December 14 – The Turkish FA (TFF) have said that all its football leagues will resume play on December 19 after matches in Turkey were postponed indefinitely following the assault by Ankaragücü president Faruk Koca on referee Halil Umut Meler after the end of the Rizespor match.
Koca was arrested, alongside two other men who participated in the assault when Meler was on the ground. Koca has subsequently resigned as president of the Istanbul club.
Meler was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday. While therewere reports in Turkish media that he was planning to retire from officiating, the TFF said that would not happen.
“At the end of the first meeting, our Board of Directors decided to postpone the matches in all leagues indefinitely. With the decision we made today, all leagues will restart on Tuesday, 19 December. Before I end my words, I would like to express this once again. Instead of complaining about each other, we believe that we will be successful together by acting together as one, with common sense,” said TFF President Mehmet Büyükekşi.
“From the day we came to power, we underlined that ‘if we succeed, we will succeed together’. We will continue to take the necessary steps for the future of Turkish football, solve the problems that need to be solved, and do all this together with our community. We will not do it alone; we will do it together with all our football stakeholders. I would also like to thank FIFA President Infantino, UEFA President Ceferin, FIFA Referee Committee President Collina, and Premier League Referees Association President Howard Webb, who have supported this process since the hour of the incident.”
Turkey has recently been awarded joint hosting rights, with Italy, to the 2032 UEFA Championships after many unsuccessful years of bidding for major football tournament hosting. The country has become sensitive about its reputation in the football arena.
Turkey’s Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç said that there is urgent need to re-evaluate the country’s Law on the Prevention of Violence and Irregularities in Sports.
“We will re-evaluate the criminal sentences against those who commit prohibited acts regulated by our Law on the for the sake of deterrence. Those who overflow in sports grounds, those who introduce prohibited substances into sports grounds, those that do not do their part in taking measures related to the safety and order of the competition and parade grounds, those who provide benefits to another in order to affect the outcome of a particular sports competition, those who cheer in sports grounds with insults and threats, in a way that encourage violence in sports through press and broadcasting We will firmly continue our efforts to re-evaluate the sanctions that will be imposed on those who make statements from the perspective of deterrence of punishment,” said Tunc.
“We will work together to make our green fields a space of friendship and brotherhood,” he concluded.
Contact the writer of this story, Aleksander Krassimirov, at moc.l1734929769labto1734929769ofdlr1734929769owedi1734929769sni@o1734929769fni1734929769