Selahattin Baki responded to Lale Orta and VAR allegations
Fenerbahçe manager Selahattin Baki made a statement after the Hatayspor match; "Grave, dishonest statements were made. Now the public should seriously question what this person said."
Fenerbahçe Club Board Member Selahattin Baki responded to the statements of Galatasaray Vice President Erden Timur after the Atakaş Hatayspor match.
After the 4-2 victory over Hatayspor, Baki pointed out that Fenerbahçe team had won all 17 of their matches this season and congratulated coach İsmail Kartal, the players and the fans.
Drawing attention to the statements made by Erden Timur, Baki continued, “We are going out of football again because grave, dishonest and false statements were made. The public should seriously question what this person (Erden Timur) said.” Reminding Erden Timur’s sentence “He who escapes from the scales is a thief”, Baki continued as follows: “It is extremely tragicomic and ironic for us. We have called them to the scales 4 times since we came to the management, and in this period of time when they came to the management, regarding the problems with the Turkish Football Federation (TFF), which we see from our perspective, the problems with the Central Referee Board (MHK), the injustices related to Turkish football, and the rights of Fenerbahçe that were defeated before 1959. We even said, ‘If you want, let’s go on Galatasaray TV at the president level. If your president cannot appear, let’s appear at the level of the vice-president.” Therefore, anyone who runs away from the scales is a thief. Despite 4 official invitations, they couldn’t appear before us.”
Selahattin Baki: “Lale Orta allegation is particularly grave”
Selahattin Baki also addressed Erden Timur’s claim that former MHK President Lale Orta sent footage from the VAR room to Fenerbahçe President Ali Koç, “Let’s talk about Lale Orta. This is another grave allegation. She claimed that she sent VAR footage to our President Ali Koç when she was the MHK president. Both Ms. Lale Orta and our President Ali Koç vehemently denied this within 5 minutes. We have also applied to the TFF Board of Directors to investigate and our President will seek his legal rights on this issue within the week. Therefore, there is also a lie here. This also needs to be seriously investigated. Since the TFF is the admiral of Turkish football, then either they will play an enlightening role in this matter or they will be part of this game.”
Selahattin Baki said that Erden Timur called him after the Fred transfer, “I wasn’t going to explain this, but now I feel the need to explain.” and continued his words as follows:
“After the Fred transfer, I made a statement saying, ‘Two different people tried to corrupt both Manchester United and Fred.’ As if he didn’t know about it, he phoned me and said, ‘Can you tell me who they were?’ I gave him the names and he said, ‘I know them but I didn’t give such an instruction.’ He said that this was normal in transfers, but I told him, ‘I’ve been a manager for 11 years and I’ve been making transfers in football, no one can take this much initiative.’ He tells things that happened as if they didn’t happen and things that didn’t happen as if they did. I feel very sad. It could be the beginning of Alzheimer’s, I wish him a speedy recovery. He came as the protector of Turkish football, the guardian of justice. He said he would take all stakeholders of Turkish football under his wing. He was going to make a program every Tuesday on Galatasaray TV about all the teams that were wronged. They didn’t do that either. When we reminded them, they said that the Union of Clubs was not in favor of it. This is also an absurd claim. The Union of Clubs has nothing to do with this. They play themselves. The public also believes them. People in their own community also believe this. All of a sudden, things that shouldn’t be tense are getting tense.”
Continuing his statements regarding Erden Timur’s allegations, Selahattin Baki concluded his remarks as follows “He made allegations that the Fenerbahçe management and the Fenerbahçe president are in relations with some journalists and that they commission bespoke news. Just recently, a television presenter made a statement saying, ‘No Fenerbahçe executive has ever called me, but Erden Timur has called and texted me many times in the past. Such lies, such dishonest perceptions have reached the point where we are outraged. We have gotten used to it, but we would like to warn people in the public who are riding this train. Even changing the CV of a Koç Holding employee is a tragicomic event. There is no truth in anything they say. We are so confident that we are applying to the ethics committee and the TFF Board of Directors. Our president is currently applying himself to have these things investigated. These are the actions of a man who trusts himself, of a community that trusts itself. My last word, anyone who runs away from the scales is a thief and a coward.”