--- title: Banned Turkish Soccer Fan Cheers Denizlipor on From Crane description: A fan who was banned from watching his favorite soccer team inside the stadium rented a crane and everyone loves it. canonical: https://time.com/5261257/soccer-match-turkey-crane/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-01T14:57:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:52:32.724Z og:title: Banned Fan Decided to Watch Soccer Game by Renting a Crane og:description: Sometimes you have to rise above it all og:url: https://time.com/5261257/soccer-match-turkey-crane/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt33376da3f29e93f3/69892f37929fadce69bf06db/gettyimages-480528348.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3582 og:image:height: 2015 og:image:alt: Samuel Eto'o makes his debut in Antalya og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Banned Fan Decided to Watch Soccer Game by Renting a Crane twitter:description: Sometimes you have to rise above it all twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt33376da3f29e93f3/69892f37929fadce69bf06db/gettyimages-480528348.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Banned Fan Goes to Great Lengths to Watch Soccer Game by Renting a Crane > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman May 1, 2018 2:57 PM UTC  Samuel Eto'o (L) puts on the Antalyaspor jersey for the first time for a pre-season match in Antalya, Turkey. (Photo by Mustafa Ciftci/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) Samuel Eto'o (L) puts on the Antalyaspor jersey for the first time for a pre-season match in Antalya, Turkey. (Photo by Mustafa Ciftci/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) Anadolu Agency—Getty Images by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman May 1, 2018 2:57 PM UTC Nothing can stop the world’s most dedicated sports fan from supporting his beloved team. Ali Demirkaya, a soccer fan in Turkey who was banned from Denizli Atatürk stadium for unspecified reasons, has taken the only reasonable course to watch the game. He rented a crane. From high above just beyond the stadium limits, the diehard Denizlispor fan watched his team vanquish Gaziantepspor 5-0\. He even led the crowd in a chant. Nicknamed “Yamuk Ali” or “Irregular Ali” by the internet, the guy was suspended for a year, according to [local news reports](https://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2018/may/01/banned-turkish-football-fan-hires-crane-to-watch-his-team-denizlispor-play-video). But he just couldn’t miss the game, so he decided to get on that crane quickly. “That match was very important for our team,” he explained to [Yeni Asir](https://www.yeniasir.com.tr/spor/2018/04/30/turkiye-bu-adami-konusuyor) newspaper. “I had to go to the police station to sign a paper to show that I am not watching the match in the stadium. Then I quickly went to rent the crane.” According to him, the stunt only cost him $86\. And from his vantage point, he was sitting pretty. The fact that he took the love for the game to such impressive heights has inevitably [captured the internet’s whimsy](http://time.com/5247961/capitals-puck-girl-player/) across the world. Eventually, his special VIP viewing party perch had to, like all great things, come to an end. Police lowered the crane. Was it legal? Was it rational? What did he do to get banned for one year? Whatever the answer, the pictures are [internet gold](http://time.com/5193415/paralympics-garlic-girls/). Sometimes you just have to rise above it all. > [](https://twitter.com/FarukDogaan/status/990275509102800898) > [](https://twitter.com/Mijhamid1/status/990315341124374529) > [](https://twitter.com/guardian%5Fsport/status/991274352657256449) > [](https://twitter.com/HilalKaplanEng/status/990538957942378496) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5261257/soccer-match-turkey-crane/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5261257/soccer-match-turkey-crane/"},"headline":"Banned Fan Goes to Great Lengths to Watch Soccer Game by Renting a Crane","datePublished":"2018-05-01T14:57:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:52:32.724Z","description":"A fan who was banned from watching his favorite soccer team inside the stadium rented a crane and everyone loves it.","url":"https://time.com/5261257/soccer-match-turkey-crane/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt33376da3f29e93f3/69892f37929fadce69bf06db/gettyimages-480528348.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt33376da3f29e93f3/69892f37929fadce69bf06db/gettyimages-480528348.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Samuel Eto'o makes his debut in Antalya","caption":"Samuel Eto'o makes his debut in Antalya","creditText":"Anadolu Agency—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5261257/soccer-match-turkey-crane/","name":"Banned Fan Goes to Great Lengths to Watch Soccer Game by Renting a Crane"}}]}] ```