It was very disturbing for me to read the tweets posted by German Football Association (DFB) president in his social media account, which includes detrimental statements about our President Mr Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

DFB president's remarks are unacceptable.

It is a very well-known fact that our President Mr Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as a former player, is a big football fan who has massively contributed to the progress of the game in Turkey.

In that sense, his meeting with Germany internationals Mesut Özil and İlkay Gündoğan as well as Turkey international striker Cenk Tosun, who are all Germany-born professional footballers with Turkish descent, is only natural. 

Footballers of any nationality will always be welcomed by our president, especially when they are the ones who want to have such a meeting.

It is a terrible mistake to mix politics with football as can be seen from the German president example. For its part, the Turkish Football Federation in no way will participate in such behaviour and will continue to comply with the rules set out by UEFA until the last moment of the UEFA EURO 2024 voting.

Yıldırım Demirören
Turkish Football Federation President