Fenerbahçe Vice President Acun Ilıcalı spoke to the British press: He accused Galatasaray of 'manipulating'!

Creation Date: February 25, 2025 18:44

Fenerbahçe Vice President Acun Ilıcalı responded to Galatasaray 's claim that he was racist towards Jose Mourinho on Sky Sports News, one of England's leading press.

WHAT DID MOURINHO SAY?

Fenerbahçe Technical Director Jose Mourinho, in the press conference held on behalf of the derby, had said, "I must also thank the referee today. In the position you mentioned, everyone in the opposing bench was jumping like monkeys on the player's head. A very big character. If it was a Turkish referee, he would have given a yellow card in the first minute and I would have had to change it in the fifth minute."

CRIMINAL COMPLAINT FROM GALATASARAY

Following these words of the Portuguese coach, Galatasaray Club announced that they would file a criminal complaint and used the following statements in their post;

"Fenerbahçe Technical Director Jose Mourinho, who has been regularly making derogatory remarks against the Turkish people since he started working in Turkey, has today added inhumane statements to his immoral statements. We would like to inform you that we will file a criminal complaint with the prosecutor's office and that we will also file a complaint with UEFA and FIFA due to these racist statements against Jose Mourinho. In addition to all these initiatives, we will be following the attitude of our "moral exemplar" rival's technical directors regarding this statement."

FENERBAHÇE SAID 'INSUFFICIENT SLANDER'

Fenerbahçe has released a statement regarding the accusation of racism from the yellow-red club. The statement from the yellow-dark blue club included the following statements;

"This statement has become necessary regarding a topic that has been on the agenda after the match played between our Football Team and Galatasaray.

A statement made by our Technical Director José Mourinho after the match was taken completely out of context and deliberately distorted.

As every sensible person can see and understand; these expressions used by José Mourinho to describe the excessive reaction of the opposing team's technical staff to the referee decisions during the match can in no way be associated with racism.

Trying to portray this discourse as racist is a completely malevolent approach.

We would like to inform the public that we will use our legal rights regarding this pathetic slander that aims to take the competition out of the field, change the agenda and manipulate it."

"WE ARE USED TO THIS IN TURKEY"

Fenerbahçe Vice President Acun Ilıcalı made a statement to the British press regarding the issue, saying, "When I say 'you run like a rabbit', I don't mean you are a rabbit. When I say 'you jump like a monkey', it doesn't mean you are a monkey. So when you look at the people on the bench right now, when you look at their faces, I'm talking about Jose Mourinho and the other coach Okan Buruk, you can clearly understand that Jose Mourinho has no intention of being racist in his words, behind his words or around his words. This is a very clear situation that the Galatasaray management is trying to manipulate and we are used to this in Turkey."

HOW MANY PENALTIES WILL JOSE MOURINHO RECEIVE?

If UEFA confirms that Jose Mourinho committed racism, he could be banned for at least 10 matches. The European press, however, thinks that Mourinho was making an analogy, not racism.