Turkish football was reeling on Friday from one of the grimmest nights in its recent history that saw an ill-tempered Istanbul derby abandoned after a club manager needed stitches in his head after being hit by an object hurled out of the stands. Besiktas coach Senol Gunes required five stitches and was hospitalised after the incident in his side's chaotic and violent Turkish cup match away against arch Istanbul rivals Fenerbahce.
The scenes, which were condemned as unacceptable by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, underlined the continued issues with crowd behaviour in Turkish football. "The night football died," was the headline in the Hurriyet daily. "Football in emergency care," added the Fanatik sports daily above a picture of Gunes in hospital on a stretcher.
The match, a Turkish Cup semi-final second leg at Fenerbahce's ground, was abandoned in the 57th minute after the incident with the score at 0-0 on the night and 2-2 on aggregate. Erdogan said he was upset by the incident, which he described as a "plot" rather than a spontaneous act.
"Someone organised this terror. This did not take place on its own. It is not possible to accept what happened to Senol," he told reporters in televised comments. Gunes, 65, the legendary former Turkish international goalkeeper who has led Besiktas to two consecutive championship titles and took Turkey to third place at the 2002 World Cup, was evacuated by his own medical staff to the changing rooms. Turkish media said he was finally allowed to go home early in the morning after spending the night under observation.
"The victim was not me but Turkish football," Gunes told the Milliyet daily after emerging from hospital. "All the actors in football must meet and find urgent solutions to this problem." Turkish television pictures showed Gunes clutching his head in pain and bewilderment and falling to the turf after being hit by the projectile, suspected to be a cigarette lighter.