Congratulations to CAS!

Well done!   Good work.  Full kudos to the judicial decision makers at CAS.

Full congratulations to Michel Platini and UEFA.

Full congratulations to UEFA’s former integrity officer Pierre Cornu.

Here is what happened.

Turkish football and politics are corrupt (No surprise to anyone in that sentence).

The Turkish met an international institution that could not be corrupted (at least, not in this case).

To sum up:   Turkish police and courts discovered that the richest and most powerful team Fenerbahçehad, two seasons ago, indulged in a pattern of match-corruption. They had been joined in their disgraceful behaviour by a wide-range of other teams.

Many Turkish politicians and football officials did not deal with this problem in a way that would have made Kamal Ataturk proud – cleaning up the sport, jailing guilty people, rewarding innocent heroes who had made a stand against corruption.

Instead the majority of Turkish federal politicians overturned a Presidential veto to punish the guilty.  The majority of Turkish sports officials twisted and turned desperate not to admit the truth that is obvious to all – Turkish football is deeply corrupt.  And sadly, the majority of Fenerbahçe fans engaged in a pattern of absolute denial.

Here is what anyone connected with Fenerbahçe should now say,

‘We are sorry.  This is not behaviour that makes us proud.  We are Fenerbahçe.  This corruption was an exception. We shall not do it again. We will play in a way that will make all Turks proud of us.’

If they did that one simple action – ask for forgiveness – we could all move on and Fenerbahçe’s name and reputation could begin to climb back to its true glory. But while they engage in childish denial of the obvious they continue to besmirch the history and reputation of their club.

I repeat – well done to UEFA, well done to CAS – justice was done internationally.  When will it be done in Turkey?

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