Galatasaray President Dursun Ozbek responded to the statements made by Fenerbahce Vice President Acun Ilicali during a live broadcast he attended yesterday. In his response, Ozbek said:
“Yesterday, we gathered with the presidents of Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe, and Trabzonspor at the invitation of the President of the Turkish Football Federation, Mr. İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu. In this meeting, all the presidents decided to be more careful in our statements from now on in order to create an atmosphere of brotherhood.
“LESS THAN 24 HOURS LATER…”
Less than 24 hours after our decision, an executive from one of the clubs present at this meeting made statements in a television program that aimed to target our club with the same perceptions. Despite this insincerity, we continue to stand by the promise we made. We have been against the mentality that seeks to turn brothers against each other, create tension in society, and generate chaos at a time when our country needs unity and solidarity the most, and we will continue to be against it.”
WHAT HAPPENED?
Yesterday (October 7, Monday), Fenerbahce Vice President Acun Ilicali made statements about the football agenda on Beyaz TV.
ACUN ILICALI USED THE FOLLOWING EXPRESSIONS:
“WE CANNOT TOLERATE INJUSTICE”
“We do not want to be in a fight. We believe that football will return to beautiful days. There have always been tense times in Turkish football. We can be more tense. By nature, we cannot tolerate injustice. We must be the voice of the community. We ran for office to be the voice of the community. Ultimately, it is the president’s own choice. This task was given to me in the Fenerbahce management. Our president will speak where he sees fit.”
“THERE ARE SOME NAMES PLANTED IN THE SYSTEM, REFEREE, OBSERVER”
“Last week, I briefly said that strange things are happening in Turkish football. I directly asked for answers. I said, ‘Do not defame me, explain the situation.’ No one can get anywhere with those attacks. We expected concrete answers to concrete questions. Not only did we not get answers, but within three days we were proven right. Strangely, certain individuals have meaningless advantages. The referee elbowed a player in the face and received no card. Suddenly, a player did not receive a red card (Dries Mertens). I do not want to take this somewhere else. There are some names planted in the system, referee, observer. I am not mentioning the MHK president, nor the TFF president. The federation president said, ‘I do not accept mistakes in VAR.’ We are waiting for actions. While making promises to our fans, we said that we will eliminate this system by exposing it and waiting for intervention from the federation.”
“WE WILL BRING DOWN THIS STRUCTURE”
“I spoke with the head of the MHK in England. I asked, ‘How do you select these referees?’ He said, ‘We ask which team they support, their residence, and if anyone in their family or close circle supports a team, and we assign matches accordingly.’ Either the referees are trying to provoke us to attack the TFF, or they are sabotaging the TFF president. They are doing something. We will bring down this structure.”
“WHEN HAS THERE BEEN A GROSS ERROR IN A FENERBAHCE MATCH?”
“There is no situation where today’s referees are unaffected, unlike in the time of Ahmet Cakar. Are the English people fools, that they do not assign a referee to a match for the team they support? If this is done in Europe, we should do it too. Referee mistakes are the most normal thing in the world. A match that stopped for 17 minutes, with 10 minutes of that time from VAR. You give 6 minutes of stoppage time. What does this mean? Why doesn’t this happen to Fenerbahce? Let the game stop for 15 minutes, and the referee can decide to finish it in 5 minutes. When has there been a gross error in a Fenerbahce match?”
“THERE IS NO FOOTAGE OF ICARDI IN THE KADIKOY MATCH”
“There is no footage of Mauro Icardi in the Kadikoy match. Show me the image of the blow to the face, then I will be convinced. VAR cannot intervene because it does not have the angle. VAR’s intervention is wrong. No one can have an opinion about the severity of this situation. Did Icardi dive, or did Djiku hit too hard? It could also be a penalty.”
“THE INJURY TIME IN THE GALATASARAY MATCH WAS 2 MINUTES”
“In the Galatasaray match this week, 5 minutes of stoppage time was given, but only 2 minutes were played. Galatasaray substituted a player for 1 minute and 40 seconds. In Galatasaray’s match a week ago, when the score was tied, stoppage time continued, but this week it does not continue while they are leading.”
“I CANNOT TRUST THIS REFEREE”
“If you participate in a meeting with the nickname Champion Galatasaray, you cannot officiate objectively. I do not believe in the decisions you make. Why haven’t people questioned which team Ahmet Cakar supports? It means there is no problem on your side. There is a problem here. A person who cannot officiate a match for the team they support in England or Germany should do the same here. I told them that it is not like that here, and they were surprised.”
“DO NOT LET GALATASARAY’S RIGHTS BE IGNORED”
“We are at the beginning of October. If we are going to solve this issue, they should give us and the TFF time. There are many ridiculous things happening that we do not know the reasons for. What is important is that Turkish football achieves peace. If what I say happens, there will be peace tomorrow. I do not want Galatasaray’s rights to be ignored.”
“AGAIN WE ARE LEFT IN THE HANDS OF A TURKISH REFEREE IN SIVAS”
“We lost the championship in the Sivasspor match; did we say anything? We requested foreign referees, a foreign VAR came, and it made a mistake. We did not question that. We did not say, ‘He received instructions.’ There is a funny situation there. The center referee is not obliged to follow VAR. If he were a referee, he wouldn’t have given it. Again, we are left in the hands of a Turkish referee, who gave the penalty and continued the match. As a country, we are good people, but these things happen due to the situation of supporting big teams.”
“GALATASARAY HAS RECEIVED 5 RED CARDS IN 9 MATCHES IN EUROPE”
“We are not the team that struggles with foreign referees and receives red cards. Do you remember the last match where Galatasaray received a red card at home? You cannot remember because there has been no such match. Galatasaray has not received a red card at home for two years. They have received 5 red cards in 9 matches in Europe!”
“DOES GALATASARAY WANT FOREIGN REFEREES?”
“The glass has overflowed; this system has collapsed. Does Galatasaray want foreign referees? That would be great (laughing). Let’s not talk too much about whether Galatasaray wants them or not.”
