El-Saka feels insulted by Aybaba’s remarks
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hurriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 27, 2008 00:00
ISTANBUL - Gençlerbirliği coach Samet Aybaba's remarks about defender Abdel Zaher El-Saka raise a new debate on racism in Turkish football. The Egyptian defender claims he and the whole Arab world have been insulted by Aybaba's comments, while the Turkish coach defends himself.
Gençlerbirliği’s Egyptian defender Abdel Zaher El-Saka has labeled coach Samet Aybaba’s remarks as an insult to Arab world as well as himself.
Speaking after his team’s home game last Sunday against Sivasspor, Samet Aybaba hit back at reporters and fans, who criticized his decision to drop El-Saka out of the team.
"People in this country preferred an Arab over me," said Aybaba to reporters at the press conference following his team’s 2-1 win to Turkcell Super League leader Sivasspor. During the last minutes of the game, fans’ chants of "El-Saka in, Aybaba out" could be heard.
The following day, Aybaba defended himself saying that "this was sports, not politics." He also stated that he was not a racist.
The reason why Aybaba dropped El-Saka out of the squad last week was the Egyptian international’s comments to the media.
"Only Chairman İlhan Cavcav can send me from this club," said El-Saka earlier last week, in response to his failure to find a regular place in the starting 11 recently. Seeing those comments as challenging his power as a coach, Aybaba excluded the defender from the squad with immediate effect, and refused to include him in the team’s training session.
El-Saka axed from squad
The media questioned the decision to drop the veteran from the team, which was struggling for avoiding relegation.
Gençlerbirliği was already far from having the deepest of squads, and excluding a veteran player over a remark did not help the Ankara team’s situation.
However, Aybaba chose to respond the critics in his own way, much to the anger and grief of the Egyptian player and Arab world. Arab television is focusing on Aybaba’s remarks and interviewing El-Saka, Doğan News Agency reported.
"I don’t have a problem with anybody. I respect my club, my coach Aybaba and chairman Cavcav a lot," said El-Saka. "But I can’t get why Aybaba said those words and treated me like that. Even if he didn’t mean it, his comments are a mistake. This is an insult to me and Arab world, I think." The Turkish Football Federation has opened a probe into the affair and asked Aybaba for his defense.
"I trust the federation," said El-Saka. "And I believe that what must be done will be done."
El-Saka also thanked the fans for their support and said that this is the first time that such thing has happened to him during his 10 years in Turkey.
Sports writer Eray Özer also criticized Aybaba yesterday, saying that what made those comments worse was the fact that the coach was not aware of his mistake.
"I am sure that he was not aware of what he said," Özer wrote in daily Taraf. "I am sure that those words spilled naturally out of his mouth. I am sure, because I believe saying those kinds of things is quite natural in the mental state that Aybaba is in. This is why I am afraid. If Aybaba was a racist that made that obvious with his previous actions, I would have been less afraid."
Özer also criticized the words Aybaba chose to defend himself.
"The fact that Aybaba was not aware how heavy his words were, and he said ’I would not buy a Serbian goalkeeper if I was a racist,’ show us how racism is ghosting around us," he wrote. "I am sorry but, are we classifying goalkeepers as Serbians and non-Serbians? Wouldn’t it be better if you classified good goalkeeper and bad goalkeeper?"
Speaking after his team’s home game last Sunday against Sivasspor, Samet Aybaba hit back at reporters and fans, who criticized his decision to drop El-Saka out of the team.
"People in this country preferred an Arab over me," said Aybaba to reporters at the press conference following his team’s 2-1 win to Turkcell Super League leader Sivasspor. During the last minutes of the game, fans’ chants of "El-Saka in, Aybaba out" could be heard.
The following day, Aybaba defended himself saying that "this was sports, not politics." He also stated that he was not a racist.
The reason why Aybaba dropped El-Saka out of the squad last week was the Egyptian international’s comments to the media.
"Only Chairman İlhan Cavcav can send me from this club," said El-Saka earlier last week, in response to his failure to find a regular place in the starting 11 recently. Seeing those comments as challenging his power as a coach, Aybaba excluded the defender from the squad with immediate effect, and refused to include him in the team’s training session.
El-Saka axed from squad
The media questioned the decision to drop the veteran from the team, which was struggling for avoiding relegation.
Gençlerbirliği was already far from having the deepest of squads, and excluding a veteran player over a remark did not help the Ankara team’s situation.
However, Aybaba chose to respond the critics in his own way, much to the anger and grief of the Egyptian player and Arab world. Arab television is focusing on Aybaba’s remarks and interviewing El-Saka, Doğan News Agency reported.
"I don’t have a problem with anybody. I respect my club, my coach Aybaba and chairman Cavcav a lot," said El-Saka. "But I can’t get why Aybaba said those words and treated me like that. Even if he didn’t mean it, his comments are a mistake. This is an insult to me and Arab world, I think." The Turkish Football Federation has opened a probe into the affair and asked Aybaba for his defense.
"I trust the federation," said El-Saka. "And I believe that what must be done will be done."
El-Saka also thanked the fans for their support and said that this is the first time that such thing has happened to him during his 10 years in Turkey.
Sports writer Eray Özer also criticized Aybaba yesterday, saying that what made those comments worse was the fact that the coach was not aware of his mistake.
"I am sure that he was not aware of what he said," Özer wrote in daily Taraf. "I am sure that those words spilled naturally out of his mouth. I am sure, because I believe saying those kinds of things is quite natural in the mental state that Aybaba is in. This is why I am afraid. If Aybaba was a racist that made that obvious with his previous actions, I would have been less afraid."
Özer also criticized the words Aybaba chose to defend himself.
"The fact that Aybaba was not aware how heavy his words were, and he said ’I would not buy a Serbian goalkeeper if I was a racist,’ show us how racism is ghosting around us," he wrote. "I am sorry but, are we classifying goalkeepers as Serbians and non-Serbians? Wouldn’t it be better if you classified good goalkeeper and bad goalkeeper?"