The defender Merih Demiral has been handed a two-game ban by UEFA for a gesture made during his team’s last-16 victory over Austria on Tuesday, July 2nd, The Independent reports on July 8th. He will miss Saturday’s Euro 2024 quarter-final against the Netherlands.
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The 26-year-old center back scored twice in a 2-1 victory over Austria, propelling his team into the quarter-finals for the first time since 2008. He celebrated by making a “wolf” gesture with his fingers, a symbol associated with the “Grey Wolves,” an ultra-nationalist youth wing of Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
The symbols of Turkish right-wing extremists have no place in our stadiums,
-Nancy Faeser, Germany’s Interior Minister, made a statement on X, leading UEFA to open a disciplinary case against Demiral.
The Appeals Body has decided to suspend Turkish Football Federation player Merih Demiral, for a total of two (2) UEFA representative team competition matches for which he would be otherwise eligible, for failing to comply with the general principles of conduct, for violating the basic rules of decent conduct, for using sports events for manifestations of a non-sporting nature and for bringing the sport of football into disrepute,
-UEFA said in official statement.
The Independent and agencies