A football club taking part in Sheffield Wednesday’s upcoming FC 24 Pro Clubs 11v11 event this weekend have denied claims one of their players is racist.
Turkish side Altay Spor Kulübü took to social media to respond to the allegations, and event organisers VPG (Virtual Pro Gaming) also told Esports News UK they had concluded an investigation and found no wrongdoing.
Altay FC player Kevin ‘Pulgish_’ Yanakçi was accused of making racist comments.
Other Pro Clubs players from other clubs were also accused of racism and making homophobic slurs on Twitter and in a player Discord server, though several of the tweets we were sent have since been deleted, and a source claimed the Discord server has since been scoured.
Another Altay player, ShisuiShiki, who is a loan player for the tournament (and has previously helped VPG admins) was accused of making a homophobic slur. He’s not an admin for the tournament this weekend as he’s playing in it; we understand he’s worked as a helper for the admins in the French community.
A separate tournament provider, VFL, posted the following, which Shisui said was a fake allegation.
Aaron ‘Gringo’, VFL owner and the person behind the VFL Twitter account, says he has since had his personal information doxxed online, and Esports News UK has seen messages of harassment and physical threats made towards him seemingly by Altay fans and others.
Regardless, he said that VPG and Sheffield Wednesday ‘have been very communicative and helpful’ during this situation.
Of the allegations of racism, Altay FC player Pulgish said: “It’s becoming borderline ridiculous but unfortunately we have ended up with false accusations of racism, following photos which were published in my name [claiming to show I made racist remarks] and sent to Sheffield Wednesday. However, I cannot tolerate this kind of false accusation and that is why I was obliged to make this [statement].”
Altay added in a statement:
“In this lynching attempt, our valuable athlete Kevin ‘Pulgish_’ Yanakçi was subjected to some accusations.
“Altay Esports club officials examined the athlete’s social media accounts and found no racist remarks. It was revealed that the images shared on social media were photoshopped.”
Altay also said that their players will be taking part in Sheffield Wednesday’s event and claimed that ‘the person who shared the images [Abdus] admitted they did so for fun, and that Pulga is not a racist’ (see here and here, in which another physical threat is made towards VFL founder Gringo).
However, another source rejected the idea that Abdus falsified the images, and just said he did in order to ‘take the fall’ for Pulga and ShisuiShiki. Regardless, there is no hard proof either way.
Another source alleged that Gringo himself had made homophobic comments in the past, though we understand this was from more than five years ago. He was removed from the EA GC programme over it, which prompted him to change for the better.
Altay are one of ten clubs taking part in the tournament, with the others being Owls Esports (Sheffield Wednesday’s esports arm, UK), Poise Gaming (Portugal), Fenix (Scotland), Los Galacticos (UK), QPR (UK), Illegal Esports (Poland), APOEL (Cyprus), Focus (UK) and R4P (UK).
‘We have done all the checks and Altay wouldn’t let anyone racist wear their jersey’ – organisers VPG and Altay respond
Arron Dellosa, president of Virtual Pro Gaming, told Esports News UK: “We have done all the checks as a platform on all players based on their history. Vetting has been done by VPG, Sheffield Wednesday, each professional team and org for their players they are bringing.
“Altay Football club have emailed myself and SWFC with all the information regarding their investigation. Pulgish, the player who got reported, has also been to many EA 1v1 events and previously represented PSG.”
On the tweets alluding to threats of violence, Arron added:
“These people arguing [with VFL on Twitter, players Abdus and FraserCov] are not going to the event. Abdus is a player who’s been banned for many months.”
Erdican Çilengir, general manager of Altay Espor, also told Esports News UK: “During this process, I would like to mention that Altay sent proof to Sheffield Wednesday officials and VPG. They also investigated and analysed the reports and compared them with what other sides have provided. Then we all agreed on the final decision.
“As stated in the official club page, Altay wouldn’t let anyone racist wear their jersey. Especially when the club founders, fans, managers and presidents are all from different backgrounds. We did not provide any info about Shisui on the report sent to Sheffield Wednesday and VPG, because we couldn’t find enough proof.
“I am upset with what happened during past days. But the future is bright, and Sunday will be mesmerizing!”
Sheffield Wednesday did not respond to our requests for comment at the time of writing, and the VFL declined to make a public comment for this article.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.