Friday 23 February 1934 was the day when unexpected riots happened at a supposed to be friendly match between Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray played at Taksim Stadium. Both teams wanted to win badly and therefore the match had to be stopped many times because of hard fouls. The high tension on the pitch caused high tension on the stands as well. The game ended with players fighting, the pitch turned out to be a war area. The referee had no choice except to abandon the match. It was the end of friendly displays between both clubs.

It all happened in the 1995/96 season. Fenerbahçe were competing for the title with Trabzonspor while Galatasaray were struggling. When Galatasaray reached the cup final against Fenerbahce, everybody thought it would be an easy win for Fenerbahce. There were even some insults as if Galatasaray wasn’t a worthy opponent and the Fenerbahce chairman also made some comments about Souness as a coach. Galatasaray surprisingly beat Fenerbahce in 1st leg by a Dean Saunders penalty. The 2nd leg was played in the hell atmosphere of the Fenerbahce stadium. After 90 minutes Fenerbahce were leading 1-0, but in extra time Dean Saunders equalised, winning the cup for Galatasaray. Souness, with the great feeling of a great victory, took a giant Galatasaray flag and planted it in the centre of the pitch. This wasn’t appreciated by the Fenerbahce fans of course but he was the hero for all Galatasaray fans that day (Fenerbahce won the title and Souness had to leave Galatasaray because of the poor league position).