Besiktas battle over venue verdict
ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Besiktas will appeal to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport and seek to overturn UEFA's decision to change the venue of its Champions League game against Chelsea, Turkey's prime minister said on Friday.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Istanbul over the last two weeks, UEFA on Tuesday switched three European club matches from Turkey to neutral venues.
UEFA's decision "is a blow to the international cooperation and solidarity agreement," against terrorism, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after meeting federation officials.
"This is not a sports decision, this is a political decision," said Erdogan. "Besiktas is going to the CAS. We are determined to continue with the legal action as far as it goes.
"Such a decision against Turkey is a bonus to international terror. It is not easy to tolerate such a bonus."
Tuesday's Champions League Group D match between Galatasaray and Juventus was also switched along with the UEFA Cup tie between Maccabi Haifa and Valencia.
The Haifa match had already been moved to Turkey because of the situation in Israel.
Erdogan said it was too late to appeal against the decision to change the Galatasaray match, which is now set for December 2 in Dortmund, Germany.
But the Besiktas-Chelsea game is not scheduled to be played until a week later and that gives the Turkish federation time to launch an appeal to CAS on behalf of their club.
