ANKARA

UEFA’s two-match suspension for a Turkish national football team player for using a grey wolf sign in celebration is a “scandalous decision,” a senior Turkish politician said Friday.

"The two-match ban imposed by UEFA on our national football player Merih Demiral, who shared the 'grey wolf' sign with justified pride and joy after the goal he scored in the Türkiye-Austria football match, and the closure of the appeal path, is a scandalous decision which is impossible to approve and tolerate,” Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli wrote on X.

Bahceli said the "grey wolf" symbol is the “existential honor of Turkishness.”

Although UEFA has a very broad-minded and tolerant approach to similar decisions regarding football players of some countries, it could not hide its hatred toward a Turkish football player, he added.

Türkiye’s Foreign Ministry said Friday it “deeply regrets” the suspension.

Demiral was suspended Friday for two matches for using the grey wolf sign at a UEFA EURO 2024 match against Austria earlier this week.

The UEFA Appeals Body claimed the Demiral exhibited a failure “to comply with the general principles of conduct, for violating the basic rules of decent conduct, for using sports events for manifestations of a non-sporting nature and for bringing the sport of football into disrepute.”

The decision, if it stands, means Demiral, 26, a former Juventus and Atalanta player, cannot play against the Netherlands in a quarterfinal match on Saturday, and will also miss the EURO 2024 semifinals if Türkiye advances.

In the match Tuesday, which Türkiye won 2 - 1, Demiral scored both goals.

UEFA launched an investigation after Demiral celebrated with the grey wolf sign at that match.

Demiral, a national team player since 2018, has scored four goals in 48 international caps.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar