Galatasaray players boycott training session over delayed wages

ISTANBUL

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Galatasaray Liv Hospital players refused to attend a team training session late Jan. 19 in protest at a delay in wage payments.

The squad was present at the first training session earlier in the day, but a second training session was canceled after the players said they would boycott it.

I was not the first time the team had problems in paying its players. In December 2014, four players, Furkan Aldemir, Pietro Aradori, Nathan Jawai and Ian Vougioukas, left the club activating their release clauses over unpaid wages. Other players, including star guard Carlos Arroyo, stayed when the club board promised the wages would be paid on time.

Galatasaray board member Can Topsakal said the problem stemmed from a problem at the bank and that the payments were to be made today.

Galatasaray's basketball team, which beat Red Star Belgrade in a Turkish Airlines Euroleague Last 16 game last week, is already three months in arrears over wages to the players, but the monthly payments will continue without any problems, Topsakal said, adding that the team’s preparations for the second half of the Turkish Basketball League (TBL) season that starts this weekend would continue as planned.