Greek authorities said that players and coaching staff of Turkish Galatasaray were denied entry after they refused to comply with Greece’s COVID-19 testing rules on their arrival at Athens International Airport on Monday.
The famous Turkish football club had flown to Athens ahead of an exhibition match with Greek champions Olympiakos that was to have taken place at the Giorgios Karaiskakis stadium at 9.15pm on on Tuesday evening.
Greek deputy minister for civil protection Nikos Hardalias said in a statement reported by Associated Press that the Turkish team members were subject to supplementary random COVID-19 tests on their arrival at the airport as part of random testing regulations that were applied to all visitors to the country. This was irrespective of the fact that they brought documents of negative test results taken before their leaving for Greece.
“No exceptions came be made to safety rules. The application of those procedures must be absolute,” the deputy minister said in a statement.
“Given their refusal to comply with those rules, the were refused entry into the country on my orders,” Mr Hardalias said, adding that the game had been cancelled.
READ MORE: Greek-Turkish foreign ministers meet in constructive talks
A Turkish Football Federation statement said that the treatment that the Galatasaray team received at the airport had been “unacceptable”.
“We condemn the attitude adopted by the Greek authorities. Their behaviour was not in a sporting spirit. We stand by Galatasaray sports club,” the federation said.
The Istanbul-based club said the incident had reflected “clear discrimination against a Turkish team”.
Turkey’s ambassador to Greece, Burak Ozugergin, had been called to the airport in an unsuccessful bid to convince authorities to let the team into the country.
The Turkish foreign ministry said in its statement o: “The fact that Greece welcomes one of our country’s leading teams with such behaviour shows its intolerance towards our country, even in the field of sports.”
