Ultimatum from Aziz Yıldırım: Naming a player, he asked "Why isn't he playing?"

News summary

Fenerbahçe club president Aziz Yıldırım criticized the refereeing decisions following their 2-1 defeat at home against Beşiktaş on Matchday 4 of the Trendyol Süper Lig. Yıldırım also pushed back against criticism regarding squad deficiencies, stating, "They say we lack a center-back, so we bought one. We have a player named Mert Müldür, why aren't we making use of him? We'll use him if necessary."

News details

Fenerbahçe lost 2-1 at home to Beşiktaş in the first derby of the Süper Lig season.

Speaking after the match, Fenerbahçe Sports Club President Aziz Yıldırım criticized referee Halil Umut Meler's decisions while making notable statements regarding squad planning. Yıldırım argued that refereeing mistakes had gone against Fenerbahçe in the four league matches played so far.

Emphasizing that they had not made statements after previous matches, Yıldırım said, "In the Gençlerbirliği match, 2 penalties were not awarded; we said 'It happens', lost, and kept quiet. There were refereeing errors in the Konyaspor match. There was the foul on Vedat in Samsun. But we won, and we still said 'They will probably fix these things.' Today we played badly, we didn't play well. We also congratulate Beşiktaş. But there were 2 penalties. In one of them, in the 5th minute, Oğuz battles with the center-back, controls the ball with his hand, and he doesn't award the penalty. In Kerem's incident, he trips him up, again no penalty. Even if we scored those, Beşiktaş might still score, that's a separate matter. We accept we didn't play well. But the referee must whistle what he sees."

Expressing that the VAR referees did not intervene in the game, Yıldırım stated, "VAR is sleeping, I guess. A foreign referee is supposedly coming, but if you bring a useless VAR, that is not a solution. Unless someone is winding them up from behind like a toy, they are all incompetent. Turkish football will get nowhere like this. We also apologize to our fans, we beg their pardon. Our team didn't play well, but they robbed the team of its rights. They chopped us up bit by bit."

"There is a financial congress on the 27th of the month, I will explain everything there. The important thing is to prepare the young Turkish players in the squad and win them over. They say we lack a center-back, so we bought one. They ask why we aren't making use of a player named Mert Müldür. There are 8 Champions League and 6 derby matches. If this squad plays those 14 matches, will it be successful? Yes, it will. In the matches after that, other players must play and achieve success. We tried to buy under-23 players, but everyone opens negotiations at 50 or 60. Our squad is good, we just need to work a bit more.".

Finally, speaking about Guendouzi, who was sanctioned by the UEFA Disciplinary Board, Yıldırım said, "Our colleagues filed an application. Hopefully, the ban will be reduced there. One was lifted already, hopefully Guendouzi's ban will also be reduced." He added, "OUR SQUAD IS GOOD, WE NEED TO WORK".

Key information

• Tournament: Süper Lig
• Clubs involved: Fenerbahçe, Beşiktaş
• News type: Football
• Certainty: The source did not state the official status of the development.

Source

This news was compiled from information obtained from Sözcü (published: September 6, 2026 07:54).

Original article: Sözcü