Fenerbahçe’s Kuyt lashes out at Turkey crowd trouble

ISTANBUL

The Spor Toto Super League game between Trabzonspor and Fenerbahçe was called off due to intense crowd trouble on March 10. AA Photo

Fenerbahçe’s Dutch striker Dirk Kuyt has described the crowd trouble in the recent Trabzonspor match as the most precarious moment he has ever experienced in his career.

The Spor Toto Super League game between Trabzonspor and Fenerbahçe was called off due to intense crowd trouble, amid a hail of objects thrown onto the pitch in Trabzonspor’s Hüseyin Avni Aker Stadium on March 10.

“It was very dangerous and I have really never experienced anything like that,” Kuyt told the Netherlands’ Telegraaf website.

Referee Bülent Yıldırım called off the game amid a flurry of flares, stones and sticks thrown onto the pitch. After the stadium was evacuated, the fans continued to clash with the police and the teams had to wait inside the stadium for hours.

“There were policemen with bloody faces and we were caught up in armored police vehicles,” Kuyt said.
“We had been playing for less than 15 minutes when a knife with a blade six inches long was thrown onto the pitch. We could not take corners because the fans were throwing everything at the corner taker: bricks, cellphones, fireworks and even door handles.”

Fenerbahçe was leading 1-0 with a goal from Emmanuel Emenike when the game was halted. Host Trabzonspor is expected to be hit with a stadium closure ban and the game will probably be awarded a 3-0 win for Fenerbahçe.

Matches between the two teams have always been heated following the 2010-2011 season, when Fenerbahçe won the title on goal difference over Trabzonspor, but faced match-fixing charges only two months later.

“Last season was a madhouse, but compared to this season it was very peaceful,” Kuyt said.

Trabzonspor’s Portuguese defender Jose Bosingwa also complained about the crowd trouble, according to reports.

“It is impossible to play football in this hell,” daily Milliyet quoted the veteran Portuguese as saying.