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Another statement from Fenerbahçe! 'We have stood tall against injustice'

Fenerbahçe expressed its reaction to the injustices that have persisted for 20 years by fielding its Under-19 football team in the Super Cup final.

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Fenerbahçe Sports Club, following its withdrawal from the pitch in the opening minutes of the Super Cup match, issued a statement in English and subsequently in Turkish, emphasizing the struggle they have been waging against an unfair football system in Turkey for the last 20 years. The team, which withdrew from the Turkish Super Cup Final played against Galatasaray on April 7, 2024, based this decision on a history filled with various challenges and injustices.

Fenerbahçe's statement is as follows:

"Fenerbahçe Sports Club has been fighting against an unfair football system in Turkey for the last 20 years. The Fenerbahçe community continues to take a stand against the unjust system in Turkish football through both sporting and legal channels.

Over the past 20 years, Fenerbahçe has faced various challenges:

-They lost the championship 3 times in 7 seasons, particularly in the final matches played against Denizlispor in 2006, where the game was stopped repeatedly due to foreign objects thrown onto the pitch,

-In the 2010-2011 season, they were unjustly accused of match-fixing by a terrorist organization that had infiltrated the state, and a lawsuit was filed against them.

-They endured a ten-year legal battle from 2011 to 2021 until they proved their innocence.

-Due to the trap set for the club, they suffered significant commercial losses and the value of their companies decreased by half.

-They were deprived of the right to participate in the Champions League for two seasons by the Turkish Football Federation before the judicial outcome was reached.

-They initiated a new legal process against the illegal organization that framed the club, titled the "Fenerbahçe Conspiracy Case," and are continuing their fight for justice.

-They have filed compensation lawsuits against various authorities in Turkey, including the Turkish Football Federation, for the material and moral damages they have suffered.

-On April 4, 2015, in an event unprecedented in world football history, their team bus was fired upon, but the perpetrators are still unknown despite nine years having passed.

As a result, Fenerbahçe's struggle against injustice culminated in recent events:

In the match played against Trabzonspor on March 17, 2024, hundreds of people stormed the pitch and attempted to attack the players due to insufficient security measures.

Despite the defensive actions taken by the players against organized attacks in Trabzon, the Turkish Football Federation deemed these actions worthy of punishment.

Following these events, the Board of Directors of Fenerbahçe Sports Club decided to meet with club members on March 18, 2024, to consult.

In line with this decision, Fenerbahçe held an Extraordinary General Assembly meeting on April 2, 2024, with a record number of participants (over 23,000 members) to determine the path to be followed.

One of the decisions taken at the 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 that the match be officiated by a foreign referee against the unfair climate in football.

Otherwise, the team would either take the field with the U19 team or not participate at all.

The club's application regarding the matter was also rejected by the Turkish Football Federation.

Following these decisions, in response to the final rejection by the Turkish Football Federation and all the injustices experienced, Fenerbahçe increased the possibility of losing the Super Cup Final by fielding its Under-19 Football Team.

The match ended with our team withdrawing from the pitch.

We state that we took the field not to win, but to defend the truth, and we want to emphasize our stance on this historic day for Turkish football:

“Just as we have served Turkish sports with thousands of trophies in our museum that bear the traces of effort and dedication in every branch of sports we have competed in throughout our 117-year history.

As the World's Greatest Sports Club, with 30 million fans who feel the national values of their country within them,

Just as we have stood tall against lawlessness and injustice yesterday and today, we will continue to do so tomorrow.”