Saudi Arabia’s football complaint against Türkiye and the continued anger of Atatürk’s fans

According to the international group Tasnim news agency, several days of high-profile events Two famous Turkish football clubs, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray, have passed in Riyadh, but their feverish atmosphere still continues.

These two famous Turkish teams were supposed to receive 12 million dollars, to accept Saudi hosting and hold the final match of the Trexel Cup in Riyadh, but there, things happened that led to a strange and troublesome decision.

When The Saudis announced that according to the initial agreement and protocols, the players do not have the right to go to the field with T-shirts bearing the photos of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, both teams announced that in this case, they would prefer not to play and leave Saudi Arabia!

The one-hour negotiation between the managers of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation and the heads of two famous Turkish clubs did not come to a conclusion and they returned to Turkey.

Hundreds of national fans Turkish supporters welcomed both teams at the airport and accused Saudi Arabia of enmity with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey.

In mentioning the margins related to Riyadh, it was also mentioned that the issue was beyond the players’ shirts and both teams protested the playing of the national anthem of Saudi Arabia and said who are willing to hear only the Turkish national anthem!

They have also demanded that before the game, some Duatse fans holding the Turkish flag and large cloth images of Atatürk around the grass Bodund and the Saudis have announced that this request is not in accordance with FIFA rules and has not been agreed upon before.

Newspapers and TV channels belonging to political parties and currents opposed to Erdogan, headlines and harsh expressions applied to Saudi Arabia and demanded that Erdogan’s government reconsider its political relations with Riyadh. But contrary to the expectations of the opponents, Erdoğan took the side of Saudi Arabia and announced that Turkish sports should seek progress and victory and not sidelines and useless debates.

Erdogan pointed out that Also, the abuse of national values ​​is disgusting and no one has the right to turn Atatürk’s fandom into a tool to harm the country’s interests.

Meanwhile, there are critics. They considered the actions of Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe managers to be completely wrong, emotional and dangerous, and they considered such a thing to the detriment of Turkey’s foreign policy and national interests.

Arabia sued Turkey

The Saudi Arabian Football Federation, which attracted the attention of sports circles in the last few years by spending millions of dollars, has filed a complaint against Turkey. Several Turkish newspapers have evaluated the action of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation with terms such as “arrogance” and “impoliteness” and believe that it is Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe that should complain to their host.

The Saudi Arabian Football Federation asked FIFA to fine Turkey 40 million dollars and send this money to Riyadh as compensation for damaging the host’s reputation.

Erman Toghrel One of the Turkish football analysts said: “The controversy at the Riyadh stadium became so complicated that one of the advisers and people close to Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally came there and announced that no team has the right to impose anything on Saudi Arabia.” It was there that Ali Koch, the president of Fenerbahçe club, announced: “If this is the case, I will resign and leave right now”. newsmedia.tasnimnews.com/Tasnim/Uploaded/Image/1402/10/13/140210131043139329118334.jpg”/>

And Galatasaray did not reach the result, and they announced on their return that Erdogan, in order to use the economic capacities of Saudi Arabia, intended that this game should be held in any way.

Football Federation Turkey, by publishing a statement, denied the claim of Erdogan’s involvement in the Riyadh race and wrote: “The claims based on the involvement of our president in this process are pure lies.” The proposal to hold the 2023 Trexel Super Cup in Riyadh was communicated to our federation by SMC (Saudi Arabia Media Company) and both our clubs welcomed it. We believe that politics should never interfere in sports. The false claims made by our two clubs are malicious and provocative. According to the FIFA statutes, all competitions are subject to FIFA guidelines. Both clubs had to accept all the requirements and procedures of international competitions. As the Turkish Football Federation, we emphasize that we will never allow sports to be abused as the most important unifying force of society”.

Erdogan’s words did not convince the people

The Turkish society is an extremely fanatical and fiery society in the field of supporting football clubs And joining a club is a part of the daily life of most citizens, and in addition to the national clubs Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Besiktas, the provincial clubs Trazbon Sport, Istanbul Sport and other teams also have many fans.

As a result, it is natural that the topic of the match between the top two teams in Turkey attracts the attention of millions of people. Especially when Turkish nationalism and extreme prejudices are involved.

For this reason, a famous research institute called ORC (ORC Araştırma) conducted a survey. A wide field has sought to know what the Turkish people think about Saudi Arabia’s approach and the decision of the two Turkish clubs. The results of this survey have shown that even Erdogan’s statements about the wrongness of the marginalizing decision of Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray managers in Saudi Arabia, could not affect the opinion of the people.

ORC in the survey Midani himself, in several cities of Turkey, interviewed 2,100 citizens and asked people:

Does the sentence Saudi Arabia disrespected Atatürk and our national values” Do you agree?

54.8%: Yes.

26.9%: No.

13.4 percent: I have no opinion.

Do you think the decision of the managers of Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe to leave Riyadh and refrain from playing was the right decision?

54.8 percent: Yes, it was the right decision.

30.3 percent: No. It was a wrong decision.

14.9 percent: I have no opinion.

Do you think the decision to hold this game in Saudi Arabia, Was it correct?

55.8 percent: No. It was not necessary to hold it in Riyadh.

17.4%: Yes. It was the right decision. 26.8 percent: I have no opinion. The Turkish president and sports authorities clearly pointed out that Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray’s decision was wrong, a significant part of the citizens still believe that Saudi Arabia has insulted Turkey’s national values.

It can be concluded that fingering the emotions of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s supporters has more effects than traditional Turkish nationalist emotions. Because the National Movement Party, as the most important far-right movement in Turkey and Erdogan’s partner in the presidential coalition, did not object to Saudi Arabia’s decision and came to the conclusion that the “Turkish nation” was not insulted.

But the nationalist Kemalists or supporters of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk basically have another point of view, which with tolerance can be considered as a modern tendency of nationalism, which focuses more on Mustafa’s personality instead of the descent and racial dimensions of Turkish identity. Kamal Atatürk is concentrated and the opposition parties of Erdoğan have the power and possibility to provoke this group of citizens more than others when necessary. , laism, secularism and independence and the fight against reaction and heroism know that it ended the Ottoman caliphate, but on the opposite front, Erdogan and Baghçeli introduce Atatürk with the word “ghazi”, which means a hero and a veteran of warfare and war, and he are introduced as the symbol of a commander who fought with foreigners during the war of independence.

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