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13th Feb 2017

Robin van Persie banned after celebrating in front of former Arsenal teammate

It led to a full-scale T-shirt war between the two clubs. Really.

Tom Victor

Robin van Persie will miss Fenerbahçe’s next two games after being handed a suspension for his celebration in the Turkish Cup victory over Beşiktaş.

The Dutch international had a run-in with opponent Oğuzhan Özyakup, with whom he played at Arsenal, after the Turkey defender appeared to blame Van Persie for his part in the sending-off of teammate Duško Tošić.

And, when the former Manchester United frontman put the 11 men ahead, he wasted no time rubbing it in the face of the former Gunner, who was in the squad for the 8-2 defeat to United in which Van Persie scored and missed a penalty and played twice in the 2011/12 season.

Van Persie was initially suspended for three games for what the Turkish FA has described as an ‘insult to fans of the opposing team’, but this was later reduced to two on appeal. Tošić has also been banned following the red card.

In the meantime, there has been a bizarre T-shirt war between the two giants of Turkish football.

Fenerbahçe kit seller Fenerium began stocking this effort, released in the immediate aftermath of the game and relating to the celebration.

Meanwhile Jelena Karleuša, wife of red card victim Tošić, shared this response with the caption ‘The Power of Beşiktaş’, as if to say the Serbian defender just needed to be standing near Van Persie for the Dutchman to hit the ground.

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