Fenerbahce issue response after Galatasaray accuse Jose Mourinho of making ‘racist staments’ | OneFootball

Fenerbahce say rivals Galatasaray have taken comments made by Jose Mourinho “completely out of context” after they accused him of racism.

Galatasaray issued a statement after the goalless draw with title rivals Fenerbahce claiming they would initiate “criminal proceedings” against Mourinho for what they claimed were racist statements.

The Turkish club did not clarify which comments they were referring to by Mourinho.

“Since the commencement of his managerial duties in Turkey, Fenerbahce manager Jose Mourinho has persistently issued derogatory statements directed towards the Turkish people,” the club said in a statement. “Today, his discourse has escalated beyond merely immoral comments into unequivocally inhumane rhetoric.

“We hereby formally declare our intention to initiate criminal proceedings concerning the racist statements made by Jose Mourinho, and shall accordingly submit official complaints to Uefa and Fifa.

“Furthermore, we shall diligently observe the stance adopted by Fenerbahce – an institution professing to uphold ‘exemplary moral values’ – in response to the reprehensible conduct exhibited by their manager.”

But Fenerbahce have now hit back at the claims, saying they would also take legal action over the “baseless accusation”.

“We deem it necessary to issue this statement concerning a matter that has dominated the agenda following the match between our football team and Galatasaray,” the statement said.

“A post-match remark made by our coach, Jose Mourinho, has been deliberately taken entirely out of context and distorted in a misleading manner.

“As any reasonable person can clearly recognise, the expression used by Jose Mourinho was solely intended to describe the excessive reaction of the opposing team’s technical staff to the referee’s decisions during the match.

“These remarks cannot, under any circumstances, be associated with racism. Any attempt to portray this statement as a racist remark is completely malicious. We would like to inform the public that we will exercise our legal rights against this baseless accusation, which aims to take competition off the pitch, shift the agenda, and manipulate public perception.”