The Turkish Football Association (TFF) will appeal a suspension for national team defender Merih Demiral at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), public broadcaster TRT has said.
The TFF said that CAS has an ad-hoc division in place for the Euro 2024 tournament, and the world's highest sports court could rule by Friday night, ahead of Turkey's Euro quarter-final against the Netherlands on Saturday.
UEFA suspended Demiral for two matches for making the controversial wolf salute during the Euro 2024 last-16 match against Austria.
The gesture is attributed, among other things, to a far-right extremist movement. The movement known as “Ülkücü” or “grey wolves” are linked to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's political allies, the ultra-nationalist MHP in Turkey.
UEFA sanctioned Demiral "for failing to comply with the general principles of conduct, for violating the basic rules of decent conduct, for using sports events for manifestations of a non-sporting nature and for bringing the sport of football into disrepute."
Turkish Sports Minister Osman Askin Bak said on X that "we condemn UEFA's unfair and biased decision, which we believe has no legal basis and is entirely political.
"We will continue to seek our rights through legal means against this double standard applied to our country and our national football player Merih Demiral."
