beIN Sports wins legal battle to prevent Fenerbahce manipulating the broadcaster’s logo for ‘beFAIR’ protest campaign
beIN Sports has succeeded in its legal bid to stop Fenerbahce using the beIN logo for the club’s “beFAIR” campaign against the broadcaster.
The network lodged an application for an emergency injunction against Fenerbahce for breach of intellectual property last week – as revealed by Morning Wire
On Friday Turkish courts ruled in beIN Sports’ favour, ordering Fenerbahce to cease manipulating beIN branding and displaying it on clothing and pitchside advertising.
Fenerbahce complied with the ruling in their fixture at Trabzonspor on Sunday.
The 19-time Turkish champions, led by president Ali Koc, had been waging an increasingly bitter war against beIN over the channel’s coverage.
Fenerbahce have accused beIN of manipulating VAR, even though the broadcaster does not control the video assistant referee process.
The club have also claimed that beIN choose camera angles and highlights that show them in an unfavourable light. beIN strongly denies those claims.
Fenerbahce’s campaign involved denying beIN some media access and displaying “beFAIR” branding on T-shirts, tracksuits, and pitchside advertising.
beIN declined to comment on the emergency injunction, other than to confirm that it had been awarded in their favour.
Fenerbahce, who signed former Arsenal star Mesut Ozil in January, are one of Turkey’s big three clubs, with Galatasaray and Besiktas. Both sit above them in the Super Lig table.
They are also more than $700m in debt. Koc is up for re-election later this year.
beIN currently pays $370m a year for the domestic broadcast rights to Super Lig.
However, the dispute with one of the country’s most fervently followed clubs is understood to have made it question whether to bid again when the Turkish Football Federation seels the rights from 2022 onwards in the coming months.