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Dirk Kuyt named interim Fenerbahce coach ahead of Champions League meeting with old club Liverpool

Sport

Dirk Kuyt named interim Fenerbahce coach ahead of Champions League meeting with old club Liverpool
Sport

Sport

Dirk Kuyt named interim Fenerbahce coach ahead of Champions League meeting with old club Liverpool

2026-10-28 18:18 Last Updated At:18:41

ISTANBUL (AP) — Former Netherlands striker Dirk Kuyt has been appointed as interim coach of Fenerbahce — and his first Champions League match in charge will be against his old club, Liverpool.

On a chaotic week at the Turkish team, Fenerbahce lost 2-1 to great rival Galatasaray in an ill-tempered league match on Monday and then accepted the resignation of coach Ismail Kartal late Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Kuyt was chosen as the replacement “until a new head coach is appointed.” He arrived in preseason as Kartal's assistant, having played for Fenerbahce from 2012-15 after moving from Liverpool.

Kuyt was a fans' favorite at Anfield, where he spent six years and scored in Liverpool's loss to AC Milan in the 2007 Champions League final, so it will be a poignant meeting with the English club at Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium on Nov. 4.

Fenerbahce, whose squad includes Romelu Lukaku, N'Golo Kante and Mason Greenwood, has yet to win in three games in the Champions League, drawing twice — to Roma and Slavia Prague — and losing 6-0 to Aston Villa.

The team is fifth in the 18-club Turkish league.

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Fenerbahce's head coach İsmail Kartal gives instructions to his players during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Fenerbahce and Slavia Praha in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Fenerbahce's head coach İsmail Kartal gives instructions to his players during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Fenerbahce and Slavia Praha in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Fenerbahce players celebrate after their teammate Mason Greenwood scores the second goal against Slavia Praha during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Fenerbahce and Slavia Praha in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Fenerbahce players celebrate after their teammate Mason Greenwood scores the second goal against Slavia Praha during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Fenerbahce and Slavia Praha in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Groups that provide legal services to immigrants filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to stop the Trump administration's new policy of hiding the locations of tens of thousands of detainees with final deportation orders.

The policy, adopted suddenly last month to expedite deportations, interferes with immigration lawyers’ rights by making it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to locate their clients, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston. It asks a judge to issue an order blocking the “unlawful and inhumane” change.

“No one should be denied a meaningful opportunity to defend their rights because the government has made it impossible for their lawyer to find them,” said Jacquelynne Bowman, executive director of Greater Boston Legal Services, one of the four groups listed as plaintiffs. “This arbitrary new administrative change leaves hundreds of thousands of people at risk of potentially life-altering consequences without essential legal help."

The lawsuit challenges U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's decision, first reported by The Associated Press, to remove the locations of people facing final removal orders from its Online Detainee Locator System and to instruct staff not to reveal their whereabouts. As of last month, the move affected more than 16,000 of the nearly 69,000 detainees who were in ICE custody.

ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the lawsuit.

The agencies have not publicly confirmed the change, but have said they are prioritizing people with final removal orders for deportation. They have also said they are facing a “historic number of injunctions” from courts blocking their efforts. The agencies have denied that they are disappearing detainees, saying they remain free to make phone calls.

Since 2010, lawyers and family members have used the online system to track detainees as they get moved from facility to facility through ICE's sprawling detention network.

Approximately 1.4 million people living in the U.S. are subject to final orders of removal, which means an immigration judge has ruled they should be deported and the decision has been upheld on appeal or not appealed.

Those individuals still have several options to challenge the conditions of their detention and looming deportations, including asking to reopen proceedings, seeking relief from removal to third countries and challenging violations of their rights. Federal judges have ruled thousands of times that detainees should be released or granted bond hearings.

Since the change went into effect, lawyers have been unable to find clients and potential clients and have spent “significantly more time” tracking down others, the lawsuit says. Calls to ICE, including to its Detention and Removal Information Line, “lead to long wait times on hold, sudden hang-ups, a general lack of information or no answer at all,” it says.

As a workaround, some lawyers have tried to find their clients through an ICE program that schedules legal calls, but only a small percentage of detention centers use it, the lawsuit says. The result has been delayed or missed legal filings and fewer cases taken, according to the organizations.

The lawsuit argues the change violates the Administrative Procedure Act because it was adopted without explanation and the First Amendment, which protects lawyers' ability to advise people of their legal rights and seek prospective clients.

FILE - The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website, used to locate someone in immigration detention, is displayed on Sept. 21, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Rachel Leathe, File)

FILE - The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website, used to locate someone in immigration detention, is displayed on Sept. 21, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Rachel Leathe, File)

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