Acun Ilıcalı's "manipulation" remarks to the British press about Jose Mourinho

Fenerbahçe Vice President Acun Ilıcalı made statements to Sky after the Galatasaray derby. Ilıcalı touched on Fenerbahçe Technical Director Jose Mourinho's words after the derby: "They jumped like monkeys." Here are those words...

JOSE MOURINHO'S WORDS "When I say you run like a rabbit, I don't mean you're a rabbit. So when I say you jump like a monkey, that doesn't mean you're a monkey. So when you look at the people on the bench right now, when you look at their faces, I'm talking about Jose Mourinho and the other coach Okan Buruk, so you can clearly understand that Jose Mourinho has no intention of being racist in his words, behind his words or around his words."

"G.SARAY IS MANIPULATING" "So this is a very clear situation that the Galatasaray management is trying to manipulate and we are used to this in Turkey"

Acun Ilicali (AA)

"THE MOST IMPORTANT DERBIES" "Football in Turkey is not just football. Football is a kind of life for many people and, as you know, Fenerbahçe - Galatasaray matches are the most important derbies in Turkish football."

"FOREIGN REFEREES AFTER 50 YEARS" "We can say it's one of the most important matches. We're talking about 30 million fans of both clubs and these matches sometimes cause great tension and in yesterday's match, for the first time in many years, there was a foreign referee on the field. I think it was the first time in 50 years that a foreign referee was on the field."

"IT WAS A CONTROVERSIAL THING" "That's why it was a controversial thing for Galatasaray and Turkish football because Turkish referees have been very out of form, especially this year. Many clubs wanted a foreign referee and the federation decided that only a foreign referee, a Slovenian referee, would officiate this match."

"AN EXAMPLE OF THE SAME STORY" "After the match, Jose Mourinho spoke about the match. He said something like they were jumping like monkeys and the Galatasaray management unfortunately has been taking many things to different levels in the last two years to satisfy their fans or to please their community in order to manipulate some things in football and this is an example of the same story."

"THERE IS NO RACISM IN TURKEY" "Because there is something in the world that maybe people who don't know Turkish people don't know, there is no racism in Turkey. In fact, Turkish people don't even know what racism is. Because in Turkey, maybe because of cultural background or whatever, I can clearly say that no player has been subjected to racism on the field. We have never experienced anything like racism."

Acun Ilıcalı (İHA)

"THIS IS NOT TRUE" "Therefore, the Turkish people may have thought that because they heard in some news from abroad that 'monkey is a racist word', or maybe they were smart enough not to think that, but they wanted people to think that the word monkey was just a symbol of racism, in which case it is completely untrue."

"MOU DESCRIBES HIS FEELING" "Jose Mourinho is just describing the feeling of the bench by using the word monkey. That's all."

Q: "Did you speak to Jose about the comments he made? Because obviously some people thought those comments were offensive and spoke to him about the behaviour of the Galatasaray bench."

"I was actually with him until the match started but I couldn't see him because of my press conference. But I can still underline something. When I say you run like a rabbit, I don't mean you're a rabbit. When I say you jump like a monkey, it doesn't mean you're a monkey. So when you look at the people on the bench right now, when you look at their faces, I'm talking about Jose Mourinho and the other coach Okan Buruk, you can clearly understand that Jose Mourinho has no intention of being racist in his words, behind his words or around his words. So this is a very clear situation that the Galatasaray management is trying to manipulate and we are used to this in Turkey."

"AFTER MANIPULATION AND CHAOS" Question: "Okay, that's your opinion. Galatasaray clearly had a very different opinion last night. Will Fenerbahçe make an official statement in response to the accusations made against Jose Mourinho last night?" (A statement from Fenerbahçe came before this news)

"I mean, it's funny to say but of course just three or four years ago, I don't remember the exact time, Galatasaray made a video and in this video they put a monkey and the monkey has a cup in his hand and a person, you know, a thief monkey and someone is running behind the monkey and they put the Galatasaray logo on the monkey, I'm talking about the official Galatasaray statement. They put a Galatasaray logo on the monkey and they say 'hey we stole your cup, don't try to catch it' and they put the monkey and the cup. So if you ask me, there are so many contradictions in Galatasaray's statements, for example, they blame the Turkish referees, they say the Turkish referees are thieves. Okay, we respect it. Then the foreign referee comes, when the foreign referee comes they say 'No, we don't want a foreign referee'. So they're just trying to manipulate and create chaos because unfortunately there's a lot of injustice in football in Turkey and that's why the foreign referee was there. I'm not just speaking as a Fenerbahçe board member or vice president. Just to be fair, you can talk to anyone who doesn't support Fenerbahçe or Galatasaray and they will give you the same answer."