An attack on a referee that one Turkish television station labelled “a scandal that will not be forgotten for many years” has rocked the Super Lig, upended Turkish football and even led president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to weigh in, after a furious club owner assaulted the referee on the pitch.
After a match between the Ankara team MKE Ankaragucu and Caykur Rizespor ended in a 1-1 draw in the Turkish capital thanks to a goal in stoppage time by Rizespor’s Argentinian forward Adolfo Gaich, Ankaragucu’s president, Faruk Koca, strode on to the field and punched the referee, Halil Umut Meler, in the face.
Photos show Meler curled in the foetal position on the grass with his arms over his head to protect himself as a brawl involving a dozen people erupted around him, while players and staff attempted to restrain Koca. According to the state-run news agency, Anadolu, “Ankaragucu fans supported Koca and cheered”.
Meler was taken to the referee’s room under heavy security, and Anadolu reported that Koca “felt faint after his violent action on the field”, and both were admitted to hospital in the Turkish capital. Koca later announced his resignation as president via Ankaragucu’s website.
Turkey’s interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said on X that Koca, a former member of parliament who represented an Ankara district for almost a decade withErdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), was receiving treatment “under the supervision of our security forces”.
The justice minister, Yılmaz Tunc, said Koca had been arrested and questioned along with two others, after video showed them rushing on to the pitch. Anyone, including staff or fans who entered the pitch, had violated a law that bans violence and disorder in sports, he said. The Turkish daily Cumhuriyet reported that Koca along with two other suspects had been taken to Sincan prison outside Ankara.
The incident prompted the indefinite suspension of all domestic Turkish football matches amid concerns about damage to its international image. The widespread domestic outcry about violence directed at referees even drew the intervention of Erdoğan, a former footballer with an enduring interest in the sport and whose family hails from the Black Sea town of Rize, where Rizespor are based.
Erdoğan used X to denounce the attack, saying that “sports means peace and brotherhood. Sport is incompatible with violence. We will never allow violence to take place in Turkish sports.”
Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, also condemned the attack, saying “without match officials there is no football. Referees, players, fans and staff have to be safe and secure to enjoy the game, and I call on the relevant authorities to ensure that this is strictly implemented and respected at all levels.”
The head of the Turkish football federation, Mehmet Buyukeksi, despaired at the consequences of the incident after an emergency meeting. “We postponed all matches indefinitely – we say enough!” Buyukeksi said, according to the broadsheet Milliyet. “No one should get hit like this. Do not devalue Turkish football any further. Let’s not disgrace Turkish football internationally, enough is enough!”
The federation also pointed the blame at what it called “irresponsible statements” from club presidents, managers, coaches and even pundits directed towards referees, arguing they “paved the way for this vile attack” and adding that all those responsible at Ankaragucu would face punishment.
Greece must play all its top league soccer matches without fans for the next two months following the severe injuring of a police officer in violence during a volleyball match in Athens last week, its government said on Monday.
All Super League 1 matches will be played behind closed doors until mid February government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told a weekly briefing on Monday.
The volleyball match was between local teams Olympiacos and Panathinaikos who are both owned by the soccer sides of the same name.
Marinakis said the measure might also apply to some European fixtures at home and could be extended beyond February, if top league soccer teams fail by that date to take action, such as installing cameras and systems of electronic identification for their fans at the stadiums.
The announcement followed the critical injuring of a 31-year-old police officer by a flare in violent clashes that broke out on Thursday, during a volleyball match hosted by Olympiacos in Piraeus.
In Greece, fights between football fans and clubs are frequent on and off the pitch before or after a game and the government has been trying to reform soccer.
More than 400 people had been briefly detained over Thursday's incident which Greek police said was a "murderous attack" of hooligans on riot police, including the officer who remains in hospital in critical condition.
Evidence collected helped police track down a 18-year-old man who confessed to joining the group which attacked the police and to throwing the flare which injured the officer, a police official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The arrested man was expected to testify before a public prosecutor on Thursday, the semi-state Athens News Agency reported on Monday.
"For years, criminals in the guise of fans have been committing serious crimes by critically injuring and killing [people]," Marinakis said.
"Neither athletes, nor fans should they suffer from the murderous behaviour of criminal gangs and the pathetic tolerance of a tiny minority of fans," he added.
Turkish football history has been peppered with violent incidents, including attacks on referees, that some commentators argue have led to a drop in attendances because fans feel unsafe.
These include the stabbing of a coach on the pitch in 2010, lighters, stones and knives hurled on to the pitch injuring players or referees, and a 2015 shooting attack on the bus of Fenerbahce which struck the driver. The shooting prompted the TFF to suspend the Super Lig for a week.
A year later, Turkish football experienced a weekend of violence when supporters of Trabzonspor ran on to the pitch and attacked an assistant referee, and officials from the Diyarbakir club Amedspor said their counterparts from Ankaragucu attacked them in the VIP stands, leading five to be hospitalised after they were beaten by the group.
On Tuesday morning Yerlikaya shared a video showing him visiting Meler in hospital, leaning over Meler’s bed to hold out a phone while Erdoğan spoke to him “to wish him a speedy recovery”, he said. Yerlikaya described the incident as “a disgusting attack,” and added his own best wishes to “the Turkish referee community”.
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Meler, still clearly shaken by the incident, is wearing a padded neck brace, his face swollen. His doctor told reporters that the 37-year-old had suffered a fracture above his left eye as well as bleeding, and that he was under medical observation for a traumatic head injury, but the injuries were not life-threatening.
The referee, considered one of the best in Turkey, is also recognised by Fifa and has been on Uefa’s elite list since last year. He has refereed games in the Europa League and last season’s semi-final first leg of the Europa Conference League between West Ham and AZ Alkmaar.
Meler reportedly told a group of referees who visited him in hospital that the attack marked the end of his career. “This job is over for me, I can’t continue any more,” he reportedly said.
