EnglishThe mixture of football and politics is always explosive. The current scandal in Turkey related to a football match is a clear example of this. Turkey's President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has labeled the reactions following the cancellation of the Turkish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia as an "obvious sabotage." "This summer, there was a campaign trying to destroy tourism, and now we see that, with the support of opposition parties, they are trying to do something similar in sports," Erdogan said at a public event in Ankara. The Turkish Super Cup, between Galatasaray, the national champion, and Fenerbahce, the winner of the Turkish Cup, was supposed to be played last Friday in Riyadh but was canceled when Saudi authorities did not allow players from both teams to warm up wearing shirts featuring the image of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic in 1923. Erdogan denounced a "rage of Islamophobia and xenophobia," referring to the wave of comments against Saudi Arabia on social media. "It is not a coincidence that this wave of hatred is directed against a sister country, one of our largest trading partners, which invests in Turkey and has been with us during the earthquake (February 2023)," Erdogan added. The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) issued a statement stating that the offer to play the Super Cup in Riyadh came from the Saudi company SMC (Saudi Media Company/Riyadh Season) and that the Turkish president was not involved in the initiative.
Football and Politics: Sabotage Accusations After a Canceled Match
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