Turkish club president runs onto pitch and punches the referee

Erdogan has involved himself, so the punishment for both the club and the clubs president will probably be severe.
 
Abysmal scenes, and I agree that the overall sense of conspiracy and constant injustice needs to be dialled down, as well as encouraging the fact that a mistake free football match simply will never happen. Its not perfect, but thats just the way it is. No referee means no match - people forget this at every level from amateur up.

I disagree though, that criticism of referees in general is just part of some domino effect that leads to a man storming a pitch and assaulting a referee/anybody. There are referees in England that are simply not good enough and they truly do detract from the sport. So perhaps the criticism is best levelled at the governing body, but this idea that they are beyond reproach is foolish. I genuinely believe Anthony Taylor has an anti-United bias, and that he shouldn't be on our matches. Saying so isn't a step towards kicking him in the head while on the ground and we see this 'tiers of aggression' stuff across society, poorly backed by science, sounding credible in theory.
 
The president of the club is a very wealthy man with longstanding personal ties to Erdogan. Apparently In 2006 Erdogan passed out inside his armored car and was rushed to the hospital, but they couldn't take him out because the driver panicked and engaged the lockdown feature. This guy broke him out with a sledgehammer.

Turkish football is dire right now, rife with corruption and nepotism. So chances are he will get away with this somehow relatively alright unless there's a threat of foreign sanctions threatening Turkey's inclusion to the Euros this year and/or UEFA competitions at the club level.
 
For some reason this made me think of Gary Neville's favourite commentary line...

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If this happened at Old Trafford I would expect Joel Glazer to accidentally knock himself out.
 
I mean, that's got to end that club, surely? If you're the Turkish FA, you simply can't allow that to happen without the gravest of consequences.

I've got some crazy stories as my dad was a FIFA ref who did some WC qualifiers in South America, but never the actual staff of the football clubs doing the actions.
 
I wonder whether he would try to punch if it was that unit ot a ref who was at the WC final last year.
 
I mean, that's got to end that club, surely? If you're the Turkish FA, you simply can't allow that to happen without the gravest of consequences.

I've got some crazy stories as my dad was a FIFA ref who did some WC qualifiers in South America, but never the actual staff of the football clubs doing the actions.

End the club would be very severe as it is not the fault of the fans or players, simply one idiotic president.

I suspect he will be charged with assault, banned from life from any involvement in football and the club potentially relegated but I don't think it will end them.
 
Is it just me that thinks this is a bit of an OTT reaction to this incident??

I’m not dumbing down what has happened but but to stop ALL football in light of the incident last night seems a bit OTT unless I’m missing something OR the FA have been told all the referees are going to pull out of the games at the weekend.

Would fans have been happy if the PL got suspended because Di Canio pushed a referee over?

I’m expecting a barrage of abuse but hopefully within the abuse, there will be a solid explanation
 
Ban teams from Turkey from European competition. Starting from today :)
 
Is it just me that thinks this is a bit of an OTT reaction to this incident??

I’m not dumbing down what has happened but but to stop ALL football in light of the incident last night seems a bit OTT unless I’m missing something OR the FA have been told all the referees are going to pull out of the games at the weekend.

Would fans have been happy if the PL got suspended because Di Canio pushed a referee over?

I’m expecting a barrage of abuse but hopefully within the abuse, there will be a solid explanation
Eh? To have anyone, let alone a non playing person, run on to the field, punch the referee, then have others kick his head whilst he’s on the floor isn’t worthy of the league being suspended? A kick to the head could have left him with brain damaged or worse.

In cricket even questioning an umpire’s decision is a no go, this is well past acceptable behaviour. Suspending the league will send out a clear message. Good on them.
 
Is it just me that thinks this is a bit of an OTT reaction to this incident??

I’m not dumbing down what has happened but but to stop ALL football in light of the incident last night seems a bit OTT unless I’m missing something OR the FA have been told all the referees are going to pull out of the games at the weekend.

Would fans have been happy if the PL got suspended because Di Canio pushed a referee over?

I’m expecting a barrage of abuse but hopefully within the abuse, there will be a solid explanation
There is no situation that punching the ref is right and then the continued assault while on the floor.
If it happened in the PL and football was suspended, so be it, this has to be delt with hard harsh and fast, send the message out , this is not acceptable for any reason.
Any other response would have been sending out the wrong message.
 
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I've got some crazy stories as my dad was a FIFA ref who did some WC qualifiers in South America, but never the actual staff of the football clubs doing the actions.
How long ago was that? We've gone through different shades of crazy over the decades. Back in the 60s it was common for Brazilian club authorities to turn up at half time to give the ref some feedback with their guns on display.
 
Is it just me that thinks this is a bit of an OTT reaction to this incident??

I’m not dumbing down what has happened but but to stop ALL football in light of the incident last night seems a bit OTT unless I’m missing something OR the FA have been told all the referees are going to pull out of the games at the weekend.

Would fans have been happy if the PL got suspended because Di Canio pushed a referee over?

I’m expecting a barrage of abuse but hopefully within the abuse, there will be a solid explanation
I'd be closer to your stance than the average caf user if it was a punch, even a club President's punch. Not the first, or last, man up, grow a pair, get on with it, etc.

The guy also got kicked in the head while on the ground though, that to me is a whole different level. I know by definition both are assault, but I would only prosecute the latter if it were up to me.

About 30 years ago I got caught up in a confrontation between barras bravas, did my best to avoid punches while trying to extricate myself from it... then I see a fat slob in a River Plate shirt with a steel pipe wrench and ended up going straight at him furiously screaming my head off "what the feck is that? you fecking lunatic" and somehow talked him out of doing anything with it. They could punch each other unconscious for all I cared, but blunt objects are a different proposition.
 
How long ago was that? We've gone through different shades of crazy over the decades. Back in the 60s it was common for Brazilian club authorities to turn up at half time to give the ref some feedback with their guns on display.
It was in the late 80's and yes, it was bonkers. He never did Brazil, but things like having to change hotel rooms in the middle of the night under armed guard, be escorted from the stadium by essentially riot police and having to hide in a closet near the refs changing room were a few. Lots of things thrown at them too, even on the way into matches which I always thought was a touch harsh!
 
The punishment has to be enormously severe, it has to be the kind of thing that every idiotic moron associated with football can understand means this cannot happen again to any referee.

Or else it opens a crack in the seams of the sport imo, that would be impossible to stop.
 
Eh? To have anyone, let alone a non playing person, run on to the field, punch the referee, then have others kick his head whilst he’s on the floor isn’t worthy of the league being suspended? A kick to the head could have left him with brain damaged or worse.

In cricket even questioning an umpire’s decision is a no go, this is well past acceptable behaviour. Suspending the league will send out a clear message. Good on them.
There is no situation that punching the ref is right and then the continued assault while on the floor.
If it happened in the PL and football was suspended, so be it, this has to be delt with hard harsh and fast, send the message out , this is not acceptable for any reason.
Any other response would have been sending out the wrong message.

Like I said, I understand the severity of it all and how seriously it needs to be taken but I am not sure that punishing an entire league is fair or worthwhile.

This isn’t a brawl between sets of players, it is one club responsible for a series of assaults and they should be punished with the most severe punishment.

Kick them out of the league immediately and make it obvious that nobody can get away with that!!! Null and void all results involving them between now and the end of the season - two 3-0 wins for each team against them for the season.

Come the end of the season, clubs like Galatasaray and other clubs in Europe could have fixture pile up and this would feel like a punishment for something that they had no part in.

Just feels a bit OTT in the immediate aftermath

EDIT - I don’t mean OTT in terms of level of punishment. Just OTT in terms of it being every club punished/affected
 
I read the chairman has been arrested, what about the staff ? They must be also.
From what I read the order for the arrest went out for the chairman and two others from that club. I am assuming that those other two are his buddies who kicked the downed referee.

Meanwhile the chairman has tried to justify his behaviour, stating that what happened was due to "incorrect decisions and provocative behaviour" by the referee and that he hadn't planned on punching him, he "only" wanted to assault him verbally and spit in his face(!). Clearly an utterly disgusting excuse for a person even after he had some time to cool his mood. Later then the club announced his resignation (source in Turkish).

I really hope that this isn't the end of it and that they still press legal charges against that scumbag and his two friends. Alas with the state of the Turkish judicative system it's a tossup if anything will actually happen there.
 
I'd happily contribute £50 towards any fine if someone at the club decided to slap the skin off Michael Oliver's face.
 
Turkish football is mad










They should just cancel the entire competition. It's been a shambles for ages now. Watched bits of this game live as it was on after the United game and I couldn't believe the ref didn't cancel it after all the shite the Trabzonspor fans did. Fecking idiots the lot of them. Doesn't surprise me one bit that it ended like this.
 
That one last player who just evades a fan’s two footer to knock him over would have been in huge danger the way that crowd was acting had he not got to the tunnel the second he did.
 
UEFA needs to put serious sanctions on the Turkish clubs. Ban them all for five years.
 
Ah, classic turkish anger management problems. Very relatable.

Fred scored a beautiful goal with his right foot, probably triggered the whole situation.