Turkey’s shameful referee attack was waiting to happen

All football matches in Turkey have been suspended after a club president invaded the pitch and punched a referee in the face. The ugly and violent assault took place at the end of a game between Ankaragucu and Caykur Rizespor, which ended in a 1-1 draw. Faruk Koca, the Ankaragucu president ran up to the referee, Halil Umut Meler, and struck him in the face. Meler fell to the ground, only to be kicked by other people while he tried to protect himself. The referee had to be led to safety surrounded by a cordon of police officers. He is now recovering in hospital after sustaining a facial fracture.

Koca and two other people have been arrested for ‘injuring a public official’. Koca was later quoted by a local news agency as telling investigators: ‘This incident developed due to the wrong decisions and provocative behaviour of the referee. My aim was to react verbally to the referee and spit in his face.’ That last sentence says it all really. Koca even went on to accuse the referee of ‘throwing himself on the ground’.

Condemnation has been swift. Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, said the events were ‘totally unacceptable and have no place in our sport and society’. The Turkish Football Federation deplored the incident as ‘inhumane and despicable’. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been swift to condemn the attack. ‘Sport is incompatible with violence,’ he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. ‘We will never allow violence to take place in Turkish sports’.

Erdogan obviously doesn’t watch much football in Turkey, where there is a widespread culture of open contempt towards referees. Match officials are routinely targeted for abuse from all those involved in the game. The atmosphere at matches can be ugly. British fans who travel to European matches in Turkey are warned to be on their guard and routinely subject to abuse and intimidation. Galatasaray, one of Turkey’s leading clubs, is notorious for the hostility of its fans towards visiting player and fans. ‘Welcome to Hell’, they proudly declare.

It is not just Turkey that is facing problems. The Greek government, reacting to continued violence at sporting grounds, has announced that football matches will be played behind closed doors until February. No one involved in football in Britain can afford to be complacent. Matches in the Premier League routinely involve the abuse of officials from all sections of the so-called footballing community. This is something that appears to be lost on many of those involved in the game, including players, managers, television pundits and fans. The cruel and open mockery of referees is widespread on and off the pitch. Players continue to routinely surround officials and swear openly at their decisions, all caught on camera. Managers, including Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp and Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta, have been roundly criticised for their behaviour towards referees. Other managers and coaches are often no better: it has become commonplace for every loss to be blamed on refereeing decisions. Television pundits routinely lambast match officials for failures involving Var (video assistant referee). Honestly, who would want to be a referee?

Infantino made an obvious but important point in his comments after the referee assault in Turkey. ‘Without match officials there is no football,’ he said. Too many people involved in the game appear to have forgotten this. Football is anything but the ‘beautiful game’ for referees. Instead it more and more resembles a thankless and increasingly dangerous job.