Turkey’s top league will resume play on Tuesday next week following a one-week suspension due to an on-field attack by a club president on a referee, who emerged from hospital on Wednesday with a swollen eye.
On Monday evening at the end of a Super Lig match, Ankaragucu club president Faruk Koca entered the pitch and punched referee Halil Umut Meler in the face. The official was then kicked while lying on the pitch covering his head.
Koca was arrested the next day and the federation immediately halted all matches.
Turkish Football Federation chairman Mehmet Buyukeksi said on Wednesday it decided to resume league matches on Dec. 19.
“We will never allow attacks or disproportinate pressure on our referees. This incident needs to become a milestone, a turning point for Turkish football,” Buyukeksi told reporters in Istanbul.
Meler, the referee, was released from an Ankara hospital on Wednesday with a swollen and darkened eye but no other health issues.
Buyukeksi said the federation’s disciplinary committee would decide on Thursday on the status of Ankaragucu.
Mehmet Yorubulut, chief doctor at Acibadem hospital, said the head fracture he suffered would heal in time.
“The bleeding in Meler’s left eye has almost completely stopped,” he added.
