The Turkish Super Cup final which was to be played this Friday in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, between two Turkish football giants, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray, has finally been called off after both clubs refused to play the match due to the strict conditions imposed by the Saudi authorities for the game at the Al-Awwal stadium.
According to Turkish media reports, the Saudi authorities had demanded that no pictures or T-shirts bearing the image of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish Republic, whose first centenary has been celebrated this year in Turkey, should be displayed; Saudi Arabia had also refused permission to display Turkey’s national motto “Peace at home, peace in the world”, and had made it a condition that the Turkish national anthem should not be played.
These conditions have caused real astonishment and scandal in Turkey, where Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan has reportedly joined the voices calling for the immediate resignation of the president of the Turkish Football Federation (TFF), Mehmet Büyüekşi, for organising the match in that country. This also aggravates the crisis in Turkish football after the latest controversies involving referees.
Faced with this situation, and after deliberations between the presidents of both clubs, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray refused to play the match, and the players were instructed to stay in their hotels in the Saudi Arabian capital. The Turkish Super Cup is an annual one-off competition played each year between the winners of the previous season’s Super League and Turkish Cup. This year the expectations were high given that both teams are levelled on points at the top of the first division league standings.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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