(Bloomberg) -- Istanbul football club Fenerbahce Futbol AS is considering whether to withdraw from the country’s top league after rival fans attacked its players on the pitch, in the latest violent incident to tarnish the Turkish sport’s image.

Live coverage of Sunday’s away match with Trabzonspor showed at least one spectator brandishing a knife before attacking Fenerbahce’s Bright Osayi-Samuel, a Nigerian-British right winger, as the side gathered to celebrate its 3-2 win. Osayi-Samuel and a security guard brought down the fan but tens of others jumped over stadium barriers to attack the players.

Fenerbahce will hold an extraordinary general assembly on April 2 to consider a board proposal to leave the Super Lig, as the country’s top division is called.

Twelve fans have been detained and 38 others who were identified to have been involved in the incidents will also be detained, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said in comments on X. No players have been charged, he said.

Withdrawal would be a blow to TV broadcasting rights holder BeIN Sports, a unit of Qatari media company BeIN Media, as nearly a third of its roughly 1.3 million football TV subscribers are estimated to be Fenerbahce fans. BeIN TV channels’ advertisers include companies owned by Fenerbahce Chairman Ali Koc’s Koc Holding AS, including Arcelik AS, Ford Otomotiv Sanayi AS and Yapi Kredi Bankasi AS.

Fenerbahce shares fell as much as 4.8% to 83.6 liras in Istanbul on Tuesday while Trabzonspor shares declined as much as 1.3%, following a 6.8% drop the previous day. Borsa Istanbul’s four-member sports index extended a four-day decline to more than 13%.

Super Lig is the seventh-largest league in Europe with combined club revenue of €533 million, according to UEFA’s 2023 finance and investment report. 

But the league’s value has fallen in recent years due to lack of success in Europe and absence of large sponsorships, leading to a deterioration in the quality of pitches, player profiles, referees and federation management. In February, existing TV rights holder BeIN Media was awarded with its offer to pay an annual $182 million to the federation for another 3 years from 2024-2025 season. This compares with around $90 million it’s paying for the current season, and $500 million it paid when it won the auction in 2016.

Turkey Postpones All Football Matches After Referee Attacked

Turkish football has frequently been tarnished by violence, including sometimes deadly attacks on referees and fans. 

(Updates with justice minister’s comments in fourth paragraph, share prices in fifth.)

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