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Panathinaikos Aktor coach Ergin Ataman refuted a report regarding what he supposedly said to Turkey president Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a talk between the two in Athens, Greece.
MEGA TV channel reported that Erdogan asked Ataman why he left Turkish side Anadolu Efes to join Panathinaikos and that the latter replied: “to beat Fenerbahce.” The Turkish coach absolutely denied this during the post-game presser of the EuroLeague loss of his team to Real Madrid and added that he will take legal action against the ones responsible for the report.
“It’s completely bulls–t,” Ataman said. “We just talked about the friendship between Turkish and Greek people, we talked about the sports culture in Greece, Panathinaikos, Olympiacos and fans. We didn’t say anything about Fenerbahce, I didn’t say any words about Fenerbahce. Let that be clear.”
Ergin Ataman refutes a report about him telling Turkey president Erdogan that he joined Panathinaikos so that the team beats Fenerbahce
"It's completely BULLSH–T" pic.twitter.com/f9r4yiuFLv
— Antonis Stroggylakis (@AStroggylakis) December 7, 2023
“Whoever journalist wrote this, I’ll take them to the court,” a visibly angry Ataman added.
Ataman visited Erdogan in the Turkish Embassy of Athens Thursday (7/11) following a meeting between the latter and Greek Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis. The report that Ataman said to Erdogan that he moved to Panathinaikos to beat Fenerbahce appeared on MEGA channel later that afternoon and was reproduced by several websites, including Turkish ones.