Erdogan meets Turkey captains after Fenerbahce attack
AFP
April 13, 2015, 6:24 am
Istanbul (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday held a hugely unusual meeting with the captains of all of Turkey's top flight football sides over situation in the game a week after a gun attack on the Fenerbahce team bus.
Erdogan hosted all 18 captains from the Super Lig including Emre Belozoglu of Fenerbache and Selcuk Inan of Istanbul rivals Galatasaray at the Ottoman-era Yildiz palace in Istanbul, the presidency said in a statement.
Also there were the head of the Turkish football federation Yildirim Demiroren and the Turkey national team manager Fatih Terim.
The team bus of Fenerbahce was last weekend fired on in the Black Sea region, prompting the Turkish Super Lig to be suspended by one week.
Fenerbahce have said they will not play again until the attack is cleared up and it is not clear when games will resume.
Two men were arrested over that attack, but were released on Wednesday. It is not clear what stage the investigation is at now.
Erdogan made no comment after the meeting, which was closed to the media.
However Belozoglu said Erdogan had said such meetings should be continued in the future. "We need to be examples to our supporters off the pitch as well," said Belozoglu, quoted by the Fanatik sports website.
On Fenerbahce he said: "Our team's morale is good. After coming through tough period we think there are going to be good things for ourselves and Turkish football."
