UPDATE - Turkish clubs to protest broadcaster for payment mishap

Players to not play game for a minute at the beginning of matches this week

UPDATES WITH DIGITURK'S RESPONSE

By Suha Gur and Mucahit Huseyin Erogul

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Turkish football clubs will protest the top tier league's broadcaster this week as Qatar's beIN Media Group failed to fulfill its economic obligations.

"All football players will protest [beIN Sports] by not playing the game for 60 seconds after the starting whistle in the matches in the Super Lig's week 13 and TFF [Turkish Football Federation] First League's week 15," a mutual statement of the Turkish football unions of the Super Lig and First League clubs read on Friday.

The unions said beIN Sports delayed its must payments for the clubs for a long time and clubs faced serious troubles.

They also called Digiturk beIN Media Group for solving the financial problems of the clubs urgently, fulfilling obligations.

Digiturk is the leading Turkish satellite television provider that is part of the global sports and entertainment group, beIN MEDIA GROUP.

beIN SPORTS is the sports network of this group, which has been airing the Turkish Super Lig and First League, French Ligue 1 and Italian Serie A, as well as the UEFA competitions; the Champions League, Europa League, and Super Cup.

- 'Digiturk made payment to Turkish Football Federation for broadcasting rights'

Digiturk announced that it has paid the broadcasting rights fee for all matches played in the 2020-2021 season to the Turkish Football Federation.

The decision of protesting Digiturk by not playing the game for 60 seconds after the starting whistle in the matches surprised Digiturk, it added.

“Digiturk made the full payment for broadcast rights for the 2019-2020 season, while many broadcasters around the world refused to make [the payments] due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

"Also, Digiturk and TFF continue to work on a payment plan for the remainder of this season to overcome pandemic challenges together in mutual consensus."

Digiturk called the decision "baseless" and "unfair" and added that it will adversely affect the market value of Turkish football.

*Writing by Can Erozden and Muhammed Enes Calli in Ankara

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