Fenerbahçe Football Team withdrew from the Turkish Super Cup Final match against Galatasaray on April 7, 2024.
For the past 20 years, Fenerbahçe Sports Club has been fighting against an unjust football system in Türkiye. The Fenerbahçe community continues to demonstrate a stance against the unfair system in Turkish football through both sporting and legal means.
Over the past 20 years, Fenerbahçe has faced various challenges:
- Lost the championship 3 times in 7 seasons in the last matches, especially the match against Denizlispor in 2006, where the game was stopped many times due to numerous objects being thrown onto the field,
- In the 2010-2011 season, they were falsely accused of match-fixing by a terrorist organization infiltrated within the state and faced legal proceedings.
- From 2011 to 2021, they endured a ten-year legal battle before proving their innocence.
- They suffered significant commercial losses and a halving of their company's value due to the trap set for the club.
- They were deprived of the right to participate in the Champions League for two seasons by the Turkish Football Federation without waiting for the judicial outcome.
- They initiated a new legal process, the "Fenerbahçe Conspiracy Case," against the illegal organization that framed the club and continue to fight for justice.
- They filed compensation lawsuits against various authorities in Turkey, including the Turkish Football Federation, due to the financial and moral damages they suffered.
- On April 4, 2015, their team bus was shot at in an unprecedented incident in the history of world football, yet the perpetrators remain unknown even after nine years.
In conclusion, Fenerbahçe's struggle against injustice culminated in the recent events:
During the match against Trabzonspor on March 17, 2024, inadequate security measures led to hundreds of people storming the field and attempting to attack the players.
Despite the players' defensive actions to protect themselves against the organized attackers in Trabzon, the Turkish Football Federation deemed their actions worthy of punishment.
Following these events, the Fenerbahçe Sports Club Board of Directors decided to gather and consult with club members on March 18, 2024.
In line with this decision, Fenerbahçe held an Extraordinary General Assembly on April 2, 2024, with a record number of participants (over 23,000 members) to determine a course of action.
One of the decisions made at this Extraordinary General Assembly was to postpone the Super Cup final to a later date due to the UEFA Conference League Quarter-Final matches, and to insist on having a foreign referee officiate the match against the unjust football climate.
Otherwise, the team would either field the U19 team or not participate at all.
The club's relevant application was also rejected by the Turkish Football Federation.
Following these decisions and in response to the Turkish Football Federation's final rejection and all the injustices faced, Fenerbahçe went to the Super Cup Final, where it was very close to reaching the cup, with our Under-19 Football Team.
The match ended with our team's withdrawal from the field.
We emphasize that we took to the field not to win but to defend the truth, and on this historic day for Turkish football, we want to highlight our stance:
“Just as we have served Turkish sports with our 117-year history in every sport we compete in, with thousands of trophies bearing the marks of hard work and dedication in our museum,
As the World's Largest Sports Club with 30 million fans feeling their country's national values within themselves,
Just as we have stood tall against lawlessness and injustice yesterday, today, and will continue to do so tomorrow”
FENERBAHÇE SPORTS CLUB