April 20, 2022

2022 EUROPPEAN FAIR PLAY MOVEMENT “SPIRIT OF FAIR PLAY” Award goes to ISMET KARABABA (TUR)

Ismet Karababa started his sports career as a goalkeeper in Konya.This sport brought him a great award at a young age. In a very important match the referee hesitated about the goal, because one team asked the referee to assign them the goal, the other team claimed the ball didn’t get into the goal. Finally, the referee asked Karababa “Ismet, tell me the truth”. The answer was: “I stopped the ball inside the goal”. His team lost the match and was relegated. Ismet was honored with the Fair Play Award of the Turkish National Olympic Committee that year and he became the first Turkish athlete to win the world Fair Play award in 1983. Moreover, the Club Konya, managed by Karababa deserved for two consecutive years the title of “Fair Play Team” and in 1988 the Club was honored by the International Fair Play Committee with the Diploma for the career. Ismet became the Fair Play ambassador and leader of Konya. He brought the Fair Play Museum and the first Fair Play sculpture to Konya. In 2022, his book titled “Mr. Fair Play”, in which he wrote his life story, broke the sales record.