The lynching of the referee, who suffered from head trauma, led the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) to suspend the first division championship until further notice. The president of the Ankaragücü Süper Lig club and two other men who beat the referee were placed in pre-trial detention, Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunç announced on Tuesday.
According to local media, the three men were imprisoned in Sincan prison, on the outskirts of Ankara. The referee, Halil Umut Meler, announced that he was filing a complaint.
“I’m going to kill you !”
According to images broadcast live on television and statements by the referee, the president of the Turkish capital club rushed at Mr. Meler at the final whistle of a match between Ankaragücü and Rizespor, hitting him violently in the face while screaming “I’m going to kill you !“.
The Rize club (north) had just equalized (1-1) in added time on the Ankaragücü field, which had been denied a goal earlier in the match. “Faruk Koca punched me under the left eye and I fell. While I was on the ground, all the people kicked me in the face and other parts of the body… Faruk Koca shouted (…) ‘I will kill you!’“, he described in comments reported by the official Anadolu agency.
The referee of the match between Ankaragucu and Rizespor curled up on the pitch after being hit by several people after the match.
Credit: Getty Images
“I apologize to Mr. Meler and his family, the Turkish refereeing community, sports fans and our nation“, Mr. Koca said Tuesday evening in a press release, announcing that he had resigned from his functions. “My brain has gone crazy (…), I don’t remember what I did“, the manager of the Ankaragücü club initially told a private television channel.
Fifa President Gianni Infantino described the incident as “totally unacceptable“. The Turkish Football Federation has for its part decided to “sine die postponement” of all championship matches, in reaction to this attack which raises the specter of violence in Turkish football.
Proof of the extreme resonance of this act of violence, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacted quickly Monday evening. “I condemn the attack on referee Halil Umut Meler (…) We will never allow violence to interfere in Turkish sport“, he wrote on X.
“Black Evening”
Denouncing a “black evening“for Turkish football, the Turkish Referees Association called on its members to exercise their right of withdrawal, urging Turkish football officials and the judiciary to take action”the necessary measures“.
The AKP, the Islamo-conservative party of President Erdogan, has for its part launched an exclusion procedure against Faruk Koca, twice elected AKP deputy in 2002 and 2007, according to the Turkish public channel TRT Haber. According to Turkish media, Mr. Koca was among the potential AKP candidates for mayor of Ankara for the municipal elections scheduled for the end of March 2024.
Visiting the hospitalized referee, Turkish Sports Minister Osman Askin Bak said:determined” has “fight against violence” in Turkish sport. In November 2022, a second division derby in the large Turkish city of Izmir (west) was interrupted after the attack of one of the goalkeepers in the middle of the match by a supporter of the opposing team.
Last March, another meeting, in the third division, in Bursa (north-west), also degenerated. The players of Amedspor, a club from Diyarbakir (south-east), the largest majority Kurdish city in Turkey, had been the target of a rain of projectiles, including knives. Several European championships (Greece, France… ) have recently been shaken by violence, but the attack on a referee by members or managers of a professional club remains extremely rare.