"Ali Koç makes a provocative reference to Galatasaray."

Fenerbahçe President Ali Koç made striking statements about their eternal rival Galatasaray at the press conference he held regarding the championship race. Koç made a remark that will be widely discussed about the yellow-reds.

REFERENCE TO GALATASARAY: WE DID NOT PUT A SINGLE ILLEGAL LIRA IN THE SAFE

Ali Koç's statements are as follows;

"The unspoken greatness of Fenerbahçe comes from its strong and independent character. We have worked day and night to ensure that this character is not compromised and that our community, which has its own remedy for every problem, does not bow its head. While our eternal rival indulges in black market tickets and money from illegal betting, and puts the name of an illegal betting site on a jersey that has been around for over a hundred years, we did not put a single illegal lira in Fenerbahçe's safe, and we are proud of it.

Fenerbahçe competes at the highest level internationally in 8 out of its 9 branches. Naturally, when there is no success in football, you cannot enjoy the pride of that success.

"WE MADE MISTAKES TOO, BUT THEY PUSHED OUR RIVAL"

Like every club, we made mistakes too. We did not shy away from self-criticism, nor did we take offense. During our initial period, we did not intervene even in the harshest criticisms, not even on FBTV. But allow me to ask a question; did the teams that have been champions in the last 10 years have no mistakes at all? Were there no transfer errors attributed to us, etc.? Did they have no management deficiencies? While everyone can be champions with their mistakes and shortcomings, for some reason, we could not. Perfection was always expected from us. Last season, we had a flawless season, achieving the highest points in our history. We won 4 out of 6 derbies and lost 1. When they could not stop us, they pushed our rival.

"YOU CANNOT EXPLAIN IT WITH THE NATURAL FLOW OF LIFE"

The public and the press did not talk about the mistakes of our rivals as much as they did about ours recently. Mistakes are punished more than crimes. I am not just saying this for our period. I don't know if it is being examined by the media, but in the points table of the last 10 years, there is a 1-point difference between us and Galatasaray, and a 5-championship difference. You cannot explain this with the natural flow of life.

"WE ARE 5 POINTS AHEAD OF THEM"

If you look at the last 5 years, we are 5 points ahead of them, but we still do not have a championship. When looking at the numbers over the last 10 years, Fenerbahçe does not have a graph of failure. For some reason, the numbers do not reflect the realities of Turkish football. It is a situation that is hard to explain."