The Turkish Super Lig is a crapshoot right now. Just three points separate leaders Galatasaray from fourth-placed Fenerbahce with Besiktas and Basaksehir just one point behind the Lions.
Now I do not actually know much about craps. Casino Guru experts says it’s all in the dice. The Turkish Football Federation rolled the dice today following an absolutely insane derby between Fenerbahce and Besiktas. Suffice to if they were on a craps board they’d be leaving penniless.
With the title race so tight you may have thought Fenerbahce and Besiktas would field reserve sides and focus on the league. Wrong!
So what happened?
Where do we start? Well let’s begin with Pepe who managed to get himself sent off via a direct red card after a double-footed lunge on Josef De Souza early in the first-half.
The game was stopped soon after when Fenerbache fans decided to hurl coins at Ricardo Quaresma while he was trying to take a corner. One fan even threw his keys at the Portuguese winger! We still have no idea how he made it home that night.
Anyway, the match was then stopped again for the exact same reason soon after.
And then the real drama erupted. An argument broke out between Besiktas substitute goalkeeper Tolga Zengin and several Fenerbahce fans.
Black Eagles manager Senol Gunes tried to split it up ended up but ended up being struck on the head by a foreign object from the Fenerbahce stand before falling to the floor.
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Şenol Güneş had a foreign object thrown at his head before collapsing on the floor! Beşiktaş have walked off. The derby has been abandoned pic.twitter.com/0vEoOJ4Zwy
— Turkish Football (@Turkish_Futbol1) April 19, 2018
Senol was escorted down the tunnel. The match officials abandoned play soon afterwards but not before a bust-up between staff and players from the opposing sides.
Gunes required five stitches to be applied in the dressing room before being taken to hospital. Dr. Yunus Aydın diagnosed the former Turkish national team head coach with mild concussion and kept him in overnight.
Beşiktaş manager Şenol Güneş being taken to hospital after being struck by an object thrown from the stands pic.twitter.com/dM2lGtixfe
— Turkish Football (@Turkish_Futbol1) April 19, 2018
At least 41 Fenerbahce fans were arrested following the incidents.
The Wait!
The rivalry between Fenerbahce and Besiktas has become so intense over the past two seasons that incredibly there was not a whole lot of sympathy for Gunes. You may have expected the clubs to jointly condemn the individuals who committed what was a crime but alas there was nothing but bickering.
It was all very irresponsible. There were even journalists and social media influencers claiming that Gunes faked the injury, that he was actually hit by a wig and that the stitches were make-believe. To make matters worse Fenerbahce painted themselves as the victims claiming there it was a plot to make them look bad.
Besiktas responded in similarly heavy-handed fashion lambasting Fenerbahce for being responsible for their manager ending up in hospital.
The big question was whether the Turkish Football Federation would replay the game or award an automatic 3-0 victory to Besiktas.
The Verdict
The final decision made by the TFF read something along the lines of, trying to please everyone but ending up pleasing nobody.
- 1 match suspension for Pepe
- 1 match ban for Tolga Zengin
- 3 match stadium ban for Fenerbahce
Pepe was given a one-match ban for his direct red card – which he served against Malatyaspor on Sunday. A punishment that had Galatasaray fans up in arms as he will be able to play against them in the derby.
Fenerbahce meanwhile were only given a three-match stadium ban which seemed pretty lenient considering the match was actually suspended twice for fans throwing foreign objects before being abandoned after Gunes was taken to hospital.
The icing on the cake was the decision to resume play after 57 minutes in May.
It was a bit of a copout in all fairness. The TFF could have awarded Fenerbahce a 3-0 win if they felt the reason the match was abandoned was due to Besiktas leaving the pitch. The more likely scenario would have been handing the Black Eagles a 3-0 victory due to the officials having to stop the game after the Gunes incident.
The decision to simply resume the game left both sides incensed! Besiktas fans have been campaigning on social media to get their team to boycott the Turkish Cup. Galatasaray fans feel Besiktas have been given a helping hand with Pepe returning. Fenerbahce fans feel Pepe’s punishment was not fair and confused as to why they have received a stadium ban but not a 3-0 automatic defeat.
The verdict has sparked outrage. It also poses the question, what happens if teams walk off in the future? will teams only get three-game stadium bans if hurl objects as opposition players from now on? it erodes confidence in the rule of law.
I guess the moral of the story is never try to please everyone.
