By John Essien
UEFA have begun investigation into the chants by Fenerbahçe supporters during the 2022-23 UEFA Champions League match between Turkish club and FC Dynamo Kyiv on 27 July 2022.
During the second leg CL clash between both teams, events took an ugly turn when supporters of the Turkish club goaded Ukrainian team Dynamo Kyiv with chants of ‘Vladimir Putin’ after falling behind.
Video footage was circulated on Twitter of the moment thousands of Fenerbahce fans joined in with the chant in support of Putin, who ordered the ongoing invasion of Ukraine back in February.
UEFA have now launched an investigation into the chants, which came after Dynamo, who are currently exiled from their war-torn country, scored their opening goal through Vitaly Buyalskyi.
The match ended 2-1 in extra time thanks to a winner by Oleksandr Karavayev to send Dynamo Kyiv straight into the third qualifying round of Europe’s top club competition.
A statement from European football’s governing body reads: “In accordance with Article 31(4) of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations, a UEFA Ethics and Disciplinary Inspector will conduct a disciplinary investigation regarding alleged misbehaviour of Fenerbahçe supporters during the 2022-23 UEFA Champions League second qualifying round, second leg match between Fenerbahçe SK and FC Dynamo Kyiv played on 27 July 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey.”
The club, meanwhile, has issued a statement saying that it does not condone or support the chants, pointing to the club’s support of Ukraine since the start of the crisis and a friendly played against Shakhtar Donetsk to promote peace.
“In the Dynamo Kyiv match played in our field in the UEFA Champions League 2nd qualifying round, after the opposing team’s goal, a chant was heard from a part of the stands,” the statement said. “We are making this statement against a discourse that does not represent our club and does not reflect our club’s corporate stance in any way”.
