Fenerbahçe VP Acun Ilıcalı: “We Submitted Evidence to TFF, We Want Justice, Not Privilege!”

Speaking based on concrete data, Ilıcalı said, “I want to start by asking whether football is truly a sport where justice is fully applied. Everything I will say in today’s press conference is concrete. I won’t be discussing any claims or gray areas.”

Recalling Erden Timur’s words, Ilıcalı said, “We said we wouldn’t watch the same movie again, so let’s explain. Two years ago, after the Fenerbahçe match, a Galatasaray executive said, ‘We won’t let the league finish.’ Is it concrete? Yes, it’s concrete! Then they apologized. Did developments occur in Turkey because of this threat that harmed Fenerbahçe’s rights? Yes, they did. Later, Galatasaray said, ‘Why are you raising the tension so much? Football is about brotherhood.'”

Referring to Dursun Özbek’s words after the Trabzonspor match, Ilıcalı said, “After Galatasaray’s Trabzonspor match, Dursun Özbek said, ‘The worst referee I have ever seen in my life.’ Later, Galatasaray made a statement about our match, saying ‘you have dirty hands.’ Again, the same scenario: our rights are violated, yellow card imbalances, and then they ask for local referees. Galatasaray takes the lead, and again it’s ‘football is about brotherhood, let’s not create tension.'”

“WE PROMISED OUR FANS THAT WE WILL OVERTURN THE SYSTEM”

Stating that they would change the system and had meetings with the TFF, Ilıcalı said, “We promised our fans. What did we say? We will change this system. We had the necessary meetings today.”

REFEREE CRITICISM

Criticizing referee management and claiming that yellow cards were not shown to Galatasaray, Ilıcalı said, “This season, Galatasaray has not been shown 14 yellow cards. If anyone has an objection, let them say, ‘The referee instructors say it’s 13, not 14,’ instead of arguing with me. Ten referee instructors agree; other teams have only missed one. Can a defender play the same game after receiving a yellow card? When we talk about a yellow card operation in Turkey, this is what we mean. No one talks about the referee in this operation. Can a referee maintain justice in a match without giving yellow cards? I’m now revealing the truth accepted by 8 referee instructors: Fenerbahçe has officially been denied 6 penalties this season. The referees agreed on this. With this week, it became 7. It’s 7 out of 7.”

GALATASARAY-KASIMPAŞA MATCH

Arguing that the league is not fair, Ilıcalı said, “I’m calling out here: Fenerbahçe has not been given 7 penalties, and their opponent has not been shown 14 yellow cards. Is this league fair now? Let me tell you the bitter truth—all of it is concrete. Now we’re coming to this week. This week was about making 2 plus 2 equal 3. At my age, I don’t expect to see this happen. A comedy that you may never see again in your life occurred. The Galatasaray-Kasımpaşa match was played. There was a handball, VAR watched one position for 4.5 minutes, and another for 5 minutes. A total of 9.5 minutes of stoppage. In the end, Galatasaray won 3-2. The match, which was 9.5 minutes in VAR, was extended by 7-8 minutes, and at the end of the match, 6 more minutes of stoppage were added. We also witnessed this. By God’s will, in the 5th minute of that 6 minutes, a goal was scored. You can add another minute for the goal, or stretch it and make it 1.5 minutes. The match suddenly didn’t end. Suddenly, those 6 minutes turned into 9.5 minutes. The last 3 minutes of the match were perfect. A cross comes in, Kasımpaşa players clear the ball with their feet, and the referee says ‘hold on.’ I’m speaking concretely—go watch the video. Everyone stops, the referee asks if there’s something. They probably say no. Another cross, another scramble, and the referee stops again, asking, ‘Is there nothing?’ They say no from there. As you might guess, the match ends around 9.5 minutes. The match ended, and we immediately gathered as management. Our president, who has been massacred for years, is experienced. He said, ‘Be ready for an operation, something is going to happen to us tomorrow.'”

ANTALYASPOR-FENERBAHÇE MATCH

Reacting to the referee decisions in the Antalyaspor match, Ilıcalı said, “In the Antalyaspor match, the flag goes up when Edin Dzeko has the ball. In the second half, long ball, up goes the flag again. During our attacks, the flag is always up! Is it offside or not? We don’t know, and we can’t go to VAR either. In our match, VAR disappeared all of a sudden. We played the game without VAR. The game restarted in 18 seconds and 8 milliseconds. Has there ever been a game in Turkey that started in 18 seconds? What we are experiencing is a disgrace. Something else is going on. The rules are being broken now. Something else is being played against Fenerbahçe,” he said.

“WHEN IT’S ABOUT FENERBAHÇE, I RECOGNIZE NO ONE”

Ilıcalı, emphasizing that he has friends from all walks of life, said, “I have friends and acquaintances who support Galatasaray, Beşiktaş. I have close relationships with people from all over Turkey. We are the children of the same country, but when it comes to Fenerbahçe, I recognize no one. Whatever has been asked of me concerning Fenerbahçe, I did during the Aziz Yıldırım era, and I do now during Ali Koç‘s era,” he said.

OKAN BURUK’S REMARKS

Referring to Okan Buruk’s remarks during the Kasımpaşa match, Ilıcalı said, “Okan Buruk said to the referee, ‘If you give this penalty, you won’t be able to officiate here again.’ This is where things have come to in Turkey. After that, the referee reduced the added time to six minutes. The referee was threatened, what can he do? He wants to continue refereeing and his career. He knows that others have been through this before. Last year, the referee of the Galatasaray match said, ‘I don’t know what state of mind I was in when I gave the penalty.’ That state of mind is the same as this one. After the operation is over, they’ll say, ‘Don’t put pressure on the referees; they are our children; don’t escalate things,'” he said.

“WE SUBMITTED THE DOCUMENTS TO THE TFF”

Reiterating that they want justice, not privilege, Ilıcalı said, “Today, we visited the TFF and submitted the documents. This is not a federation that says, ‘Let’s attack, let’s push.’ This federation has given us promises; they want to bring justice. The TFF wants justice, and we want justice too. We don’t want any privileges. We will succeed. Not by burning things down, not by destruction, but with concrete examples and communication. Why would we destroy the TFF? If the TFF President said, ‘There is no problem,’ we would take a different stance. The TFF President doesn’t talk to the referees. He can only replace the officials there. The TFF President is also aware of the situation. He said, ‘Trust us regarding justice, we will not give concessions to anyone,'” Ilıcalı expressed.

RESPONSE TO SOCIAL MEDIA

Declaring that they will overturn the system and run towards the championship, Ilıcalı said, “To those who create a storm on social media and are waiting for us to fall, I say this: Fenerbahçe fans are behind us. They chose us, sorry, but we won’t leave because of your efforts to bring us down. We will march forward loudly with our supporters who know how to rise when they fall. I will also do my best. Since the president took over, the economy has improved, and last year, the championship was taken from us. We will overturn the system and run together to the championship. The only formula for success is unity,” he said.

“WITH GOD’S WILL, WE WILL DEFEAT THEM AND BE CHAMPIONS”

Responding to the criticism directed at the management on social media, Ilıcalı said, “Let them continue their operation on social media, we have never been afraid of it. I’ve been famous for 20 years, and for 20 years, there’s nothing left unsaid about me. I laugh at these things. As a management and team, we are united. Our opponents are clear, and with God’s will, we will defeat them and become champions,” he said.

– What will you do if you can’t break this system?

“We will break it. I don’t think local referees are necessary. The federation president will dig deep into this matter, and if there’s no hope, he’ll bring foreign referees. You build the system with foreign referees, and that’s it. If they make mistakes, we can at least say it’s due to ignorance. Is there a referee scandal in England? Yes, but the referees are not under pressure. If they need to be punished, they are punished.”

Referring to Cihan Aydın participating in the referee meeting under his daughter’s nickname, Ilıcalı said, “Our teacher Cihan Aydın attends the meeting using his daughter’s nickname. The nickname is ‘The Biggest Galatasaray Fan Mira.’ He joins the meeting with his daughter’s nickname. We don’t need to talk about this. I’m not saying anything. After all that we’ve been through this season, this no longer feels like a big scandal to me. We’ve experienced far worse things,” he said.

“EVEN THE FEDERATION IS SHOCKED RIGHT NOW”

Ilıcalı stated that İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu was shocked by what had happened and said, “The federation is also shocked right now. I saw the president in front of me, astonished, saying, ‘How can this happen?’ He’s right. We will not proceed based on perceptions; we want justice, and we trust our federation. Let’s not immediately start making clips saying ‘We trust’ and all that. If one day that trust is broken, we will act accordingly,” he said.

FOREIGN REFEREE ISSUE

Ilıcalı, stating his preference for foreign referees, said, “We’re not the type to say penalty first and then say it wasn’t a penalty. Our eyes haven’t darkened. We won’t go for an ‘attack’ mentality; we will solve this issue. I’m not saying no mistakes were made against Galatasaray in Turkey. If they are also complaining about the referee, let them. The issue isn’t Beşiktaş or Galatasaray. An operation was attempted against us. I’m presenting that along with its history. Beşiktaş’s situation was 100% a penalty, what can I say? The guy’s wrestling. They have valuable executives, they will speak. If I were in charge, I would bring in foreign referees tomorrow, but the federation doesn’t think that way, and I respect that,” he said.

“THE FEDERATION CHANGED, THE SYSTEM WILL BE OVERTURNED”

Reiterating that they will overturn the system, Ilıcalı said, “We will not let our rights be trampled. We said we would overturn the system. We trust our president. The federation changed first, and the system will be overturned too. We won’t create a world of chaos and disconnection. We will show it like this, and we will disgrace it. No such injustice exists anywhere in the world,” he said.

“MOURINHO IS SHOCKED, CAN’T UNDERSTAND”

Reporting that Jose Mourinho can’t make sense of what happened, Ilıcalı said, “Our coach is shocked. He can’t understand. You know his reaction to the assistant referee raising the flag. I don’t want to divert the conversation to our coach today. There are concrete reports and concrete indicators. We trust our coach. His career and trophies speak for themselves. We will march towards the championship with him,” he said.