Turks star in turmoil

UEFA intervenes: ban for “wolf greeter” Demiral

Merih Demiral is banned by UEFA for this cheer in the match against Austria.

(Bild: AFP)

UEFA takes action! According to initial information, Turkey professional Merih Demiral has been banned for two European Championship matches for his wolf salute in the European Championship round of 16 against Austria. 

It's a major European Championship scandal! After scoring his second goal against Austria on Tuesday evening in the Leipzig stadium, Demiral raised both hands to the night sky in the so-called wolf salute, a hand signal and symbol of the "Grey Wolves" - sending a clear message to the world.

(Bild: AP ( via APA) Austria Presse Agentur/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The supporters of the right-wing extremist "Ülkücü Movement", which is monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Germany, are referred to as "Grey Wolves". In Turkey, the ultra-nationalist MHP is its political representative and ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-conservative AKP. MHP leader Devlet Bahceli described the initiation of the UEFA proceedings as a "provocation". The move was "extremely biased and wrong". UEFA was thus jumping on "the bandwagon of evil" of those "who are obviously hostile to the Turks and Turkey".

Defense period running
However, Europe's soccer association UEFA has now cracked down and banned the Turk for the next two matches because of a message with political content. This was reported by the German newspaper "Bild".

This means that Demiral will miss the quarter-final against the Netherlands and a possible promotion, meaning that the European Championship is probably over for the Turkish goalscorer. Officially, however, the ban will not be announced until Friday because the Turkish association has until Friday morning to present arguments against a ban.

Repeat offender
Incidentally, Demiral has already been the focus of a political debate once before. At a match in France in 2019, many Turkish national team players had saluted with the military salute in support of the Turkish armed forces involved in the military operation against the Kurdish militia YPG in northern Syria. At the time, there was a brief dispute between Demiral and Kaan Ayhan. Demiral is said to have encouraged his teammate to salute as well.