By Philip O’Connor
BERLIN (Reuters) – Turkey defender Merih Demiral is to be banned for two games by UEFA following a gesture he made during his side’s last-16 win against Austria on Tuesday and will miss Saturday’s Euro 2024 quarter-final against Netherlands, German media reported.
The 26-year-old centre back scored twice in a 2-1 win over the Austrians to send his side into the last eight for the first time since 2008, and celebrated by making a “wolf” gesture with his fingers.
The gesture is linked to the “Grey Wolves”, an ultra-nationalist youth branch of Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which is an ally of President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party.
“The symbols of Turkish right-wing extremists have no place in our stadiums,” Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a post on X, and UEFA subsequently opened a disciplinary case against Demiral.
German newspaper Bild reported on Thursday that it had received information that the player would be banned for two games over the gesture, but it did not specify a source for its claim.
Turkey meet the Netherlands in their quarter-final at Berlin’s Olympiastadion on Saturday, a game the Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan is expected to attend.
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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