Flash Super Cup statement from Ali Koç! 'We have no agreement with the TFF!'

Fenerbahçe President Ali Koç made statements on HaberTürk.

Here are Ali Koç's statements...

"I will speak about this subject for the first time. I thank you for doing a one-on-one program given the seriousness and weight of the matter."

"I absolutely did not intend to speak. I was forced to speak. I was not going to speak. After the crisis meeting in Riyadh, I wanted the authorities to speak, not the clubs. There is misinformation; there is innocent misinformation, and there is malicious misinformation. We chose not to speak in order not to serve disinformation. For the last 5 days, they have started a tremendous communication operation, with slanders and lies being spun around Fenerbahçe and myself, by pressing a button from a certain center."

"WE HAVE NO AGREEMENT WITH THE TFF"

"We wrote a letter to the federation during the week. We requested the protocol. We asked not only for the protocol but also for the correspondence between the two parties during the pre-match process. There is no agreement between us and the TFF. I think this is actually one of the issues where the process was handled very amateurishly. There is no contract between us and the TFF. There is a contract between the TFF and the Riyadh Season company. We have not seen this contract. It is claimed that 'There is a contract, the clubs signed it, and they imposed conditions outside of this contract at the last minute.' We have not seen any contract."

"NEITHER CLUB HAS ANY KNOWLEDGE"

"We see that neither club knows anything about the contract, not even remotely. The response says, in short, 'There is confidentiality, we cannot share this, if you really want to, come, send a lawyer and we will show it.'"

"IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A PROBLEM IF WE PLAYED AT THE OLYMPIC STADIUM"

"While I was talking to the TFF President in the summer, I asked, 'What will happen with the Super Cup?' They were considering abroad: England, Azerbaijan, Qatar, if I am not mistaken, and Saudi Arabia. I personally thought Germany was a good idea. I didn't think the Germans would allow it, and if there is no German team—which there isn't—they didn't accept it. The best offer came from Saudi Arabia. Put the offer aside. The whole world's eyes are on Saudi Arabia in terms of football. They are making tremendous investments in football. The Spanish Super Cup is played there, like the Final Four. The Intercontinental final was played there. They won the World Cup bid, so to speak. There is excitement, dynamism, investment, etc., regarding football. They turned the transfer market upside down. There was no sensitivity about the 100th anniversary at that time; when Germany didn't work out, he said they were considering Saudi Arabia. We also thought it would be right. We saw that it was a mistake specifically for the 100th anniversary. As a 5-year project, the TFF holding the Super Cup there... We were thinking of a 4-team format starting next season, I don't know what will happen now. One of the reasons we especially wanted this—despite the sensitivity of the public and the community, and the demand at the High Advisory Board—was that we, as the Fenerbahçe Sports Club, insisted on it being played in Saudi Arabia for two reasons. One of the reasons, let's call it a twist of the calendar, was that the Fenerbahçe-Galatasaray derby was going to be in Istanbul 5 days earlier. For years, we haven't been taking fans to each other's matches; let alone football, we don't even take them to women's volleyball. It was unclear what would happen in the match in Istanbul, whether there would be trouble. We thought about the possibility of tense nerves. 40,000 Fenerbahçe fans and 40,000 Galatasaray fans at the Olympic Stadium could have been a problem. Mr. Dursun Özbek thought the same thing. The TFF President also said, 'We cannot play in Istanbul, they will probably have it played in Samsun or Ankara.'"

"BOTH CLUBS WERE UNDER PRESSURE"

"Why did we want a foreign referee? Fenerbahçe's rights have been violated so much in the last 10 years that we at least wanted an elite foreign referee for this single match. That's why we insisted on Saudi Arabia, but we didn't know these things would happen to us. The TFF announced this, and then there were huge reactions. At the political level, at the fan level, at the congress level... Because it was the 100th anniversary. It was requested to be in Turkey, not abroad. We didn't zigzag for the reasons I just mentioned; we stayed with the original plan. A decision not to go came out of the High Advisory Board, and a similar decision came out for Galatasaray. Both Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray were under serious pressure. There is no need to put the clubs under such pressure. The authority is the TFF. We play wherever the TFF tells us to."

"This is definitely not a decision the TFF made on its own. It was consulted. Despite the pressure on Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray, we continued with the project. Galatasaray Club sent a letter to the TFF saying 'do not play it.' The TFF President called us and asked, 'What do you think?' We stood at the same point. Galatasaray said, 'We are not saying we won't play, but as the authority, you have to make the decision, you must take this burden off us.' The TFF made a statement saying, 'It will be played in Riyadh as a TFF decision.' In fact, the original date was December 30, it was moved to the 29th so that the players could spend New Year's with their families..."

"NO CONDITIONS WERE ASKED OF US"

"There was no condition asked of us, and we did not present any conditions. We were so insistent on the foreign referee issue, we believed so much that it would happen, that the TFF bought into this view and met with referees abroad. After the punch incident, there was a 180-degree turn from the TFF President. This issue was shelved. We were so insistent on this that we even considered going out with the U19 team."

"We had communication with Saudi officials on the day of the match. If the correspondence comes to light, the truth of the matter will emerge. There is a huge fiasco. We are trying to get to the bottom of it. How did this happen?"

"WE REPORTED THE BANNERS AND T-SHIRTS ON WEDNESDAY"

"There are customs in football. This is an organization under the leadership of the TFF. Like league matches and cup matches. During the match week, on Tuesday and Wednesday, if there are banners or t-shirts you will take onto the field, they give you an answer. You send messages about martyrs, AÇEV, LÖSEV, etc., and you get an answer. It can even happen on match day. Before the last derby, there were martyrs, we said we wanted to go out with banners and t-shirts about the martyrs on match day, and we got an 'okay.' May God never give us even 1 more martyr. We wrote the letter on Wednesday at 9:30 AM. We will go out for the warm-up with this t-shirt and this banner. We didn't get an answer quickly, like before. We asked again while boarding the plane the next day. Normally, you write during the week, it's quite normal. Now, didn't the TFF say that we would celebrate the 100th anniversary of our Republic and show it to the whole world? This is the warm-up t-shirt we were going to wear. We applied for this t-shirt."

"On December 28, another letter came from the TFF. Regarding the jerseys our children would wear onto the field. There was our 100th-anniversary logo on the front and Atatürk's quote on the back."

"OUR REQUEST FOR THE ATATÜRK JERSEY IS QUITE NORMAL"

"On December 28, another letter came from the TFF. A banner about our martyrs. They tell us, 'They are having additions made to the protocol at the last minute, FIFA rules, protocol, contract,' which means last-minute changes were accepted. It is quite normal and natural for us to think about going out in the Atatürk jersey for the warm-up."

"OUR FATHER'S QUOTE DOES NOT INDICATE A SIDE!"

"In foreign matches, there is usually a state of war. I don't know if Galatasaray's 100th-anniversary jersey was approved or not. We have an impression that it wouldn't be. We were going to go out in our classic striped jersey. The TFF also had its own banners. We wanted to go out with this banner, if we could, to draw attention to the war, not to take sides at all. We used it to draw attention to the war in Gaza, and we also used it in the Ukraine-Russia war. We used this in foreign matches. It is a very important and effective quote from our Father. It is not a quote that takes sides at all. We did not insist on the banner. The TFF wrote us 2 official letters on certain dates. It was said that you would go out with this banner and that banner. The TFF sent us a letter on December 14. The banner we were going to go out with for this match on December 14 was the 'Happy 100th Anniversary of our Glorious Republic!' banner."

"WE WEREN'T EVEN GIVEN AN ANSWER"

"I wish they had said we weren't allowed. No answer came, we followed up the next day, we followed up there. They said, 'We are waiting for permission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,' etc. We sent this letter on December 27, we followed up on it. They said, 'We are waiting for permission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.' We asked again there. Why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I don't know. In the meetings we attended, there was no mention of a political stance or anything. We asked again on the 28th, while still in Istanbul. We asked again, and they said, 'We are waiting for news.'"

"I DON'T KNOW HOW THE CONTRACT IS"

"I don't know how the contract is, who decides what. If the match were in Turkey, this would normally happen. It is actually a match organized by the TFF as if it were a local match, but it is being held in a foreign country. I don't know what is written in the contract, I cannot comment. I don't think FIFA was asked. Maybe there is a document called 'FIFA rules,' the rest was organized between the two countries."

"WE DID NOT IMPOSE ANYTHING AT THE LAST MINUTE!"

"First, we did not impose anything at the last minute. Second; you are doing the organization, the correspondence starts weeks ago, a delegation goes two weeks ago for the necessary organization, you have the Republic banner, the 100th-anniversary logo, Atatürk visuals. It was said that the Parla Anthem would be sung. We know that everything is continuing on its normal course. As the Americans say, 'business as usual,' like that."

"If they had told us once that this, this, and this are not accepted, we would have organized accordingly. If they were things we really wouldn't accept, we wouldn't play the match there. We learned this hours before the match."

"THEY PRINTED BANNERS ON FRIDAY!"

Ali Koç: "The TFF is aware of the problem, but the prevailing thought is 'we will go there and handle it somehow, the match will be played after the teams go there.' The banner they said the clubs would go out with was removed from the program. A new banner was printed. It was said, 'Happy 100th Anniversary!'"

Mehmet Akif Ersoy: "Was the term Republic removed?"

Ali Koç: "We were told on match day that the banner had changed. Everything is closed on Friday in Saudi Arabia, but they had banners printed there. Again, the jersey the children were going to wear, which was told to us in writing, was also removed from the program."

"WE LEARNED IT FROM NORM ENDER'S POST"

"A valuable rapper of ours, Norm Ender, is doing such an anthem for the first time, it was very loved and liked in our country. The TFF added this to the organization. That day, Norm Ender is giving an interview to a TV channel, at 14:48 on match day, he says, 'I will sing the Parla anthem, I am very proud.' It is removed from the program. Norm Ender learns that he will be removed from the program on match day. We also learned it from Norm Ender's tweet."

"Let's put the clubs aside, so well-organized, tied to a contract, tied to a protocol, FIFA rules... Why did you change so many things!"

"WE HAD NO THOUGHT THAT A PROBLEM WOULD ARISE"

"I and Selahattin Bey had dinner with Saudi businessmen, around 10 o'clock. We had no thought that a problem would arise. We have Saudi guests, we are after extra tickets, extra boxes, we are after VIP seats. Because we were given very limited tickets. All of these are negotiations for tickets, boxes, etc. That night at 21:30, a preparation meeting was held. Club representatives, etc., we learned it there for the first time."

"THEY WANTED THEIR NATIONAL ANTHEMS TO BE PLAYED"

"At the meeting 1 night before the match, usually the professionals of the clubs, the person responsible for the match organization, the person responsible for accreditation, the TFF official, and the Saudis are there. It is expressed there for the first time by the Saudi officials that our banner and warm-up t-shirts will not be accepted. The National Anthem and the Saudi National Anthem come up there. There is the National Anthem. Since the national anthem is not played in the matches of other foreigners, they say, 'If yours is played, ours should be played too.' It is agreed to play the 30-second version."

"When the Parla Anthem was canceled, it was understood in Turkey as if the National Anthem was canceled. Actually, there was no National Anthem crisis."

News Source: 12punto