Fenerbahce players walked off the pitch after one minute of Sunday’s Turkish Super Cup match against Galatasaray, forcing the game to be abandoned and conceding the trophy.
Fenerbahce, who fielded their Under-19 team, withdrew from the rearranged match in Sanliurfa about 1,000 km from Istanbul after Galatasaray’s Argentine striker Mauro Icardi scored.
Media reported the club had requested the game be postponed ahead of their Europa Conference League quarterfinal, first leg at Olympiakos Piraeus on Thursday but were turned down.
Fenerbahçe president Yıldırım Ali Koç spoke of a “rebellion” in a statement on the club’s website, where he detailed alleged injustices going back over the years. “It is time for a ‘reset’ for Turkish football,” Koc said.
Two Fenerbahçe players, İrfan Can Eğribayat and Jayden Oosterwolde, were banned for one match by the Turkish soccer federation last week after a Superlig game against Trabzonspor. Trabzonspor fans had charged onto the pitch after the final whistle. Trabzonspor was ordered to play six games without fans as punishment.
“As the largest sports club in the world, with 30 million fans who embody the national values of their respective countries, we’ll continue to stand tall today and in the future, just as we did yesterday,” Fenerbahce said on social media Sunday.
The Turkish Super Cup was scheduled to be played in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh in December, but was postponed.
Media reported at the time that the two teams would not play the match as Saudi authorities did not allow the players to wear T-shirts featuring the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, in the warmup ahead of the evening kickoff.
