Turkey’s Demiral suspended for two matches for nationalist gesture at Euro 2024 – Sportsnet.ca

BERLIN — UEFA on Friday suspended Turkey’s Merih Demiral for two matches for making a controversial hand gesture at the European Championship, an incident that sparked a diplomatic row between Turkey and hosts Germany.

Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz condemned the decision as unacceptable and called for it to be “corrected.”

“The emotion and beauty of football should not be overshadowed by political decisions,” Yilmaz said.

The ban rules Demiral out of the quarter-final against the Netherlands on Saturday, as well as the semi-final if Turkey advances to the final.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to attend Saturday’s match. He has cancelled plans to attend the meeting in Azerbaijan and has decided to attend instead to show his support.

Speaking to a group of journalists before UEFA announced its decision, Erdogan defended Demiral, saying the 26-year-old defender was merely expressing his “excitement” after scoring his second goal in Tuesday’s 2-1 win over Austria.

UEFA said it had banned Demiral “for failing to comply with the general rules of conduct, for breaking the basic rules of good behaviour, for using sporting events for manifestations of a non-sporting nature and for bringing football into disrepute”.

There was no immediate reaction from the Turkish Football Association to the ban, although Turkish media reports said the association would appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Omer Celik, a spokesman for Erdogan’s ruling party, criticised UEFA’s ban as an “extremely wrong decision”, suggesting the governing body had bowed to “certain pressure groups”.

“UEFA’s decision has cast a shadow of political influence on football,” Celik wrote on social media platform X.

Demiral’s goals took Turkey into the quarter-finals. After scoring the second goal, he made the sign with each hand, which is used by Turkish nationalists and is associated with the Turkish ultranationalist organization Ulku Ocaklari, which is more widely known as the Grey Wolves.

Demiral later defended the gesture, saying it was an innocent expression of national pride and that he hoped he would “have more opportunities to make the same gesture again.”

This was condemned by German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and other German politicians, leading to sharp criticism from Turkish authorities and a summons to the German ambassador.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned the UEFA investigation as a politically motivated response “to the exploitation of a historical and cultural symbol” and said statements by German authorities about Demiral’s gesture “themselves contain xenophobia”.

UEFA began investigating Demiral’s gesture on Wednesday, with the Turkish camp having until Friday to present their case.

Demiral was previously one of 16 Turkish national team players punished in 2019 for making military-style salutes at matches while the country was conducting a military offensive in Syria.

The Grey Wolves group was founded as the youth wing of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party, MHP, which is currently in an alliance with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party, the Justice and Development Party.

After its founding in the 1960s, the group was accused for decades of engaging in political violence, mostly against left-wing groups.