Who is Faruk Koca? How Dare He Attack Referee Halil Umut Meler? Why didn't the police stop him?
The football match between Ankaragücü and Rizespor had ended with a 1-1 score. But the match was not over yet. The real match was off the pitch. Immediately after the game, Ankaragücü President Faruk Koca went on the pitch and caused a scandalous incident, attacking the referee of the match.
Ankaragücü Club President Faruk Koca Attacked Referee Halil Umut Meler on the pitch
Last night was an ordinary soccer match. It wasn't a derby. It was not a life and death affair. It was a match played at Ankara Eryaman Stadium in the 15th week of the Super League. The match was between Ankaragücü and Rizespor. The match, which continued 1-0 for 90 minutes with the superiority of the yellow navy blue team, ended 1-1 with a goal scored by Rizespor in the last minute of extra time. But the match was not over yet. The real match was off the pitch. Because a scandalous incident took place right after the match.
Ankaragücü President Faruk Koca went down to the pitch like a 'bear' and attacked the referee. President Koca punched referee Halil Umut Meler. Although Justice Minister Tunç tried to calm the rising tension by saying that the necessary judicial investigation was initiated against those responsible for the attack on referee Halil Umut Meler, what was done was done. I don't believe that Faruk Koca will be punished as a result of this investigation for some reason. I hope I'm wrong.
Nevertheless, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya's statement that "Koca is under treatment at the hospital under the supervision of security forces and will be taken into custody after his treatment" gives me hope. In the meantime, we are waiting for the Minister of Youth and Sports Osman Aşkın Bak, who condemned the attack, to erase these images from our pitches, which really do not befit the spirit of sports and Turkish football, as he shared on social media.
Faruk Koca received Fair Play in 2022
This impudence is not the first time in Turkish football. For some reason, when their teams are defeated on the field or the flow of the game goes in a way that they did not expect, they try to take their anger out on the referee, who is the most unprotected person on the field. The police officers in charge of ensuring the security of the field usually end up beating the referee before they even realize what happened. If it was a hooligan spectator who did this shameful beating, you might, to some extent, lament that there might be such people among football spectators, but you might have to accept it. However, if the president of a club does this, especially if this president, Faruk Koca, is an unstable 59-year-old wastrel, a founding member of the AKP and a two-term Ankara deputy, you can't help but say, "I give up". Since 2021, how this divane president has been able to stay at the head of Ankaragücü, one of our distinguished clubs, is astonishing! Couldn't you find a decent man? Oh, and this man also received the Fair Play executive award in October 2022. In a country where such a person receives the Fair Play award, you can imagine the pit our football has fallen into.
A sportsman is defined as "a person who can lose or accept defeat without complaining, who does not win without exhibiting illegal behavior, and who treats opponents well, generously and with courtesy". Isn't that a perfect description of Faruk Koca?
In 2013, Erman Aksoy, Club President of İncilipınarspor, also beat a referee
We don't run out of Faruk Koca's. There are many of them. For example, in 2013, Erman Aksoy, the club president of İncilipınarspor, one of the Denizli 1st Amateur Division teams, beat the referee in a match in which he appeared with the license of his football player. However, at the end of the match, the Disciplinary Board of Denizli Federation of Amateur Sports Clubs declared İncilipınarspor a 6-0 forfeit. Then, it dropped this team from the league and sentenced the beating president to 3.5 years of disqualification. This incident was like a parody in itself, except for the part where the referee was beaten.
İncilipınarspor, competing in the 1st Amateur Division (A) Group, hosted Bekilli Belediyespor at Doğan Demircioğlu Field. In a tense game, Arif Aksu, the number 20 player of İncilipınarspor, allegedly attacked and punched the center referee Fatih Derin. After the referee Derin showed a red card and filed a complaint after the match, the truth came out when the attacking football player went to the police station for a statement. The investigation revealed that the person who attacked the referee was not actually Arif Aksu, but Club President Erman Aksoy who played the match with the license of this football player.
In 2008, Aksaray Club President Yaşar Özçiftçi had also attacked the linesman
Another incident involving another chairman beating the referee happened in 2008. In the match played at Batman 16 Mayıs City Stadium, the first half of the match ended in a 1-1 draw and in the second half Batman Petrol Sports had the upper hand with a score of 3-2. In the 85th minute of the match, when Aksaray Sports scored a draw goal for Petrol Sports, when referee Tolga Bakkal from Ordu raised the offside flag, Aksaray Sports Club President Yaşar Özçiftçi, who was not happy with this, attacked the referee. The referee, who was targeted by the fists of the horny club president, suddenly collapsed on the ground. As a result of the police intervention, referee Tolga Bakkal was rescued while Aksaray club president Yaşar Özçiftçi was taken into custody. Due to the incidents that broke out, the referee suspended the match with Batman Petrol Sport's 3-2 superiority. The result of the match had to be determined by the Turkish Football Federation.
Referees are also beaten in Argentina, one of the cradles of football
In the cup final played between La Puerta and Sportivo Tirolesa teams in the regional amateur league in Argentina in March last year, La Puerta soccer players, who lost the match on penalties, first chased the referee around the field, then caught him and beat him until he was hospitalized. In addition to the referee, regional league president Gustavo Garcia, who tried to calm the players, was also attacked and hospitalized. The eight soccer players and three fans who attacked the referee were identified from security camera footage of the beatings. During the match, the referee was alleged to have made incorrect decisions against the Le Puerta team and caused the match to go to penalties.
The Turkish Armed Forces were disturbed by the attacks on military referees and banned military referees from officiating
In March 2001, after the match between Galatasaray and Young People's Union in Istanbul, the Turkish General Staff announced that it was withdrawing around 800 referees on the grounds that criticism of military referees was also directed against the Turkish Armed Forces. Prior to this incident, the Turkish General Staff had informed the Football Federation that referees who were still in the military should not be given assignments. However, when the Federation informed that some matches could not be played if this decision was implemented, referees with military background continued to officiate on the green pitches for a while and as of August 2003, the practice of assigning referees with military background in league matches was terminated.
Conclusion
According to FIFA data, soccer is played by approximately 265 million people, 4% of the world's population, and supervised by approximately 5 million officials, including soccer referees. It is an enormous audience. Huge sums of money are involved. Some contentious matches attract angry crowds. Tensions rise. But nothing justifies watching people attacking each other over a game played on the field, over losing or winning a game, and especially over the beating of the referee on the field. Hands raised against the referees officiating the game on green pitches cannot be left unpunished. They should not be left unpunished.
Refereeing soccer is undoubtedly one of the hardest things to do. Every referee has only one thought before going to the match, to apply the rules correctly. According to the spectators, hundreds of referees are unfair in the vast majority of calls against the team they support. Because their only goal is for their favorite team to win the match.
The phenomenon of aggression in football, which is seen as a major problem all over the world, is also frequently encountered in the football leagues of our country. Legal sanctions preventing aggression against referees are put into effect when necessary against football spectators. However, there are no sanctions for the presidents and managers of football clubs to commit violence and attack referees. This is because football administrators are seen as people who are expected to work to reduce aggression on the field.
If Faruk Koca, the president of the Ankaragücü Club, had the audacity to attack Halil Umut Meler, the referee of the match, if he was out of his mind as president, who knows what Ankaragücü fans would do? Indeed, some thugs in Koca's entourage continued to attack the unprotected Meler with kicks. God protected referee Meler. I hope that someone will no longer protect Faruk Koca, the uncontrolled criminal, and that he will be given an exemplary punishment without delay. This punishment will go down in football history as a deterrent for other club presidents.
