After the Turkish Super Cup match between Fenerbahce and Galatasaray in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was definitively canceled, it didn’t take long for the scandal to spread further.
The match was supposed to take place on December 29th in Riyadh, but the Saudis forbade the football players to wear shirts with the image of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk on the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Republic of Turkey, and both teams decided not to play because of this.
However, the Turkish media revealed that a Turk, the most powerful in Turkish football, sided with the Saudis and advocated that the match be played without a patriotic act before the match.
Namely, the president of the Football Association of Turkey Mehmet Buyukeksi, apparently because of the money given by the Saudis, asked the presidents of Fenerbahce and Galatasaray to send the players to the pitch despite the ban on wearing shirts with the image of the founder of Turkey, and that act was immediately condemned by the Turkish public.
“Shame on you, you embarrassed us in front of the world. Do not return to Turkey, there is no place for you here. Become a citizen of Saudi Arabia,” was the harsh message sent to him by journalist Adnan Aybaba.
According to the Turkish media, Buyukeksi fell ill after the public lynching to which he was exposed, and an ambulance had to respond.
Buyukeksi is now under great pressure from the Turkish public, and some Turkish media reported that the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, got involved in everything and asked for his resignation from the position of president of the Football Association of Turkey.
Moreover, Buyukeksi has been the president of the Football Association of Turkey since June 16th, 2022, and it seems that the Turks will enter 2024 without the leader of Turkish football.
Interestingly, on Wikipedia, his status has already been changed to “former president of the Football Association of Turkey”, but there is still no official confirmation of his resignation, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
