The president of the Turkish Ankaragucu club, Faruk Kodja, announced his resignation from his position, following the incident of his assault on a referee who was supervising a match between his team and the Rizespor club, within the football league.
Despite announcing his resignation, Kodja insisted that his team had been “cheated” by referee Halil Umut Miller.
“No matter how great the injustice or how wrong they (the referees) committed, nothing can legitimize or explain the violence they committed,” Kodja said in a statement.
He added: “I apologize to the Turkish referees community, the sports fans, and our nation.”
Turkish football entered into a crisis on Tuesday, after league matches were suspended until further notice by a decision from the game federation, after Miller was assaulted by Kodja after the match ended in a 1-1 draw with Rizespor.
A Turkish club president was arrested after a “punching and kicking” attack on a match referee
On Tuesday, the Turkish authorities decided to imprison a club president on charges of assaulting a referee during a Premier League football match, and as a result of the incident, the local championship was suspended indefinitely.
Kodja, a potential mayoral candidate for the capital, punched the referee in the face on the field after the match, severely injuring the referee in the eye.
Footage of the incident showed Kodja running quickly towards the field with a group of men, before directing a punch at the main referee after the final whistle sounded.
Kodja appeared angry with the referee after the opponent scored the equalizer in the seventh minute of 1-1 stoppage time.
Miller fell to the ground after the punch, before being kicked several times in a state of chaos.
The referee said in a statement: “Farouk Kodja punched me under my left eye, and I fell to the ground. While I was on the ground, they kicked me in the face and other parts of my body.”
He continued: “Kodja said to me and my fellow referees, ‘I will kill you.’ He went directly to me and said, ‘I will kill you.’”
The incident made all the headlines in the Turkish and international media, and led to widespread sporting and political reactions, as the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the President of the International Federation of Federation (FIFA), the Swiss, Gianni Infantino, condemned what happened.
2023-12-13 08:41:19
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