Clashes erupt during Fenerbahçe vs Marseille game

MARSEILLE

Football fans fight during the UEFA Europa League Group C3 football match between Olympique de Marseille and Fenerbahce SK, on November 22, 2012, at the velodrome stadium in Marseille. AFP photo

Fans clashed during the Europa League game between Marseille and Fenerbahçe on Nov. 22.

The first encounter between the two groups happened after Fenerbahçe took the lead with a goal from Bekir İrtegün in the game’s 40th minute. Host Marseille’s fans then attacked Fenerbahçe fans with police intervening to keep the crowd from stampeding.

However, later in the game Marseille fans unveiled a flag of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), much to the anger of the visiting Turks. Fenerbahçe fans started chanting slogans damning the PKK and attacked the group bearing the flag with the police intervening for a second time.

That was not the only political gesture made in the stands. A group of Fenerbahçe fans unveiled a banner that reads “Murderer Israel, Free Palestine.”

Fenerbahçe won the game 1-0.