The European Court of Justice's Ruling in The Kahveci Case Lights the Way for Other Turkish National Sportsmen in the European Union

Abstract

Nowadays, the European Court of Justice (ECJ)’s judgement in the Nihat Kahveci case has had broad repercussions in the press. Ntvmsnbc published the news as “Nihat, marked a new period in Spain.” Sabah reported it as “Nihat Kahveci entered into the European Union.” Nethaber announced the ruling with the heading “Nihat will not be treated as a foreigner anymore.” Indeed because it was an expected decision of the European Court, a ruling to the contrary would be surprising, because Nihat shared the same fate as Slovakian goalkeeper Marcus Kolpak on the German handball team and Russian professional football player Igor Simutenkov while playing with the Spanish football club Deportivo Tenerife. Their common interest was the limited number of players allowed from countries that are not parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area