GALATASARAY - FENERBAHCE
Fenerbahçe to play Turkish Super Cup with U-19 team as means of protest
The Turkish club will start the final with its youth team, and plans to boycott the game by starting it with nine players and removing three due to ‘injury’.
The eternal rivals in Turkey, Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe are set to meet in the 2023 Super Cup with the game originally organized by Saudi Arabia on December 30 in Riyadh and subsequently postponed after the Turkish sides planned to wear Atatürk (founder of the nation) t-shirts ahead of the game. The match was rescheduled and is now set to go ahead today, Sunday (7 April) in Sanliurfa, a city in the southeast of Turkey, affected by the 2023 earthquake.
The Galatasaray expedition has made the journey from Istanbul to the host city and will field a strong XI with Fenerbahçe planning to field their U-19 team as a manner of protest. The ‘Canaries’ will only field nine players and upon the referee’s whistle, three of these will be forced to leave the field through ‘injury’. As a consequence, the match official will be forced to abandon the match with only six players Fener players on the field of play. The game will inevitably be awarded to Galatasaray, but due to the nature of the ‘win’, Cim-Bom will not be able to hold a winner’s ceremony.
Fenerbahçe are angered with the Turkish Football Federation with their response to the recent on-field violence their players suffered away to Trabzonspor last month and aware that if they fail to field a team in the Super Cup final, a two year ban from the Turkish Cup will be the outcome.
Speaking to the media ahead of today’s game, Galatasaray coach, Okan Buruk, was asked at the press conference about the Super Cup: “We are very happy to be in Sanliurfa. We saw how excited people were but it would be much better if both teams were here. This city wants to see great teams”. He added: “We don’t know exactly what will happen tomorrow, but we are ready to do our part. We bring a message of peace”.
Fenerbahçe’s last post on the official (X/Twitter) account shows the team preparing for the game against Olympiacos this Thursday in the UEFA Conference League with no reference to Sanliurfa or the Super Cup final.
The Fenerbahce Assembly speaks
An urgently held Fenerbahçe members assembly meeting convened after the the match between Trabzonspor and Fenerbahce was tainted as home fans ran onto the pitch attacking Fenerbahçe players. The assembly were angered with, what they felt was a lenient punishment for the home side. Initially facing a six-match spectator ban due to the actions of their supporters, the home team’s punishment was reduced to four matches after the club lodged an appeal with the TFF.
It was at this meeting that the extraordinary general assembly of Fenerbahçe members decided not to play in the 2023 Super Cup which is set to take place today (7 April) and unless the game was postponed to a suitable date with a foreign referee, the Canaries would take the field with an U-19 team.
The members also called upon UEFA and FIFA to take the necessary measures due to what they feel is an ‘unsustainable level’ in Turkish football.