Turkish footballer banned for wolf gesture one day before Erdoğan’s participation in Euro 2024 – POLITICO

On Friday, UEFA said it had concluded that Demiral had “violated basic rules of good conduct” and decided to ban the Turkish player for “abusing sporting events for demonstrations of a non-sporting nature and bringing the sport of football into disrepute”.

Turkish state media TRT immediately criticized UEFA’s move, calling it a “scandalous decision.” The Turkish Foreign Ministry had previously defended the gesture on the grounds that it was “not forbidden in Germany” and described the tournament hosts’ reactions as “xenophobic.”

As the diplomatic row intensified, Erdoğan scrapped plans to attend an Organization of Turkic States summit in Azerbaijan on Saturday and said he would instead fly to Berlin to support Turkey in its quarter-final match against the Netherlands.

“Does anyone ask why the German national jersey has an eagle or the French jersey has a rooster?” Erdoğan told reporters on a flight from Kazakhstan on Thursday. “Merih showed his joy with this gesture,” he said.

“Hopefully the whole issue will be resolved on Saturday. Let’s leave the field with a win and move on to the next round,” said Erdoğan.

If Turkey wins on Saturday and advances, Demiral will also miss the semi-final.