Turkey on Tuesday criticized France over a request for UEFA sanctions on the Turkish National Football Team for performing a military salute. Claiming
Turkey on Tuesday criticized France over a request for UEFA sanctions on the Turkish National Football Team for performing a military salute.
Claiming the salutes at the end of a Monday match were “contrary to the spirit of sports,” French Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu tweeted her request that UEFA take action against Turkey.
Pointing out that French star Antoine Griezmann gave a similar salute this June, Turkey’s Youth and Sports Minister Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoglu said: “Whoever said nothing about Griezmann’s military salute is trying to distort our footballers’ grateful salute.”
“l call on UEFA to act sensibly on this investigation request,” Kasapoglu told a press conference.
After drawing France 1-1 in an away match on Monday to remain at top of Group H in the UEFA EURO 2020 qualifiers, Turkish players celebrated by saluting in tribute to the Turkish soldiers fighting terrorists in Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring.
The celebration was not televised by French TV.
England footballers slam Bulgaria over racist acts
English national football team players slammed Bulgarian fans over their racist behavior during Monday’s UEFA EURO 2020 qualifiers game.Manchester City star Raheem Sterling, Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford and Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings were targeted in Sofia by many Bulgarian fans who called them monkeys.”Feeling sorry for Bulgaria to be represented by such idiots in their stadium. Anyway.. 6-0 and we go back home, at least we did our job. Safe travel to our fans, u guys did well,” Sterling tweeted early Tuesday.”Very proud moment for me and my family tonight to make my England debut. The unfortunate incidents in the game were handled as well as possible proud of how we handled it,” Mings tweeted.Rashford said that this type of behavior is unacceptable and should not happen in this day and age.”Also been told what the Bulgaria captain did at half-time. To stand alone and do the right thing takes courage and acts like that shouldn’t go unnoticed. #NoToRacism,” Rashford said.Several Bulgarian fans in the Vasil Levski National Stadium raised monkey slogans and mimicked Nazi salutes to provoke the guest team.England hammered Bulgaria 6-0 in the Group A match as Rashford scored the opener and Sterling put the ball into the Bulgarian net twice.UEFA, European football’s governing body, has repeatedly vowed to eliminate racism and discrimination from the game.In recent years, UEFA released a video to raise awareness about racism, with many football stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic joining the campaign.Inter Milan star Lukaku faces racist abuseA recent racist attack was performed in Italy as the Belgian striker of Inter Milan, Romelu Lukaku suffered a hate speech.In September, an Italian sports commentator, Luciano Passirani, 80, had said the only way to stop might be to “give him 10 bananas to eat.”Referring to Lukaku’s power on the field, Passirani was sacked by Top Calcio 24.Passirani tried to walk back his racist remarks about Lukaku.”I’m not a racist, I’d like to apologize to Lukaku in person,” said Passirani, 80, as reported by the U.K.’s Daily Mail.”A lack of tact and education does not belong to my way of being,” he claimed.Lukaku, 26, faced monkey sound jeers from fans of Italy’s Cagliari during a match.On social media, Lukaku since called any type of discrimination unacceptable and called on all football federations to take steps against discrimination.Lukaku was one of the top signings in 2019 summer as Inter signed him away from England’s Manchester United for €65 million ($71.5 million).He is the all-time top scorer for the Belgian national team, with 49 goals in 82 games.Lukaku also helped Belgium win the bronze medal at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.Italy’s Atalanta fined over racist abuseSimilar to Lukaku, Fiorentina defender Dalbert suffered a racist abuse during an Italian league match against Atalanta on Sept. 22.The 26-year-old Brazilian player asked the referee to stop the game over insults targeting him.The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) fined Atalanta €10,000 ($11,000) for racism.FIFA slams Italy for incapacitySeparately FIFA slammed Italy for inefficiency in the fight against racism.”You can’t have racism in society or in football… In Italy, the situation hasn’t improved,” FIFA chief Gianni Infantino said in September as the racism should be removed from football.”You can’t be afraid to condemn racists, we need to combat them until they stop,” Infantino said amid racist insults in Italy.He added that Italy should impose stadium ban punishments against racist persons as the English football association implements.FIFA has been calling all its member associations, leagues, clubs and disciplinary bodies for having ‘a zero-tolerance approach’ against racism and applying harsh sanctions.The world football’s governing body also says on its website that FIFA will go on ‘to be at the forefront of the fight against racism’.
EURO 2020 quals: France upset over Turkey draw at home
French national football team has been frustrated after the 1-1 draw against Turkey in Monday’s crucial UEFA EURO 2020 qualifiers game at home.”Turkey were good defensively. We knew they were dangerous from set-pieces, especially at the back post and that’s how they equalized. There’s disappointment because we could have qualified tonight,” Bayern Munich’s French defender Lucas Hernandez said in a post-match interview.Home team France has broken the deadlock at Stade de France in the 76th minute of the match as Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud scored by a header, giving the 1-0 lead for “Les Bleus” (The Blues).But Turkey gave a quick response with the header made by Kaan Ayhan in the 82nd minute to secure the 1-1 draw in Saint-Denis.France missed a chance for the early UEFA EURO 2020 qualification with this draw.”We did what we needed in terms of the chances we created. We needed to be more clinical in front of goal. We’re still on course to fulfill our objectives and we need to finish off the work in November,” France manager Didier Deschamps said.Moussa Sissoko, French midfielder, stated that it is frustrating to have conceded the equalizer in set-piece.”We’ll learn from our errors and come back next month in order to stamp our ticket for Euro 2020,” he added.Meanwhile the French star of Barcelona, Antoine Griezmann said that they played their best match against Turkey despite the draw.”It’s a huge disappointment, because we had a big match. It has been a longtime that we didn’t play like that. I think it’s our best match in the qualifiers,” Griezmann said and adding that the result is frustrating for France.Turkish defender Merih Demiral was the key player for Turkey to avoid the loss against France.French sports daily L’Equipe named Juventus defender Demiral ”player of the match” for his excellent performance.Turkey’s national team manager Senol Gunes praised his players’ performance during the post-match interview.”A point is good for us and I’d like to congratulate my players. It’s very good to be going home to Turkey top of the group. We played against very strong opponents and they were better than us on the night. Taking four points from two games against France is a real achievement,” Gunes said.Turkey won six games out of eight group matches to score 19 points.Sitting on the second spot, France also earned 19 points in eight matches.Iceland are on the third spot as they had 15 points.Turkey and France still have big chance each to qualify for the EURO 2020 finals directly before the last two matches in the Group H.
UEFA holds inquiry on Turkish players’ soldier salute
UEFA, European football’s governing body, launched an investigation on Tuesday against Turkey for a military salute performed by players of its national team. Turkish National Football Team players did military salutes while celebrating a goal they scored during the UEFA EURO 2020 Qualifiers against Albania in Istanbul, as well as during their match against France in Saint-Denis, in reference to Turkey’s anti-terror operation in Syria launched on Oct. 9.UEFA initiated “disciplinary investigations” for the matches, appointing an inspector with regard to “potential provocative political behaviour,” UEFA said in a statement.During the matches, Turkish players celebrated their goals by a soldier’s salute, dedicating their goal to Turkish soldiers currently fighting in northern Syria in the ongoing Operation Peace Spring.