Fenerbahçe Vice President Acun Ilıcalı sends 'derby' message

Calling on Fenerbahçe fans to provide support for the full 90 minutes, Ilıcalı said, "It is a very important match. There are few words to be said for derbies. Everyone has these matches in their memory, and the matches speak for themselves. It is another such match. We trust our players.

The rising performance of our players in the recent period, the decrease in injuries in the team, and our momentum together with our coach give us great excitement. I think it will be a beautiful match. Of course, we are very excited. Our most important message is to our fans. Our fans have truly been the 12th man for about two months now. Thank you to them, their performance has also risen significantly along with the team.

We have always felt that they were the 12th man in the matches at Kadıköy recently. We expect this in this match as well. We want them to be fully concentrated on the match and make us feel that power behind our team.

Don't forget, the energy of our players is greatly influenced and increased by the enthusiasm of our fans in home matches. That is why I would like to make a request to our fans regarding this. Let us support our team to the death for 90 minutes. Let us always make our players feel that enthusiasm and contribute to their performance, just as we have in recent months," he said.

Ilıcalı continued as follows:

"I said on Friday evening that we wanted a foreign referee, just so I can say it for the 51st time. Let me say it for the 52nd time today, four days later. We said we wanted a foreign referee, and we are still saying it... We have always said we want a foreign referee. Yesterday, Mr. İbrahim Hatipoğlu made a very interesting and scandalous statement. If you call it memory loss, it is not that easy. If you call it a lack of information, such things do not happen often. Three days after the statement we made on Friday, he comes out and says ‘they are not talking.’ The part that actually interests me the most and is a complete scandal is this: He says, ‘We had an advantage in our home match,’ regarding the referee. They had an advantage in their home match. He says, ‘We had an advantage regarding the referee, and our rival took this advantage away from us by creating perception and an agenda, and a foreign referee came.’ He says exactly this: We had an advantage in the home match regarding the referee, and our rival created a perception. They did this, they did that. He is also accusing me there. He says that a foreign referee came."

REFEREE QUESTION

My first question is this: What kind of advantage did you have regarding the referee? What kind of advantage does Galatasaray have at home regarding the referee? We have always been saying this, and we have been saying it especially for two years. Especially this year, we were emphasizing that referees do not treat Galatasaray fairly at home. If a Galatasaray executive comes out and says, ‘We had an advantage regarding local referees at home,’ does that not confirm us? Yes, that is what we are saying too. You had an advantage at home. What are we saying for ourselves? We are saying, ‘Give us a foreign referee’ for our own home matches as well.

In short, if I explain it one by one now, it is better understood. Fenerbahçe Sports Club says for its home match; ‘Give us a foreign referee. We want justice.’ Galatasaray, which wants privilege, is unfortunately the proof of this. They say, ‘There was a local referee in the home match, pressure was applied, and this was turned into a foreign referee.’

This is now proof of a matter. I will bring this up a lot in the future because it is a scandalous statement. The moment you say we have a local referee advantage in a home match, you are admitting that you created pressure on the referees and proving that you turned this into an advantage. There is no other explanation for this anymore. Let them come out and say something else, and I will laugh after this.”

Speaking about the derby referee Cihan Aydın, Ilıcalı said, "The referee who participated in the meeting with the nickname Galatasaray is the referee of the match. Could we have preferred such a thing? No. Could we have wanted it? No. They didn't want this referee either. A referee who manages Champions League matches had come, there were huge objections. They turned everything upside down, okay. Now a local referee is coming, they don't want this either. Why is that? Because he participated with a Galatasaray nickname, ‘what if his mind gets confused’? Could the issue here be this? Could you be trying to create pressure on the referee? Could you be trying to confuse the referee by objecting to a subject you did not object to before? Could you be showing a stick under the cloak to this referee brother of ours, who is very likely to be a Galatasaray fan, by saying ‘Look, don't you dare act in favor of Fenerbahçe’?" he said.

Calling on the fans, the Fenerbahçe executive said, "I wish our team success from the heart. We believe in our fans, our team, and our coach. Hopefully, we will unite and have a beautiful day together. My heart and soul are with our players. Let our fans who cannot come be with us with their hearts, and those who come with their voices," he expressed.