The chairman of the Turkish club Genclerbirligi has declared war on players with beards, opting to issue hefty fines to any of his side sporting the facial hair and claiming some footballers look like students at imam-training schools.

Ilhan Cavcav plans to fine any Genclerbirligi players L25,000 (£7,150) who contravene his new law, citing the Besiktas manager, Slaven Bilic, the Besiktas midfielder Olcay Sahan, the Fenerbahce goalkeeper Volkan Demirel and the Galatasaray midfielder Selcuk Inan as bad influences.

“I am 80 years old, and I shave every single day … Man, is this an imam-hatip school? You are a sportsman. You should be a model for the youth,” Cavcav, who has a moustache, told the Dogan news agency.

Cavcav has also unsuccessfully attempted to convince the chairman of the Turkish Football Federation, Yildirim Demiroren, to adopt a nationwide beard ban for footballers but vowed to lobby other clubs to join him in taking a stance. “He [Demiroren] told me that they could not impose such a restriction because Uefa would not let them do it. I am fed up with this Uefa. I wish we had some other place to play our football.”

Cavcav is not the first to take action against players’ appearances – the former Real Madrid midfielder Fernando Redondo famously missed the 1998 World Cup because the then Argentina manager Daniel Passarella reportedly refused to pick him unless he cut his hair shorter.