Turkey: Galatasaray remove the word "arena" from their stadium following orders from the President

Galatasaray SK (Spor Toto Süper Lig) has changed the name of its stadium, previously called Türk Telekom Arena (52,650 capacity), to Türk Telekom Stadyumu (Türk Telekom Stadium), from 29/05/2017. "Our board decided to change the name of the stadium after the president's call on this issue," said Dursun Özbek, president of the Istanbul club.

This change has come following an order from Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish President, who argued that the word arena was foreign to the Turkish language and referred to the fighting between "gladiators and ferocious beasts" in antiquity. "I am against the word arena, you know what they were doing in arenas in the past, men were tortured by animals," said the Turkish President on 26/05/2017.

Similarly, in Istanbul, the Vodafone Arena of Besiktas JK, the 2016-17 Turkish champions, will become Vodafone Stadyumu on 27/05/2017.

Spor Toto Süper Lig: three clubs still have the word "arena" in their stadium name

Three clubs of the Spor Toto Süper Lig Turkish first division, 18 teams in 2014-15 still have a stadium name in which the word "arena…