IN Wolfsgruß
Uefa confirms Demiral ban – Türkiye’s appeal rejected
Status: 12:52 p.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
Uefa bans Türkiye star Demiral – Erdogan attends quarter-finals in Berlin
According to a media report, Turkish defender Demiral will be banned by UEFA for two European Championship matches. This means that the 26-year-old will miss his team’s European Championship quarter-final against the Netherlands and a possible semi-final.
Merih Demiral remains suspended for two matches. UEFA confirms the sanction against the Turkish defender, who showed the wolf salute in the match against Austria. The association sanctions several of Demiral’s offenses.
Here you can listen to our WELT podcasts
In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is necessary, since the providers of the embedded content as third-party providers require this consent [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (revocable at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about this at . You can revoke your consent at any time using the switch and via privacy at the bottom of the page.
UEFA has confirmed the suspension of Merih Demiral after his wolf salute in the European Championship round of 16 match against Austria. The Turkish defender will be suspended for two matches and will therefore miss the Turks’ quarter-final match against the Netherlands (9 p.m., live on the WELT ticker). The European football association confirmed this on Friday. An appeal by the Turkish football association was therefore unsuccessful.
UEFA sentenced Demiral for violating the general principles of conduct, the basic rules of decent behavior, for using a sporting event to make non-sporting statements and for denigrating football, it said in its statement. The wolf salute usually expresses affiliation or sympathy with the Turkish right-wing extremist Ülkücü movement and its ideology. It is considered the identifying symbol of the Grey Wolves, which are not banned in Germany but are monitored by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
Demiral’s wife, however, vehemently defends her husband after his wolf salute gesture during the European Championships. “My husband is not a racist!” Heidi Demiral told the Swiss newspaper “Blick”. Her husband is “kind, open and tolerant,” added the 34-year-old Swiss woman, who, according to “Blick”, was born in Kosovo.
also read
Heidi Demiral had already spoken out on the matter on Instagram on Thursday. “The wolf is the animal symbol of Turkey. It has nothing to do with racism or fascism,” she wrote on her account: “Diversity is the beauty of our family and the strength of our history. Tolerance, kindness, love and generosity are fundamental values that we teach our children.”
also read
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) had previously called on the European Football Association to consider sanctions. Ankara defended Demiral. “The reaction of the German authorities to Mr. Demiral is itself xenophobic,” said the Turkish Foreign Ministry. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to attend the match on Saturday.
