BBC Learning English
Words in the News
23th September 2011
Turkey bans men from football match
The Turkish Football Federation has started an unusual experiment allowing only women and
children to attend the matches played by teams which have been punished for bad behaviour.
The atmosphere in an Istanbul stadium where top Turkish team, Fenerbahce, played has
changed. The BBC's Jonathan Head reports:
Turkish football fans are famed for their raucous passion, and the Turkish Football
Federation punishes violent behaviour by making the team play without an audience.
But from this week they have moderated that rule, to allow women and children to watch
sanctioned matches.
Last night the first such game, at the stadium of the top team Fenerbahce, was attended by an
unexpectedly large crowd of 41,000 women and children.
The players said they approved of the changed atmosphere, where, instead of the usual war-
like chanting, there were flowers and applause for both teams.
The Federation changed its rules because it's expecting more crowd trouble this season,
following the exposure of a big match-fixing scandal.
Turkish television companies, which rely heavily on football for revenue, were worried they
would lose subscribers if too many games were played in empty stadiums.
Jonathan Head, BBC News
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2011
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Vocabulary and definitions
are famed for are well-known for
raucous loud and unpleasant
violent behaviour hostile or aggressive actions
moderated made less extreme
sanctioned approved
war-like chanting aggressive sounding singing
match-fixing scandal illegal action in which the result of a competition is
decided before it is played
rely heavily on depend a lot on
revenue income, amount of money received
subscribers clients
More on this story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14281110
Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2011/09/110923_witn_football.shtml
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2011
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bbclearningenglish.com