There was something so unusual about Fenerbahce’s 1-1 draw with Manisaspor in Istanbul on Tuesday that it is surely destined to feature in pub quiz questions for years to come.

The Turkish league game took place in front of a packed crowd comprising 41,000 women and children after adult men were barred from attendance. Fenerbahce, the defending champions, became the first club to pioneer a new sanctions code under which clubs that would normally be ordered to play matches behind closed doors in the wake of crowd trouble will instead exclude males over the age of 12.

After their fans had stormed the pitch during a pre-season friendly against Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk, Fenerbahce were originally poised to be handed the more usual punishment of being forced to play two league games in an empty stadium. Courtesy of some nifty lateral thinking on the part of the Turkish FA, though, the rules were amended to allow women, girls and boys in, thereby ensuring the miscreants felt they were missing out.

Anxious to create a high decibel, as well as a high-pitched, soundtrack from the stands, Fenerbahce distributed free tickets for Tuesday’s match and women – some carrying babies bedecked in club colours – duly formed long queues outside the Sukru Saracoglu stadium ahead of the turnstiles opening.