The month of December for Turkish Football (soccer) was not a good one. Two incidents of violent fan clashes happened in Turkey and finally law makers are trying to push a law to inflict harsher punishment for football violence. It is widely known that Turkish football fans are some of the worst hooligans and teams all over Europe mumble dislike under their breath when they have to go to Turkey to play.
After attending a Fenerbahce game in Istanbul and then attending a FC Barcelona match in Spain, I could tell there were distinct differences. In Turkey, fans have to empty all change (so they cannot throw it at refs or players), cell phones and cameras are usually confiscated (except for friendly looking foreigners like me), and there is no beer sold at the games. In Spain, I don't even get a pat down or second look upon entering the stadium. And I can even purchase a cold beer!
Fans in Turkey love to fight over football. Case in point. In Ankara last year, in our neighbourhood, two cafes (that sell beer) were broadcasting a game between Fenerbahce and Galatasaray. The bars were right next to each other each one supported different team. Well, the night ended with an all out brawl between the two cafes that had not only had fists flying but chairs as well.
One of the ugliest incidents of fan violence happened at a Under-17 game between arch club rivals Fenerbahce and Galatasaray last week. Thats right, a game between 16 year olds were fans started fighting on the field! (See video below) And they say Canadians are violent when it comes to hockey.
The Hurriyet Daily newspaper published an article with new information about the law stating that: "the “Law on Violence in Sports,” proposes fines and jail time for violent fans, as well as huge fines for club executives and members of the media who provoke violent actions. The use of abusive language while chanting would also be severely punished by up to three years of jail time"
For full article click here
Hopefully this law will help stop the violence that has plagued football in Turkey as there are too many violent fan clashes. Last year was particularly bad when we were there as one team had to play its last few games of the season behind closed stadium doors (no fans allowed) because the fans kept invading the field and attacking the refs.
Video of most recent incident
Here is the Besiktas video of their fans attacking fans from the Bursaspor team. In case you are wondering whats going on in this video I will explain; for every home game, the home team (in this case Besiktas) has to have a section reserved for the away teams fans. They wait after the game for all of the other fans to leave so they can leave in peace, since they are great outnumbered. But in this case the Besiktas fans manage to get through the barries and attack the Bursa fans trying to leave their private exit. Now for the video:
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