FOOTBALL, POLITICS AND WAR
For Turkish Fans, Besiktas’s Loss Against Maccabi Tel Aviv Feels Bitter
Many Turkish fans saw a Besiktas win against Maccabi Tel Aviv as divine justice and revenge for Israel’s war against Gaza. Amid such expectations, that triumph never came.
In the book Football Against the Enemy, published in the early 2000s, The Financial Times journalist Simon Kuper explored the ways different nations embraced the globe’s most-loved sport— football. Traversing more than 22 countries in the 1990s, he documented the cultural and social dynamics that gave this sport its unique shape and character during the evolving political turmoil of the 20th century. In its Turkish translation, the book’s title appeared different but perhaps more pointed. “Football Never Means Only Football.”
For Turkish soccer fans and loyal supporters of Besiktas, one of the three Istanbul powerhouses that play in this year’s renovated UEFA Europa League, the game against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Match Week 5 on Thursday was never meant just a football game. It was more than that. In a way, it was meant to be revenge for Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. One Turkish official described it as a confrontation between Turkey and…
