By David Gold
October 29 – There is confusion in Turkey after a ‘ban’ on away fans attending matches between Istanbul giants Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Besiktas, as well as those of Trabzonspor, was announced this week.
It was reported that the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) announced that fans of any of the four teams would not be able to attend away matches against any of the other three teams, though every organisation involved denied having been responsible for the decision.
The reports came just before the first Istanbul derby of the season, when Fenerbahçe travelled to Besiktas.
On Thursday (October 27), hours before the clash, the TFF suggested that it was the Istanbul Security Council who had ruled away fans could not attend games between the four clubs, but then the Security Council said that it was in fact the Boards of the four clubs concerned.
Besiktas board member Orhan Saka then told Fenerbahce fans that they could come to the game, and this caused the eventual disruption, after which the game continued, finishing 2-2.
Four minutes into the derby, Fenerbahce fans caused disruption when they broke through a gate to make their way to their seats after it had been decided that they could attend the game after all.
Turkish football is regularly interrupted by crowd trouble and passions run highest in the derbies between the countries three big Istanbul giants and Trabzonspor.
At the moment the situation is still unclear, with the TFF yet to respond to a query from insideworldfootball.
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