Last Sunday (7), professional football generated a scene worthy of the floodplain: after conceding a goal just a minute into the game, Fenerbahçe left the field and its opponent, rival Galatasaray, celebrated the Turkish Super Cup title.
Known in Brazil in recent decades due to the Brazilians who defended their colors (the most successful was midfielder Alex, ex-Coritiba, Palmeiras, Flamengo and Cruzeiro), Fenerbahçe had already adopted as a form of protest in this match the selection of its under-19 team, instead of the main team.
“Our rebellion today, our stance in the Super Cup, is not just because of the date of the game or what happened in the last game away from home. It’s time for a ‘reset’ for Turkish football. We are in a period where the swamp needs to be drained and Turkish football needs to rebuild. There is no need to reinvent the wheel,” club president Ali Koç said in a statement.
The episode Koç referred to was the invasion of Trabzonspor fans after Fenerbahçe’s victory in a game played last month. Fener players, as they are known, were attacked. Other episodes of violence were recorded in Turkish football in the 2023-2024 season.
Trabzonspor was ordered to play six matches behind closed doors, but the sentence was later reduced to four games. This reduction in punishment and the fact that two Fenerbahçe players were suspended for one game for the fight gave Fener arguments in their claim that he is being persecuted due to pressure from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The ineffectiveness of the police during the fight in the game against Trabzonspor and the alleged biased refereeing (the club asked for a foreign referee in the Super Cup, but was not responded to) further reinforced this discourse.
The dissatisfaction is so great that the Fenerbahçe board proposed a vote to the members to decide whether the club should leave the Turkish league, but the debate was postponed at least until the end of the current season.
Fener says it is persecuted by Erdogan due to its links with Kemalism, a political trend that is the opposite of that defended by the current Turkish leader, who has been in power as prime minister or president for more than 20 years.
Kemalism was created by Mustafá Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey, in 1923. The movement defends the separation of religion and State and rapprochement with the West, while Erdogan has sought in recent decades to mix faith and politics and get closer to other countries of the Middle East (in addition to persecuting the press and opponents).
On their official website, Fenerbahçe has a section dedicated to explaining Atatürk’s love for the club (ironically, Erdogan is also a Fener fan). In March, Istanbul’s Kemalist mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, campaigning for re-election against an Erdogan-backed candidate, visited the club and posed for photos next to a statue of Atatürk.
“I hope that this election will be auspicious both for our country and for Istanbul and Kadiköy (the district of the largest Turkish city where Fenerbahçe’s stadium is located). It will be a celebration of democracy and an election worthy of our country. The election results will also be auspicious,” Koç said at the time.
Imamoglu, who was also welcomed by directors of the other two giants of Turkish football, Besiktas and Galatasaray, was re-elected.
Erdogan had already come into conflict with his favorite team in December, when the Super Cup, which was to be held that month in Saudi Arabia, was canceled and brought back to Turkey (in Sanliurfa, the city where the “non-game” of the last Sunday) because players from Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe were prevented from entering the field wearing shirts with images of Atatürk and a banner alluding to the founder of the Republic of Turkey.
Erdogan declared that the behavior of the two teams was part of a ploy to “separate” Turkey from “brother nations” through “provocations and malicious rhetoric.”
Because Erdogan is Erdogan, this is not about disinterested love – in March 2023, the Saudi Fund for Development signed an agreement to deposit US$5 billion in the Central Bank of Turkey and help the struggling Turkish economy. Who will win the arm wrestling match between the world’s most beloved sport and Turkey’s autocrat?