Fenerbahce coach Ismail Kartal announced he was resigning after the Turkish club drew 1-1 with Roma in their opening Champions League League Phase match on September 10, 2026, only for club president Aziz Yildirim to declare hours later that the 65-year-old was staying in the job.
Kartal made the announcement at his post-match press conference. He said he thanked his players and was resigning from his position, adding that he had taken the decision to clear the way for the club. He said he was resigning while it was still early, and that he intended never to return.
The statement caught even the club's own president off guard. Yildirim moved quickly to insist that Kartal was not going anywhere, telling reporters that none of them had any idea, and asking whether he would still be there had he known.
Yildirim defends the coach
Yildirim said fans had celebrated for a single day when Fenerbahce qualified for the Champions League, but had spent the time since complaining that the team was weak and picking apart how it got there. He said everyone was making decisions for the president, the board and the coach, and called that unacceptable.
Kartal is in his fourth spell in charge of Fenerbahce, a club nicknamed the Canaries and one of the most decorated sides in Turkish football. The Champions League League Phase, introduced under UEFA's revamped format, replaced the old group stage and sees every club in the competition play a set of matches against different opponents before the knockout rounds begin.
Bottle thrown at Kartal during the match
Yildirim went on to reveal that Kartal had been hit on the head by an object thrown during the game. He said that in the end, by May, Fenerbahce would be champions, and that a bottle had been thrown at Kartal's head that night, which was why the coach was upset. He said the club had promised to qualify for the Champions League and had done so with Kartal in charge.
The Turkish newspaper Sabah published a photograph of the fan accused of throwing the bottle at the coach.
Yildirim: 'We are family'
Yildirim closed by making clear that Kartal would not be leaving. He said Kartal did not need to announce that he would continue, since he was Kartal's superior and had told him directly that he would stay on. He described the relationship between the coach and the club as that of a family.
