The Graham Souness flag incident

During the 1996 season Turkish club Fenerbahce were competing for the title with Trabzonspor while Galatasaray were struggling.

Galatasaray managed to reach the cup final against Fenerbahce and everyone predicted an easy win for Fenerbahce. Leading up to the game there were insults at Galatasaray and the Fenerbahce chairman even made remarks about Souness’s fitness to coach.

Galatasaray won the first leg thru a Dean Saunders penalty. The 2nd leg was played in the heated atmosphere of the Fenerbahce home ground. Fenerbahce lost the match in an extra time equalizing goal. Galatasaray has won the cup.

Souness decided to take a huge Galatasaray flag and plant it in the centre of the Fenerbahce pitch. What resulted was a furor in the ground and the press, it was an act that was deeply offensive in Turkish culture. Years on this has always been looked back on as a very provocative gesture that has sparked violence in Turkish football and especially when English clubs travel to Turkey. It was a dumb move by Souness.

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