The Turkish president won reelection on an anti-Western platform. But he can’t quit European soccer. Soccer fans from around the world navigated a logistical labyrinth to reach Ataturk Olympic Stadium on June 10 for the 2023 Champions League Final. During the annual tournament, organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)—the governing body of European soccer—elite clubs compete to earn the title of best in Europe. The final is widely regarded as the most prestigious match in global club soccer.
This year’s final pit Manchester City against Inter Milan and—between the traffic, police barricades, and other security measures—some attendees reportedly walked up to five miles to attend. But they were overwhelmingly merry as they chanted, waved flags, riled up fellow supporters, and teased their opponents. After a tense showdown, Manchester City won 1-0.
The checkpoints were put in place by UEFA and Turkish law enforcement. UEFA was found primarily responsible for chaos at the 2022 Champions League final in Paris—when visiting fans were tear-gassed and pepper sprayed by local police at congested stadium entrances—and this year no one in event management wanted to take any chances. Turkish authorities and UEFA were also keen to project control after rumors that the match would be moved out of Turkey due to projected political unrest following the country’s pivotal election just weeks before, when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan secured an unprecedented third term in office.
Manchester City fans stand in front of metal crowd-control gates outside the stadium as uniformed Turkish police officers search them.
Police search Manchester City fans outside Ataturk Olympic Stadium before the UEFA Champions League final match in Istanbul on June 10. NICK POTTS/PA IMAGES VIA GETTY IMAGES
Like many of Istanbul’s other cultural landmarks, the Olympic stadium is named after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder and first president of the modern Turkish Republic, which turns 100 in October. The stadium was originally constructed as part of Istanbul’s failed bid for the 2008 Olympics and has served as a venue for one Champions League final in the past—the 2005 match between AC Milan and Liverpool.
This year’s final provided the newly reelected Erdogan with one of his first opportunities to face his European counterparts in government and civil society after liberally deploying anti-Western rhetoric throughout his presidential campaign. Prior to attending the final, Erdogan received both UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin and Gianni Infantino—the president of international soccer association FIFA—at Ataturk Airport, where they held closed-door talks.
From the stadium’s VIP box, flanked by United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan to his left and Ceferin to his right, Erdogan’s message was clear: He can play the geopolitical game his way and win. Turkey remains a transcontinental country—geographically, politically, and culturally. But while Erdogan’s regime has symbolically cleaved Turkey and Europe, there is no separating them. Just look at the Turkish leader, hosting the biggest night in European club soccer.
For Turkey, there was a lot riding on this final. “Considering the fact that [Erdogan] has been facing an economic crisis for the last few years, I think it’s very important for him to give the image of exuberance, of growth, of success,” said Berk Esen, an assistant professor of political science at Istanbul’s Sabanci University. “Football is probably the most convenient venue for him to do that.” After all, Esen added, “We’re a football-loving nation.”
After World War II, Turkey began prioritizing friendly matches with European national teams to build closer relations to the West. “Encounters with European teams became a reflection of the national psyche, raising issues of competition, nationalism and respect,” researchers Ozgehan Senyuva and Sevecen Tunc wrote in their article “Turkey and the Europe of football,” published in a Sport in History journal issue titled The Origins and Birth of ‘l’Europe du football.’
Because of Turkey’s desire to align itself with the West, its bid for membership to UEFA in 1955 was a foreign-policy priority. The overture was warmly welcomed by UEFA’s executive committee, and it helped that the country had recently formed political, economic, and military alliances with Greece and Yugoslavia. But FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, opposed on the grounds that Turkey “belonged de facto and de jure” to Asia: Its capital, Ankara, is based on the Asian side of the country. (Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, straddles Europe and Asia.)
The Turkish Football Federation is currently pursuing the country’s sixth consecutive bid to host the UEFA European Football Championship, or Euro, in 2028 or 2032. (Unlike the Champions League, the Euro is a tournament of national—rather than club—teams.) In 2018, Turkey lost its bid to host the Euro 2024 tournament to Germany, with UEFA’s executive committee citing “lack of an action plan in the area of human rights” in its evaluation of Istanbul’s bid. It was the first time such a criterion had ever been applied.
Source : Foreign Policy