footballers and called them the sons and soldiers of Ataturk!

But what was the story and what happened in Riyadh? The final match of the Turkish Super Cup between two famous Turkish clubs was supposed to be held in Riyadh. But due to some political events, both teams decided not to go to the playing field and return to their country.

When the Saudi authorities did not allow the singing of the Turkish national anthem and prohibited the carrying of large posters of Atatürk did, the heads of these two clubs protested against Saudi Arabia, postponed the game to another time and returned home. Another part had gone to Saudi Arabia with a lot of money, while leaving Al-Awal Stadium in Riyadh, they sang the collective anthem “We are the soldiers of Atatürk”. But the officials of the stadium raised the volume of the loudspeakers so much that the voices of the Turks were no longer heard. Tasnim/Uploaded/Image/1402/10/09/1402100911244942029085154.jpg”/>

In the photo and headline of today’s front page, Ankara newspaper highlighted the issue of football in Riyadh and It mentioned this issue with the headline “Super Scandal”.

In the analytical report of this newspaper, it is mentioned: “FIFA rules and playing abroad have specific protocols. No one is allowed to make a decision on his own for the sake of self-gratification and showing off and create a political challenge for the country”. Development supported the behavior of two Turkish clubs with the headline “Children of Atatürk”, and Suzjo newspaper, as the most important platform of Erdogan’s opponents, supported the approach of far-right nationalists in the two mentioned clubs with the sharp headline “Asai Ataturk’s answer to the Saudis”. /p>

The semi-state Saudi company Riyadh Season, as the organizer of the Super Cup final, announced in a statement: “We would like to emphasize first of all that we are proud of the close relations with our brothers in the Republic of Turkey in various fields. do. We were looking forward to this match being played according to international football rules and regulations without any out of bounds chants. Before the game, we emphasized to the Turkish Football Federation that they should act according to the international regulations and the requirements of the regulations. We also agreed to play the national anthem of the Republic of Turkey and display Turkish flags in the stadium and stands. However, unfortunately both teams did not live up to their commitments and looked for things that are outside the rules of football”.

The incident that happened in Riyadh was widely reflected in the Turkish media and the voice of the extreme nationalists of Turkey but there are also critics who blame the managers of both clubs and believe that it was necessary for them to observe party etiquette and accept the rules of the host country.

Ahmed Chakar , the famous Turkish football referee and commentator, on his user account on the X social network, reminded of the rules of football and explained: “According to the rules, both teams must inform FIFA 15 days in advance that during the warm-up and during the match What clothes they will wear on the ground and possibly what symbols and signs they will carry. But our two teams, without the coordination of the host, went to the field with shirts emblazoned with Atatürk’s photo, and the host announced: You must wear conventional clothes! Neither FIFA nor the Saudi authorities can make a decision on this matter and their position has been according to international regulations. Gentlemen! None of you are more fans of Atatürk than I am. It is better to include rules and regulations instead of these show actions. It is FIFA who decides what to wear in the match, not Saudi Arabia. Why didn’t these friends think of Atatürk before the race? The most important rule is this: the rules cannot be changed during the game.” Yesterday, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray Super Cup, a big crisis happened in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, and the players did not go to the field. Unfortunately, many party leaders, politicians and journalists expressed their anger towards Saudi Arabia without logic and based on prejudice and anger. They wanted these teams not to play the game. But the real reason was the irrational behavior of our clubs. They used unusual clothes and symbols without coordination with the host and against FIFA rules. Why should we create a crisis with these wrong decisions that will bring Turkey to its knees, arouse all Atatürk and nationalist sensitivities and incite hostility towards Arabs to the point of racism? What started the crisis in the first place was not the refusal of the Saudis to play the Turkish national anthem, but the opposition of Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray managers to playing the Saudi national anthem in the Riyadh game! What kind of arrogance and weird bigotry is it to want to play this match in the capital of Saudi Arabia, to charge a lot of money for it, and at the same time not be willing to tolerate two minutes of the home anthem? Some of our players were looking for it, to carry around the field a big banner with Atatürk saying: (How happy is he who says I am Turk.) We all know that according to FIFA rules, carrying political slogans and symbols to It is prohibited inside the field during matches and the offending side will be fined. Maybe Atatürk’s photo and Atatürk’s words are not political for us. But apparently the Saudis resisted this last minute surprise that was not in the plan and banned it as a political symbol”. The two Turkish clubs wrote: “The two biggest Turkish clubs, which have millions of fans and are managed by the country’s biggest businessmen, were caught in a strange deadlock and behaved as if their Kemalist beliefs were damaged in the game in Saudi Arabia and must be The host taught and showed how they are fans of Atatürk! Now we have a country where politics, history and ideological prejudices create problems even in a football match and progress is definitely not easy for such a country. Because he himself is the biggest obstacle in his own way.

As Yıldırı Ughur also pointed out, nationalist and racist prejudices in Turkey have covered most areas. It is interesting that some of the famous Turkish players are upset when they hear the national anthem of Saudi Arabia. Because based on Turkish bias, they consider it as the old territory of Saudi Arabia and think that they are not guests there and are living in their former land! In other words, the sports environment, especially football, is contaminated with party and political issues and the approach of far-right nationalism, putting the two famous teams Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe in a difficult situation.

On the fire of nationalism and Kemalist thoughts with a racist color in Turkey, in the past it was approved only by the secular and nationalist parties, but now, Erdogan and his party also support this discourse because of the alliance with the far-right nationalists, and it can be He predicted that the fire of nationalism in Turkey will increase year by year.

end of message/