The perpetrators of the violent attack on a Turkish football referee in Ankara were detained on Tuesday, the day after an incident which caused great emotion in Turkey and was condemned by the head of Fifa and Turkish President Erdogan.
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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. Among the attackers is the president of the Ankaragücü first division club, Faruk Koca. Three of these attackers, including Mr. Koca, were detained, Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunç announced on Tuesday. “ Following statements collected by the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ankara-West, the suspects (…) were placed in detention “, he indicated. According to the private news agency DHA, the three men were taken to Sincan prison, on the outskirts of Ankara.
The referee, Halil Umut Meler, announced that he was filing a complaint. The club from Rize (north), Rizespor, equalized (1-1) in added time on the Ankaragücü field, which had been denied a goal earlier in the match.
“ I’m going to kill you »
According to statements by the referee, the president of the Ankara club rushed towards him at the final whistle, shouting “ I’m going to kill you! “. “ 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.
“ My brain has gone crazy, my vision has blurred, I don’t remember what I did », Said the leader of the Ankaragücü club on the private television channel Beyaz TV. His club, for its part, presented its “ apologies to the supporters (…) and to the entire sporting community for this sad incident “.
In a statement, FIFA president Gianni Infantino condemned the incident: “ The events following the Turkish Süper Lig match between MKE Ankaragücü and Caykur Rizespor are completely unacceptable and have no place in our sport or society “.
The Turkish Football Federation, for its part, decided to “sine die postpone” 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 on 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.
Right of withdrawal
Denouncing a “black evening” for Turkish football, the Turkish Referees Association called on its members to exercise their right of withdrawal, calling on those responsible for Turkish football and the judiciary to take “ 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. In November 2022, a second division derby in the large Turkish city of Izmir ( west) had been interrupted after the attack on 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. Players from Amedspor, a club from Diyarbakir (south-east), the largest majority Kurdish city in Turkey, were the targets of a rain of projectiles, including knives.
Several European championships (Greece, France, etc.) have recently been shaken by violence, but the attack on a referee by members or managers of a professional club remains extremely rare.
(With AFP)