Turkish Taunts Turn Techy

By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

Turkish soccer fans certainly have been thinking outside the box in their efforts to taunt their rival teams, as they actually resorted to creating giant QR codes to convey their adversarial messages.Ä°zmir, Turkey.

In İzmir, Turkey, Karsıyaka and Göztepe are the most bitter of rivals on the soccer pitch. But it turns out that the fans of the two sides from Turkey’s third largest city are also the most creative of supporters. In the past, their rivalry had been so intense that often when Karsiyaka faced Göztepe, there would be clashes with the police, arrests of fans, wounded of fans by knife or by doner kebab blades. Even police officers have been wounded, and it was almost routine for matches to be halted for half an hour or more, if not cancelled altogether.

At a recent game, Karisyaka fans unfurled a QR Code banner which scanned as text designed to insult Göztepe fans as much as possible and at the same time avoid immediate confiscation by officials. However either by Turkish media recognition or by Turkish police awareness, the ‘digital ‘ insult didn’t go unnoticed and the fans and the club now face punishment and fines. The QR codes actually conveyed insults in 8 different languages. Sophisticated fanaticism to be sure.

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