Overview
- Following Thursday's 1-1 Champions League draw with Roma, head coach Ismail Kartal told a post-match press conference he was stepping down and said he would 'never return'.
- Minutes later club president Aziz Yildirim publicly refused to accept the resignation and said Kartal would remain in his role while describing a bottle being thrown at the coach's head during the game.
- Turkish journalist Yagiz Sabuncuoglu reported that Kartal could not be reached and had switched off his phones, and that assistants Dirk Kuyt and Zeki Göle led training; Reuters characterises those details as developing and not fully corroborated.
- Turkish media reported that a person alleged to have thrown the bottle had been identified and detained, a claim that has been cited by club sources but not independently confirmed across all outlets.
- Kartal is a long-serving club figure who returned for a fourth spell in June, and the episode heightens governance, security and communication concerns at a club under strong performance pressure after five straight second-place league finishes and a return to the Champions League group stage.