PHOTO: Bildbyrån + X
A complete scandal unfolded after a match in the Turkish top league.
Now the former judge Jonas Eriksson comes with harsh criticism.
“Hope the guilty get banned for life,” he writes on Instagram.
Jonas Eriksson is one of Sweden’s best football referees of all time. He was a Fifa referee and has officiated in the WC, EC and Champions League, among other things. Today, Eriksson has moved on to act as a studio expert at SVT and Discovery+.
The scandal in Turkey
During Monday evening, terrible images came from the Turkish football league. After the match between Ankaragücü and Rizespor, the former team’s club president stepped down Faruk Koca onto the field and hit the head referee Khalil Umet Meler. The referee fell to the ground where he was also kicked by other people.
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On the television images, Umet Meler is then seen leaving the field with a serious bruise, and he is now reportedly being treated for a fractured cheekbone.
The scandal has been condemned in several quarters.
“We do not want to see images like this, which do not fit in with true sportsmanship and Turkish football, on our pitches,” writes Turkey’s sports minister Osman Askın Bak on X/Twitter.
Eriksson’s criticism
The Turkish Football Association has now announced that all football in Turkey will be suspended indefinitely as a result of the incident.
“This vile attack was not just an attack on Halil Umut Meler. This inhumane and despicable attack was carried out against everyone in Turkish football,” the federation said in a statement after the attack.
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The CNN journalist Tunus Paksoy furious about what happened.
“Shameful. If those who attacked and abused the referee did not leave the arena in handcuffs, or worse… This is very, very sad,” writes Paksoy.
Now the scandal is also receiving criticism from Jonas Eriksson, who has thus himself been a judge at a high level.
“Absolutely disgusting and horrible scenes from the Turkish league tonight. Hope the guilty will be banned for life,” writes Eriksson on his Instagram story.
READ MORE: TV4 profile Olof Lundh’s great concern for Swedish football really says everything about the future of Sweden: “It’s painful”
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