{"id":13792,"date":"2023-12-12T09:53:44","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T09:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/?p=13792"},"modified":"2023-12-12T11:23:37","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T11:23:37","slug":"turkeys-president-condemns-violence-in-superlig-after-fifa-referee-gets-beaten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/turkeys-president-condemns-violence-in-superlig-after-fifa-referee-gets-beaten\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey\u2019s President Condemns Violence In SuperLig After FIFA Referee Gets Beaten"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/halil-umut-meler-is-punched-by-mke-ankaragucu-president-faruk-koca.jpg\" alt=\"Halil Umut Meler is punched by MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca\" title=\"Turkey\u2019s President Condemns Violence In SuperLig After FIFA Referee Gets Beaten\" width=\"300\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-13793\" \/><strong>Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>FIFA Referee gets assaulted by Ankaragucu team president<\/li>\n<li>Turkey\u2019s President released a statement and condemned the assault<\/li>\n<li>SuperLig has been temporarily suspended and criminal charges will be filed<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/sports-betting\/football\">Football<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/sports-betting\/soccer\">Soccer<\/a> as Americans call it is affectionately called the \u2018<em>Beautiful Game<\/em>\u2019 across the world but the term beautiful is slowly losing its charm as violence continues to mar football games around the world. <\/p>\n<p>The <strong>F\u00e9d\u00e9ration internationale de football association<\/strong> (FIFA) which is the government body for global football along with its member associations have increased efforts in recent years to stomp out violence in footballs stadiums but FIFA will have to do step up its efforts after an ugly incident that has tarnished <strong>Turkey\u2019s SuperLig<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>FIFA Referee Punched and Kicked In The Head<\/h2>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.co.uk\/football\/table\/_\/league\/tur.1\">SuperLig<\/a> is the premier football competition in Turkey and a number of top players such as Edin Dzeko who used to play for Man City, Wilfried Zaha at Man United in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/sports-betting\/soccer\/premier-league\">English Premier League<\/a> and Mauro Icardi who played for Paris Saint-Germain are part of the SuperLig.<\/p>\n<p>The ugly incident took place in a game between Rizespor and Ankaragucu which was being officiated by FIFA referee <strong>Halil Umut Meler<\/strong>. Ankaragucu was leading 1-0 when full-time was called and a few minutes of injury time was added. During the extra injury time, Rizespor ended up scoring and making it 1-1. This upset Ankaragucu head <strong>Faruk Koca<\/strong> who stormed the pitch, ran straight to Halil Umut Meler and punched him in the face.<\/p>\n<p>The referee dropped to the ground after taking a punch to the face and then tried to cover himself as Faruk Koca kicked him in the head. A number of players and coaching staff got involved and when things calmed down, Halil Umut Meler walked away with visible swelling to his eye.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Viewers discretion!!!<\/p>\n<p>\ufffcThe referee attacked by a Turkish club president after his team conceded a late minute equaliser against Rizespor. \ud83d\udc94<\/p>\n<p>Which punishment do you think the club deserves??\ud83d\ude22 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SzcoxmlMny\">pic.twitter.com\/SzcoxmlMny<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sports Radio Brila FM (@Brilafm889) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Brilafm889\/status\/1734519277506465846?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 12, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Turkey\u2019s President Recep Erdogan<\/strong> released a statement and said <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I condemn the attack on referee Halil Umut Meler after the MKE Ankaragucu-\u00c7aykur Rizespor match played this evening, and I wish him a speedy recovery. Sports means peace and brotherhood. Sport is incompatible with violence. We will never allow violence to take place in Turkish sports.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Turkish Football Federation Initiate Criminal Proceedings<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Turkish Football Federation<\/strong> (TFF) has temporarily suspended all SuperLig games and have promised stringent action. <\/p>\n<p>TFF released a statement which said <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This vile attack was not only made against Halil Umut Meler. Today, this inhumane and despicable attack was made against all stakeholders of Turkish football. In coordination with our State, all the criminal proceedings they deserve have been initiated against those responsible and instigators of this inhumane attack. The responsible club, the Club President, its managers and all the criminals who attacked Halil Umut Meler will be punished in the most severe way<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Summary: FIFA Referee gets assaulted by Ankaragucu team president Turkey\u2019s President released a statement and condemned the assault SuperLig has been temporarily suspended and criminal charges will be filed Football or Soccer as Americans call it is affectionately called the \u2018Beautiful Game\u2019 across the world but the term beautiful is slowly losing its charm as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Turkey\u2019s President Condemns Violence In SuperLig After FIFA Referee Gets Beaten<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FIFA have increased efforts in recent years to stomp out violence in footballs stadiums but an ugly incident that has tarnished Turkey\u2019s SuperLig.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/turkeys-president-condemns-violence-in-superlig-after-fifa-referee-gets-beaten\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Turkey\u2019s President Condemns Violence In SuperLig After FIFA Referee Gets Beaten\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FIFA have increased efforts in recent years to stomp out violence in footballs stadiums but an ugly incident that has tarnished Turkey\u2019s SuperLig.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/turkeys-president-condemns-violence-in-superlig-after-fifa-referee-gets-beaten\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-12T09:53:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-12T11:23:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/halil-umut-meler-is-punched-by-mke-ankaragucu-president-faruk-koca.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Landon Wheeler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Landon Wheeler\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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