Fenerbahce Riot: Soccer Fans Clash With Police In Istanbul After Turkish Championship Game (VIDEO)

Fans of Istanbul's Fenerbahce soccer club clashed with police in Istanbul after the team tied rivals Galatasaray in the Turkish Super League Championship on Saturday.

The goalless game allowed Galatasaray to clinch the league title one point ahead of Fenerbahce. The BBC reports that police used pepper spray to disperse the rioting crowd of Fenerbahce fans that mobbed the field after the match, lighting flares and breaking and throwing plastic chairs.

Scroll Down For Video Of The Fenerbahce Riot

The video seen below was posted to YouTube on May 12, and shows fans clashing with police on the field after play has concluded. While The Huffington Post could not get official confirmation from the user that posted the video, computer graphics in it appear to announce Galatasaray's 18th Turkish Super League Championship, indicating its authenticity.

UPDATE: New Footage Of Fenerbahce Riot Surfaces

On Sunday, YouTube user PierreFootbaIl posted new footage of the Fenerbahce fan riot, some of which was taken from LigTV. This new video shows up-close scenes of fans throwing chairs at police and lighting flares, and incudes a shot of an overturned police car as fans spill onto the street.

Galatasaray won its last Turkish Super League title in 2008.

According to the Associated Press, "sports channel Lig TV said some Fenerbahce fans also fought with police outside the stadium, throwing stones at a police vehicle with a water cannon."

Earlier this year, Turkish soccer clubs including Fenerbahce were cleared of an alleged match-fixing scandal by Turkey's soccer federation.

WATCH: Fenerbahce Riot May 12, 2012

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Comments

[alonemunda]

03:27 PM on 05/14/2012

Watch Video on]

http://goo.gl/4egeH

[KPinSEA]

07:05 AM on 05/14/2012

Some men just want to watch the world burn.

[dennisgarwitz40]

09:03 PM on 05/13/2012

So I pissed a lot of people off that like soccer. GOOD!

[Enso]

04:14 PM on 05/13/2012

Obviously the Prophet is a big Galatasaray fan.

[Samuel Stephen Porras]

01:08 PM on 05/13/2012

I understood nothing

[Enso]

04:12 PM on 05/13/2012

Football hooligans riot. What's there not to understand..

[samhaydenjr]

12:32 PM on 05/13/2012

Maybe the Fenerbahce male fans decided that the last "women and children only" game went so well that they'd try to get themselves banned again (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/21/turkey-soccer-ban-female-fans-children-fill-stadium_n_974656.html). Also, did anyone notice that in the midst of all the chaos, the graphics loudly announcing that Galatasaray were champions stayed on the screen!

[tomasino]

11:33 AM on 05/13/2012

Didn't see this on ESPN.

[morris111]

11:11 AM on 05/13/2012

Looks like an OWS rally, except these hooligans dress better.

[tomasino]

11:35 AM on 05/13/2012

Tea Party fun.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5460/7179002620_00a8343185.jpg

[Jerry Troutman]

11:44 AM on 05/13/2012

Funny,thats what they said about the patriots when they were fighting against the Tories,Arnold.So keep up your ridicule,but we will do brave deeds and endure,Mo.

[morris111]

11:37 PM on 05/13/2012

There is nothing remotely resembling brave deeds or endurance with the OWS folks. Only whining and complaining. The patriots were fighting a just cause. The OWS folks are only fighting/whining for unwarranted entitlement freebies. Big difference.

[ocmaximos]

10:52 AM on 05/13/2012

Yes,"The Beautiful Game". Euro 2012 is coming and Europe is having financial crisis, expact more of this.

[Pine Island Joe]

10:12 AM on 05/13/2012

Good thing that the Turks are mostly Muslims and do not drink.

[WillieBlack]

02:26 PM on 05/13/2012

Turkey is a modern secular state, and plenty of Turkish people drink alcohol on a regular basis. And police believe it was a significant factor in the violence.

There's nothing in this story for haters of Islam.

[nyoped]

11:30 PM on 05/13/2012

Actually it is the exact opposite. Fenerbahce fans had a tradition of drinking around the stadium before games. This year the government started to force liquor stores close early before the games.

[Logicalthinker10]

10:12 AM on 05/13/2012

They are just football hooligans.

[bikeguy54]

09:37 AM on 05/13/2012

The future of sports in America.

[Neymar]

09:28 AM on 05/13/2012

Sadly this was always going to happen if Galatasaray picked up that point to get the title.

[local21]

09:18 AM on 05/13/2012

Ah, you can't beat fun at the old ballpark.

[nightfly4257]

08:57 AM on 05/13/2012

Yes,"The Beautiful Game". Euro 2012 is coming and Europe is having financial crisis, expact more of this.

[tobo]

09:58 AM on 05/13/2012

hooliganism and financial crisis have nothing to do with each other.

[samhaydenjr]

10:52 AM on 05/15/2012

Actually it could be argued that hooliganism, particularly in England, peaked during the high-unemployment period of the 1970s and 1980s, with lots of disenfranchised young men with nothing better to do, out to cause trouble and show how "hard" they are. And with the current crisis, you're already seeing social unrest and the rise of the extreme left and right in Europe, so it wouldn't be a great surprise to see a rise in hooliganism over the next few years. So while nightfly4257 may be being a bit snarky about football in general (it is still a beautiful game and a has been wonderful pastime over the years for men and their sons and latterly, women and their daughters), he/she may be correct about the potential for trouble at Euro 2012, particularly with hooliganism already being a serious problem in Poland.