Jose Mourinho’s Post-Match Press Conference Bombshell: “Football in Turkey is Very Dark!”

Mourinho stated that after he was in talks to come to Turkey, he started watching Turkish league games and continued:

“FOOTBALL IN TURKEY IS VERY DARK”

“But my perspective was different. I focused more on observing the players I would work with in the future rather than other aspects when watching matches. I was entirely focused on the team. Of course, before I came here, when I met with our president and our sporting director, they mentioned these things to me. In fact, as you know, I had previously spoken with another major and respectable Turkish club. These issues were mentioned to me then as well. But when I saw the extent of it, I couldn’t believe it. I can say it really smells dark and bad.”

“THE SYSTEM ALSO SUPPORTS FENERBAHÇE’S OPPONENTS”

“This is my job, of course. I will give my all to my club,” said Mourinho, “But I want to make it clear that I have absolutely no issue with Trabzonspor. There’s a long-standing rivalry between the two clubs over the years, but that rivalry doesn’t involve me. I’ve played here before with Roma. It’s a beautiful stadium. The fans always support their team, and the team does its best to achieve results. But there are some players who know very well, they have learned that when you play against Fenerbahçe, the system is also on your side. Thus, these players adapt to this situation. Some players from Trabzonspor knew this and used it wisely.”

“THE SYSTEM HAS A NAME, REFEREE ATİLLA KARAOĞLAN”

Reiterating that he has no issue with Trabzonspor, Mourinho added, “I wish them all the best. But playing against the system is really difficult, and today the system had a name: Atilla.”

“SOMETIMES WE CAN PLAY WITH TWO FORWARDS DEPENDING ON THE SCORE AND STRATEGY”

Noting that they played with two forwards last week, Mourinho continued:

“We started the match with Edin Dzeko and En-Nesyri. Then, Cenk Tosun came into the game. This shows that this is something we are prepared for and have considered. Depending on the score and strategy, we can do this from time to time. Today, we knew there would be a tough battle in the midfield. I couldn’t follow local newspapers as I don’t speak Turkish, but people within the club follow local papers, and we knew that they wouldn’t play with a classic No. 10. They would play with three physically strong midfielders. Today, if Savic had played in the defense, Mendy would have been in the midfield. So we thought it was a risk to play with two midfielders.”

“I CAN’T SAY THE VAR REFEREE WAS DRINKING ALCOHOL, BUT WAS HE DRINKING TURKISH TEA?”

Emphasizing that they managed to control the game in a challenging match, Mourinho said, “I always like to give credit to the opponent. As I mentioned, we controlled the game and went ahead 1-0. Until the VAR referee Atilla woke up. In the first half, he was probably drinking tea. I can’t say he was drinking alcohol, but he was probably sitting down with a cup of Turkish tea because there was a very clear red card on Bright. If a Fenerbahçe player had done such a thing, the referee wouldn’t have hesitated to show a card on the field. But when it’s against us, the referees are afraid to make decisions. The first penalty was actually Atilla’s penalty. I saw the second penalty from the bench and immediately thought, yes, this is a penalty. I didn’t watch it later on TV, but in my opinion, the second one was a penalty.”

“THE BIGGEST SCANDAL WAS THE PENALTY NOT GIVEN TO US”

Expressing that the opponent’s chances of scoring increased when they won a penalty, Mourinho said:

“I had to take Bright out of the game because he had a yellow card. Because big Atilla would be a big risk for us. We brought good players onto the field as substitutes—Kahveci, Dzeko, Kostic, İsmail—to try to turn the game around. But in my opinion, the biggest scandal in the match was the penalty not given in our favor. As I mentioned, not many people abroad watch the Turkish league. In London, probably only my son watches Turkish league games. But I’ll post this situation on Instagram. It won’t be much, but it will probably get over 5 million views, and people will see what the Turkish league is.”

When a journalist asked Mourinho to rate his performance with this squad out of 10, he answered, “Zero.”