Defender Simon Deli knelt on the pitch before his boss, begging, but Ecmel Faik Sarialioglu showed no mercy. The angry president of Istanbulspor took his team off the field in the league duel with Trabzonspor and caused the next scandal in crisis-ridden Turkish football with a forced abandonment of the game. And that on the day when the Süper Lig wanted a new beginning after the recent excess of violence.
“Istanbulspor have been treated unfairly since the start of the season,” complained Vice President Ömer Saral: “Today we said that it was enough. Our president could no longer endure these injustices. We have to stop these people now!”
“Sad day for football”
It was obvious who he meant: the referees. The reason for Sarialioglu’s sensational appearance was his anger at referee Ali Sansalan. He denied the home team a supposed penalty after a collision on the edge of the penalty area, but in return the guests made it 1-2. The scene was checked by the video assistant, but the hit remained valid. Then Sarialioglu stormed onto the pitch.
“He turned to me and said something like: Sorry, it’s not about you, but I can’t take this anymore,” Trabzon President Ertugrul Dogan said of the moment his counterpart rushed onto the square. He tried to change Sarialioglu’s mind, “but he was determined.”
“It’s a shame,” Sarialioglu was quoted as saying in the Turkish media, saying that “everyone” saw a foul in the scene in question. And so he brought the players from the bottom of the table off the pitch in the 73rd minute. Minutes of discussion followed before captain Mehmet Yesil shook hands with the referee and announced that Istanbulspor would not continue playing. Sansalan stopped the game and the fans applauded.
A comment from Rainer Hermann Published/Updated: Recommendations: 24 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 6 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 31
Trabzon coach Abdullah Avci spoke of a “sad day for football”. It is important not to lose respect for the referees, he emphasized. As happened a few days ago when Faruk Koca, the president of Ankaragücü, physically attacked a referee. Koca was banned for life, the league paused for a week – and now there is another scandal.
Istanbulspor, which is coached by the Swiss Hakan Yakin, announced a press conference with its club boss for Wednesday afternoon. “There are very serious problems that he rightly brought to attention,” Dogan said. Can the association solve the problems? No, said Dogan, “I don’t think so.”
