Fenerbahce Vice President Acun Ilıcalı made statements regarding current issues. Emphasizing referee errors, Acun Ilıcalı stated, “We will turn the system around and race for the championship.” He mentioned that he would speak based on concrete data, saying, “I want to start by asking whether football is truly a sport where justice is applied. Everything I will discuss in today’s press conference is concrete. I will not make statements based on any claims or gray areas.”
Recalling Erden Timur’s words, Ilıcalı stated, “We said we would not watch the same movie again, let me explain that. Two years ago, after the Fenerbahçe match, a Galatasaray executive said, ‘We won’t let the league finish.’ Is this concrete? Yes, it’s concrete! Then he apologized. Following this threat, some developments occurred in Turkey, and Fenerbahce’s rights were violated, right? Yes. Then it was said from the Galatasaray side, ‘Why are you raising the tension so much? Football is brotherhood…'”
Acun Ilıcalı commented on Dursun Ozbek’s statements after the Trabzonspor match, saying, “Regarding Galatasaray’s match against Trabzonspor, Dursun Ozbek stated, ‘The worst referee I’ve ever seen.’ Later, Galatasaray made a statement about our match claiming, ‘You have dirty hands.’ Then the same scenario unfolds again, our rights are violated, there are imbalances in yellow cards, and then they ask for local referees. Galatasaray takes the lead, yet they still say football is brotherhood and we shouldn’t escalate tensions.”
Acun Ilıcalı stated that they will change the system and have held discussions with the Turkish Football Federation (TFF), saying, “We promised our fans. What did we say? We will change this system. We have also held the necessary meetings today.”
Acun Ilıcalı reacted to the refereeing decisions, claiming that Galatasaray has not received yellow cards this season. He stated, “The number of yellow cards not shown to Galatasaray this season is 14. If anyone has an objection, let them say that the referees say it’s not 14 but 13. This is a joint decision of 10 referees; the other team has also not been shown one. Can a defender perform the same way after receiving a yellow card? When we say there’s a yellow card operation in Turkey, this is what we are talking about. In this operation, no one talks about the referees. Can a referee maintain justice in a match where no yellow card is given? I’m stating a fact accepted by 8 referees; Fenerbahçe has officially not been awarded 6 penalties this season. The referees made a collective decision on this. With this week, it has become 7. That’s 7 out of 7.”
Acun Ilıcalı claimed that there is no fair league, stating, “I’m calling out; 7 penalties have not been awarded, and the opponent has not received 14 yellow cards. Is this league fair now? Let me tell you the bitter truth; everything is concrete. Now we come to this week. This week was a week of making 2 times 2 equal 3. I never expected this would happen in my lifetime. You might never see this comedy again. The Galatasaray-Kasımpaşa match is being played. There was a handball situation; VAR watched one incident for 4.5 minutes and another for 5 minutes. A total of 9.5 minutes of play was stopped. Two times two became 3. In the end, Galatasaray won 3-2. After the 9.5 minutes VAR review and an additional 7-8 minutes added, there were 6 minutes of stoppage time. We experienced this as well. Miraculously, in the 5th minute of that 6-minute stoppage, a goal was scored. You can extend the stoppage by 1 minute due to the goal; be generous and add 1.5 minutes. Suddenly, the match seemed like it wouldn’t end. That 6 minutes turned into 9.5 minutes. The last 3 minutes of the match were exceptional. A cross was made, and Kasımpaşa players cleared the ball with their feet, but the referee said, ‘Stop.’ I’m speaking concretely. Go watch the video. Everyone stopped, and the referee asked if there was anything wrong. Apparently, they said no. Another cross was made, again causing a scramble, and the referee stopped again, asking, ‘Is there anything?’ The response was no again. As you can guess, the match ended around 9.5 minutes. After the match, we immediately gathered as management. Our president, having experienced massacres over the years, said, ‘Be ready for operations; something will happen to us tomorrow.'”
Acun Ilıcalı reacted to the referee decisions in the Antalyaspor match, stating, “In the Antalyaspor match, the flag goes up for Edin Dzeko’s shot. In the second half, after a long ball, the flag goes up again. We constantly faced offside flags during our attacks! It’s unclear whether it was offside or not, and we couldn’t even go to VAR. Suddenly, VAR was unavailable in our match. We played without VAR. The game started in 18 seconds and 8 milliseconds. Has there ever been a game that started in 18 seconds in Turkey? What we’ve experienced is a disgrace. Something else is being played. The rules have been disregarded. Something else is being played against Fenerbahce.”
Acun Ilıcalı stated, “I have friends from every community. I am someone who has close relationships with Galatasaray and Beşiktaş fans. I am friendly with people from all walks of life in Turkey. We are all children of the same homeland, but when it comes to Fenerbahçe, I do not recognize anyone. I have done whatever was needed for Fenerbahçe during both Aziz Yıldırım’s and Ali Koc’s periods.”
Acun Ilıcalı commented on Okan Buruk’s remarks during the Kasımpaşa match, stating, “Okan Buruk said to the referee, ‘If you give this penalty, you won’t be able to officiate here again.’ This is the state of affairs in Turkey. After that moment, the referee suddenly reduces the stoppage time to six minutes. The referee has received a threat; what can he do? He wants to manage the match and continue his career. Others have faced this before, and he knows it. Last year, the referee of the Galatasaray match said, ‘I don’t know in what state of mind I gave the penalty.’ That state of mind is exactly this. After the operation, they will say, ‘Don’t blame these referees; they are our children, don’t create tension in football.'”
Acun Ilıcalı reiterated that they seek justice, not privilege, stating, “Today, we visited the TFF and presented the documents. We are not here to attack or put pressure on the federation. This federation has promised us that it wants to bring justice. The TFF seeks justice, and we want justice too. We do not want privilege. We will achieve this not by burning and destroying, but through concrete examples and communication. Why would we dismantle the TFF? If the TFF President says ‘There is no problem,’ we would take a different stance. The TFF President is not communicating with the referees; he can only change the officials there. The TFF President is aware of the situation. He said, ‘Trust us regarding justice; we will not give in to anyone.'”
Acun Ilıcalı stated that they will overthrow the system and chase the championship, saying, “To those who are waiting for us to fall by stirring things up on social media, I say this: We have the Fenerbahçe fans behind us. They chose us, so sorry about that. We will not go down because of your efforts to bring us down. We will march forward strongly with our supporters who know how to get back up when we fall. I will do my best as well. Since the day the president took office, the economy has improved, and last year, the championship was taken from us. We will overthrow the system and pursue the championship together. The only formula for success is unity.”
Responding to criticisms of the management on social media, Ilıcalı said, “Let them continue their operations on social media; we are not afraid of it at all. I have been famous for 20 years, and there’s nothing that hasn’t been written about me. I laugh at it. We, as a management and team, are united. Our opponents are clear, and with God’s permission, we will defeat them and become champions.”
When asked, “What will you do if you can’t dismantle this system?” Ilıcalı responded, “We will dismantle it. I don’t think having local referees is a necessity. The federation president should delve deeply into this issue. If there is despair, you can bring in foreign referees. You build the system with foreign referees, and that’s it. If they make mistakes, at least we can say there was a lack of judgment. Is there a referee scandal in England? Yes, but the referees aren’t under pressure. If they need to be penalized, they are.”
In response to being reminded that Cihan Aydın attended the referee meeting with a username, Ilıcalı said, “Our coach Cihan Aydın is participating under the nickname ‘The Greatest Galatasaray Fan Mira,’ which is his daughter’s nickname. We don’t need to discuss this. I’m not saying anything. This doesn’t seem like a big scandal to me anymore this season. We’ve experienced things that are much worse…”
Acun Ilıcalı noted that İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu was surprised by the events, stating, “The federation is also shocked right now. I saw the president in disbelief, wondering ‘How could this happen?’ That’s right. We won’t rely on perception; we want justice and we trust our federation. Let’s not immediately make clips saying ‘we trust’ and so on. If trust is broken tomorrow, then you’ll adjust your position accordingly.”
Acun Ilıcalı expressed his support for foreign referees, stating, “We are not the ones who say ‘penalty’ and then claim it wasn’t. We haven’t lost our senses. We won’t just say ‘let’s attack’; we will solve this issue. I’m not saying that no mistakes have ever been made against Galatasaray in Turkey. If they have complaints about the referees, they can express them. This isn’t just about Beşiktaş or Galatasaray. An operation was attempted against us. I’m presenting the past alongside this. Beşiktaş’s situation was 100% a penalty; what can I say? The player is wrestling. They have valuable officials who can confirm this. If it were up to me, I would bring in a foreign referee tomorrow, but the federation doesn’t think that way, and I respect that.”
Acun Ilıcalı reiterated their commitment to dismantling the system, stating, “We will not let our rights be taken away. We said we will break the system. We trust our president. The federation has changed, and the system will be dismantled as well. We will not create a world without communication by turning everything into chaos. We will show how it is and expose the situation. Such injustice cannot happen anywhere in the world.”
Acun Ilıcalı stated that Jose Mourinho is confused by the recent events, saying, “Our coach is bewildered. He cannot understand. You know his reaction to the assistant referee raising the flag. I don’t want to divert the topic away from our coach today. There are concrete reports and evidence. We trust our coach. His career and trophies are well known. We will walk towards the championship together with him.”
