05.03.2025 18:40
Fenerbahçe Vice President Acun Ilıcalı made statements before the match they will play against Rangers in the Round of 16 of the UEFA Europa League in Kadıköy. Ilıcalı shared his views on the match and Turkish football, but it was notable that he did not comment on the indictment prepared against him as part of the illegal betting investigation.
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Fenerbahçe Vice President Acun Ilıcalı made statements to the press before the match they will play against Rangers in Kadıköy in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League Round of 16.
"WE ARE HAPPY, WE ARE PROUD"
Acun Ilıcalı's statements are as follows;
"We are happy, we are proud. I think we came out of the toughest group in the qualifiers. We were saying back then that our opponents were both in form and strong. We played very tough matches, often with incomplete squads. There were away games where we fielded young team players. We overcame these challenges. We advanced to the second round and showed our strength in this round. We eliminated Anderlecht. Now we have another tough opponent, but we believe in our coach and our players. We are excitedly looking forward to tomorrow. There is no guarantee in any match in Europe, but I am very happy and proud. Hopefully, we will represent our country in the best way possible.
SUPER LEAGUE AND MOURINHO'S WORDS
There is something I can say about the Super League; as we have been saying from the very beginning, one of the best coaches in the world has come, and a season with a good squad has started. He faced the challenges that any new coach might encounter. He developed a system according to the team and has started to reap the rewards. We have said from the very beginning that we trust him and that we are behind him. We made him feel how much we believe in him. Football is about having the right project first, and then insisting on that project. That is what we are doing right now. We completed our deficiencies in January. We are in a good period. If God permits, we will continue our path first in Europe and then in the league.
"PSYCHOLOGICAL ADVANTAGE RESPONSE"
I don't know if this is a psychological advantage, but I can say that our psychology is very good. You can see that the team is one body. As a community, our psychology is quite good. The arrival of foreign VAR was the first breaking point in Turkish football, and afterwards, the tide turned in our favor. We are continuing in three competitions.
"SOMETHING IS CHANGING IN TURKEY"
I don't know if this is a psychological advantage, but I can say that our psychology is very good. You can see that the team is one body. As a community, our psychology is quite good. The arrival of foreign VAR was the first breaking point in Turkish football, and afterwards, the tide turned in our favor. We are continuing in three competitions.
"I WISH OTHER TEAMS WERE HERE TOO"
I wish other teams were here too... Why shouldn't we have other teams? Our dream is to have many of our teams here. Right now, only Fenerbahçe is here. We will play against a strong opponent in this round, but I think we are ambitious. Hopefully, we will achieve significant success for Turkish football.
"REFEREE SHOULD NOT BE FROM FENERBAHÇE OR GALATASARAY"
The referee issue is a long one. There is no need to give an extraordinary meaning to local referees and suffer the pains of their mistakes. Good referees from around the world need to come and manage the matches with VAR. We have been saying this from the very beginning. Beşiktaş and Trabzonspor also wanted this. As I asked before, do we know which team Turkish referees support? Those who show sensitivity about having a referee from Maribor because my team is there, why are they so comfortable with referees from Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray managing matches? We don't want a Fenerbahçe referee to manage, nor a Galatasaray referee. We don't know which team each referee supports. It is known everywhere in the world, but it is not known here. We believe that the sense of justice will be compromised with referees whose team affiliations are not clear.
ILLEGAL BETTING INVESTIGATION
As part of the illegal betting investigation conducted by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, an indictment was prepared against Acun Ilıcalı based on the detection of advertisements for unlicensed and illegal betting sites using virtual advertising techniques in football matches broadcast on his owned TV8 and Exxen. In the indictment, it was requested that Ilıcalı be punished with imprisonment of 1 to 3 years and a judicial fine of up to 3,000 days for the crime of "encouraging individuals to advertise and otherwise participate in fixed odds or pool betting or games of chance based on sports competitions." The yellow-blue executive did not make a statement regarding the indictment prepared against him. Additionally, RTÜK imposed a fine of 17 million 852 thousand 40 TL due to 'violence-related discussions and images' in Survivor aired on TV8.
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