THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ANKARA, Turkey — After watching more than 41,000 women and children cheering wildly and waving club-coloured flags in a packed stadium, the Turkish soccer association said Wednesday it wanted more of the same at its league matches.
Instead of the usual male-dominated games, the Turkish association said it plans to allocate at least some free tickets to women and children under 16 for all league matches this season. The move is meant to both encourage their attendance at soccer games and reduce violence.
"Turkish (soccer) needs this," Turkish association deputy chairman Goksel Gumusdag said.
On Tuesday, tens of thousands of women and children flocked to see Fenerbahce take on Manisaspor in Istanbul, many of them wearing the yellow and dark blue-colored shirts of Fenerbahce. The match, which ended in a 1-1 draw, had been scheduled to be played in an empty stadium as punishment for unruly fan behaviour.
Canadians Josh Simpson and Mike Klukowski started for Manisaspor, with Simpson assisting on the tying goal by Fabio Bilica with a backheel flick from the top of the 18-yard box.
The association changed its rules this week, barring men from attending games played by teams sanctioned for fan trouble and instead allowing women and children under 12 to watch for free — although a few men were in the crowd Tuesday.
"The answer has been quite clear that the more families you have in the stands, the better the atmosphere you get," Karen Espelund, the first women’s delegate appointed to the UEFA executive committee, said from a UEFA meeting in Cyprus. "I think this has the potential of filling up the stands but it’s definitely also a strategy of having a slightly different type of atmosphere."
The women certainly created their own soccer flavour at Sukru Saracoglu Stadium, which has a capacity of about 50,000 fans, by greeting the visiting Manisaspor team with applause rather than the usual jeers.
Even the players from both teams got involved, tossing flowers to the crowd before the match started.
"It’s not always that you see so many women and children in one game," said Fenerbahce captain Alex de Sousa, adding the memory of the night would stay with him forever.
Outside the stadium, men gathered and co-ordinated chants with the fans inside. The men screamed "Yellow" outside, while the women responded with "Blue" inside.
After the match, some men waited for their wives and children to come out of the stadium.
On Wednesday, Fenerbahce thanked the women who made their way to the stadium, and praised their understanding of the game.
"It was a good indication of Turkish women’s knowledge of (soccer)," said Yasemin Mercil, a female member of Fenerbahce’s board of directors. "The women knew when to shout, when to protest. They blatantly showed that it is not the women who don’t know the offside rule."
Fenerbahce, which could lose its league title from last season because of a match-fixing scandal, was ordered to play two home matches without any spectators after its fans invaded the pitch during a friendly against Ukrainian champion Shakhtar Donetsk in July. That prompted the idea to let in the women and children for free rather than have an empty stadium.
"It’s a very special decision for sure," Espelund said. "In this case, it obviously has worked."