Turkish Super Lig to resume after one-week pause for attack on referee
Turkey’s Super Lig will resume on Tuesday after a one-week suspension because of an on-field attack by a club president on a referee, who emerged from hospital on Wednesday with a swollen eye.
At the end of a Super Lig match on Monday, Ankaragucu’s president, Faruk Koca, entered the pitch and punched the referee, Halil Umut Meler, in the face. The official was then kicked while lying on the pitch covering his head.
The Turkish football federation immediately halted all matches and Koca was arrested the next day. The federation’s chairman, Mehmet Buyukeksi, said on Wednesday it had decided to resume league matches on 19 December. “We will never allow attacks or disproportionate pressure on our referees,” he said. “This incident needs to become a milestone, a turning point for Turkish football.”
Meler was released from an Ankara hospital on Wednesday with a swollen and darkened eye but no other health issues. Buyukeksi said the federation’s disciplinary committee would decide on Thursday on the status of Ankaragucu.
Mehmet Yorubulut, chief doctor at Acibadem hospital, said Meler’s head fracture would heal in time. “The bleeding in Meler’s left eye has almost completely stopped,” he said.
Meler has been quoted as telling police that Koca had threatened to kill him during the incident. Koca has resigned as Ankaragucu’s president and apologised for his behaviour, saying: “Nothing can legitimise or explain the violence that I committed.”
When the final whistle blew, Koca entered the field and hit Meler after the visiting club, Rizespor, scored a 97thminute equaliser in the 1-1 draw.
The federation said Ankaragucu, its president, club officials and all those guilty of attacking the referee would be “punished in the strongest terms possible”.