UEFA bans Turkish player Merih Demiral for two matches for nationalist gesture at Euro 2024

BERLIN (AP) — UEFA banned Turkish player Merih Demiral for two matches on Friday for controversial gesture at the European Championships.

This means the defender is suspended for Turkey’s quarter-final against the Netherlands on Saturday and for the semi-final, should Turkey advance.

The Football Association said it had banned Demiral “for failing to comply with the general principles of conduct, violating the basic rules of good behaviour, abusing sporting events for rallies of a non-sporting nature and bringing the reputation of football into disrepute”.

Demiral scored both goals on Tuesday in a 2-1 win against Austria to secure Turkey’s place in the quarter-finals, celebrating with a hand gesture associated with an ultra-nationalist group.

After scoring the second goal, he made a sign with each hand used by Turkish nationalists and associated with the Turkish ultranationalist organization Ülkü Ocaklari, commonly 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.”

But on Wednesday, UEFA launched an investigation. The Turkish camp had until Friday to present its position. There was initially no reaction from the Turkish Football Association.

Demiral was previously one of 16 Turkish players reprimanded in 2019 for performing military salutes at games at a time when the country was conducting a military offensive in Syria.

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

In the decades following its founding in the 1960s, the group was accused of involvement in politically motivated acts of violence, mostly against left-wing groups.

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AP Euro 2024: https://apnews.com/hub/euro-2024