Fenerbahce have released a strongly-worded statement in response to accusations that its first-team manager, Jose Mourinho, made ‘racist statements’ after the 0-0 draw against Galatasaray on Monday.
Galatasaray issued their own statement first, claiming the club planned to launch criminal proceedings against Mourinho, over what they claimed was “derogatory statements” about Turkish people.
The Turkish league leaders also threatened to submit complaints to UEFA and FIFA.
Fenerbahce, who hired Mourinho last summer, have come out with passionate defence of the 62-year-old.
Their statement read: “A statement made by our Technical Director Jose Mourinho after the match was completely taken out of context and an attempt was made to deliberately distort it.
“As every sensible person can see and understand; these statements used by Jose Mourinho to describe the excessive reaction of the opposing team’s technical staff to the referee decisions during the match can in no way be associated with racism.
“Trying to portray this statement as racist is a completely malicious approach. We would like to inform the public that we will use our legal rights regarding this pathetic slander that was made in order to take the competition off the field, change the agenda and manipulate it.”
