çArşı to boycott derby game to protest e-tickets

ISTANBUL

'Against the absurdity of an away games ban, against the absurdity of this e-ticket garbage, we will not be at the derby,' the supporter group announced.

Beşiktaş football club’s most famous supporter group, çArşı, announced yesterday that it will not be in the stadium for this weekend’s crucial derby against Fenerbahçe in protest at a controversial new e-ticketing system that is designed to exert greater control over fans.

“It is the supporters that make derby games a derby. Against the absurdity of an away games ban, against the absurdity of this e-ticket garbage, we will not be at the derby,” the supporter group wrote on its Twitter account.

çArşı’s announcement is the latest supporter outcry against the electronic ticketing system, introduced by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) on April 14. Under the rules of the system, anyone who wants to buy tickets for a football match in the Spor Toto Super League and PTT League One will be first asked to buy a card dubbed “passolig;” tickets for games will in turn be bought with the card, which will include the identity information of the supporter on one side and his or her photograph on the other.

The new system is under fire not only for the extra costs it puts on football supporters, but also for concerns over private data. The company making the card will have access to supporters’ national identity data, bank accounts and other private data, and will be able to share it with the police and the TFF.

Some 40 Turkish supporter groups issued a declaration on April 13 calling on football fans not to buy e-tickets and to boycott matches.