The Turkish Ordeal: Turkish Football Federation’s Stance Against the ‘Other’

Abstract

Having an absolute monopoly on football in Turkey; Turkish Football Federation (‘TFF’) governs football through executive committee decisions and regulations put into force by it. Thanks to an amendment to the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey, these decisions and regulations have total immunity from the courts of law including the Constitutional Court. The most important aspect of the decisions of the TFF is that the decisions affect all stake-holders and spectators. This article concerns the effects of the said decisions and regulations on women spectators and the LGBTQIA community. It depicts and analyses three cases of ‘othering’ against women and LGBTQIA community on the part of the TFF. Despite the fact that the regulations which gave birth to two of the cases were repealed or amended at the time of writing; it is suggested that the reasons behind the legislation and the implementation of these articles endure. The apparent candidate for a reason for the ‘othering’ of non-male and to be more precise non-masculine individuals is the role of masculinity within both the society and the football community itself. In this article, it is put forth that the stance against the other by the state and the society provides for a basis for the institutionalisation of the othering in football.