Drogheda United will travel to Türkiye next month for a landmark friendly against Trabzonspor, turning a relationship that stretches from the Famine through football, diplomacy, and business into a game that has been more than a decade in the making.

Drogheda United will play Turkish Süper Lig side Trabzonspor at the 40,000-capacity Papara Park on Thursday, October 1st, the first time the League of Ireland club has played in Türkiye.

It comes in the year in which Ireland and Türkiye are celebrating 75 years of formal diplomatic relations and will bring together two football clubs whose unusual friendship has grown from shared colours and symbols into a relationship spanning supporters, civic leaders and the business communities of Drogheda and Trabzon.

It will also settle a piece of unfinished football business.

In March 2013, Trabzonspor travelled to Ireland to play Drogheda United at Tallaght Stadium. The fixture had been developed over two years, was to be broadcast live on Setanta and was accompanied by a significant trade and political delegation.

But then the rain came, the pitch was declared unplayable, and the game was called off. The teams posed together for photographs but never kicked a ball in competition. Sport for Business wrote at the time that the cancellation was “harsh reward for the imagination” shown in building a relationship that could extend well beyond football.

Thirteen years later, that game will finally take place, this time on Turkish soil.

A Relationship Older Than Football

The story reaches far deeper than the creation of either football club.

During An Gorta Mór, Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I contributed £1,000 towards Irish famine relief in 1847, a substantial donation at the time and one recorded in contemporary accounts. Ireland’s National Famine Commemoration material also records the long-established story of Ottoman ships carrying food supplies to Drogheda.

There is an important distinction between established fact and the folklore that has grown around it.

The Sultan’s financial contribution is well documented. The familiar Drogheda story that three Ottoman relief ships sailed up the Boyne and secretly delivered food has become an enduring part of local history, but a recent examination by Turkish naval historians found no surviving Turkish state, Irish national, or Drogheda Port records conclusively proving that the vessels were dispatched by the Ottoman authorities. Contemporary local newspapers did, however, report the arrival of ships carrying relief supplies at Drogheda during the period.

The star and crescent appears both on the Turkish flag and in Drogheda’s heraldry, but the town’s use of the symbol substantially predates the Famine. It is generally traced to medieval royal heraldry associated with King John and was present centuries before the Ottoman relief contribution of 1847.

History, symbolism and folklore nevertheless combined to create something very real in the modern era.

Drogheda United and Trabzonspor share claret-and-blue colours, and the familiarity of the star and crescent helped bring their supporters together. Trabzonspor formally recognised Drogheda United as a sister club in 2010, and the connection quickly grew through supporters and social media.

That friendship has also been tested in difficult times. Drogheda supporters raised money and displayed messages of solidarity following the devastating earthquakes in Türkiye in 2023.

Football as a Business Bridge

The October trip is being deliberately positioned as an opportunity beyond the 90 minutes.

Drogheda United CEO Rían Wogan has said the club wants the visit to create a legacy through new connections involving its commercial partners and the wider Drogheda business community. Drogheda & District Chamber will be part of that effort, using the visit to renew and develop commercial links with Türkiye.

When Trabzonspor travelled to Ireland in 2013, a 47-strong delegation of business and political representatives accompanied the team. Drogheda & District Chamber and the Trabzon Chamber of Commerce and Industry signed a goodwill protocol intended to encourage trade and business links between the two regions.

The fixture will also feature in an independently produced documentary, An Gorta Mór – The Star & The Crescent, exploring Ottoman assistance during the Famine and how the relationship has been carried into the modern era through Drogheda United, Trabzonspor and their supporters.

There is a straightforward sporting value too. The game falls during the international break, and Drogheda intend to use the trip as a mini-camp, keeping Kevin Doherty’s squad together and testing them against high-quality opposition ahead of the closing weeks of the League of Ireland season.

Trabzonspor now operate at a very different financial level and has assembled a squad containing major international names, including former Liverpool star Mohamed Salah, although Egypt’s international schedule makes his participation in the friendly unlikely.

Sport is often described as a vehicle for soft power, international relations and economic opportunity. Drogheda United and Trabzonspor have been quietly putting that theory into practice for more than 15 years.

This time, weather permitting, they will finally get to play the match as well.

 

 

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Image Credit: Drogheda United

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