UEFA is opening a "Pandora's box" "The Streisand Effect" in Merih Demiral's case

UEFA has disqualified Turkish national team defender Merih Demiral for two matches for the “wolf salute” (Bozkurt) gesture he made during a European Championship match. This was not about football; it was about dirty political games.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pointed this out, saying, "Has anyone said that the Germans have an eagle on their jerseys? Will anyone stand up and say, 'The French have a rooster on their shirt, why are you wearing an image of a rooster?'" He posed a quite logical and ironic question, putting UEFA in an absurd light. In turn, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev strongly condemned the punishment imposed on Merih, considering it unfair.

Indeed, ancient Gaul is the territory of modern-day France, Belgium, and Northern Italy. It was inhabited by Celts, whom the ancient Romans referred to as Gauls. The Latin word "gallus" not only means "Gaul" but also "rooster." Hence, the expression "Gallic rooster" originated, referring to modern-day French people. The French themselves took pride in this association.

For instance, during the reign of King Louis-Philippe, the image of the Gallic rooster began to appear on banners and the hilts of cold weapons. Napoleon III discontinued the Gallic rooster, but it was reinstated by the Third Republic, which depicted it on currency from 1871 onwards. In 1899, President of the French Republic Émile Loubet decreed that the Gallic rooster should be minted on ten- and twenty-franc coins. This demonstrates the French affection for roosters. Even Charles de Gaulle incorporated it into military medals as a symbol of France's fighting spirit. Ultimately, the Gallic rooster is the emblem of the French National Olympic Committee.

So, President Erdogan of Türkiye is absolutely right when he points out the situation where what is permitted for some is attempted to be prohibited for others. After all, the "Bozkurt" sign that Merih Demiral used to celebrate scoring against an opponent is a symbol of Turkic peoples.

According to historical research, some Turkic peoples have used this symbol to denote and express their origin and identity. It turns out that by its decision to disqualify Demiral, UEFA is attempting not only to prohibit players from the Turkish national team but also to make athletes from all Turkic countries forget about their identity and ignore it! But this is already Turkophobia and racism on the part of UEFA.

However, the problem is not only in this. There is, as is known, an organization called FIFA - the International Federation of Association Football. It controls all world football. UEFA, to put it succinctly, is the European branch of FIFA. Yes, UEFA is a sports organization that governs football in Europe and some Western Asian regions.

So, FIFA, as is well known, has six top sponsors, one of which has long been the company Adidas. It was founded in 1924 in Germany during the Weimar Republic as "Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik" ("Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory"), or abbreviated as "Geda", by the brothers-cobblers Adolf ("Adi") and Rudolf Dassler.

When Hitler came to power in Germany, the Dassler brothers officially joined the Nazi Party. It is quite obvious that the Nazis used sports as a tool both to enhance Germany's authority and to prepare youth for the army, so the innovative footwear company fit perfectly into their scheme.

During the Nazi era, sales of the Dassler brothers' sneakers rapidly increased, and they expanded their company significantly. During the infamous 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, organized by Hitler to showcase Aryan sporting superiority on the global stage, many German athletes wore Dassler footwear. The founders' history did not prevent FIFA, as we see, from including Adidas among its top sponsors. FIFA's love for profit appears to be even greater than the French affection for roosters on their shirts.

I remind you of all this to prove that the attempts of UEFA officials to play the role of moralists are ridiculous, absurd, and foolish. One cannot preach without practicing what they preach. In any case, this is not just a mistake, but something that could lead to a completely unexpected "Streisand Effect" for Turkophobes at UEFA. More specifically, the "Streisand Effect" gained prominence after an incident in 2003, when Barbra Streisand sued photographer Kenneth Adelman and the website Pictopia.com for $50 million because a photograph of her home was among more than 12,000 other images of the California coastline.

Adelman claimed that he photographed Streisand's home alongside other coastal homes as part of the California Coastal Records Project, which was studying coastal erosion with government permission and funding. Before Streisand's lawyers filed the lawsuit, photograph number 3850 (which included Streisand's home) had been downloaded from the project's website only six times, two of which were by Streisand's own attorneys. However, after news of the lawsuit spread, the image of Streisand's home became widely popular online. Within a month of the lawsuit being filed, the image had been viewed by more than 420,000 visitors. Such was the "effect" of trying to restrict something known to only a few people.

I recalled this story to illustrate that UEFA's two-match suspension against Merih Demiral will quickly pass. But what will UEFA, FIFA, and the IOC do when many Turkish and athletes from other Turkic countries demonstrate the "Bozkurt" salute in solidarity with Demiral, as a demonstration of respect for their historical roots? What will they do on the global political stage when politicians from Türkiye and Turkic countries share photos with this salute? Those who decided to open this "Pandora's box" likely do not have an answer to this question. They simply made a foolish move without considering its consequences.

By Akbar Hasanov