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Soccer can be a pretty emotional game.
Especially in Turkey, where they take their soccer very, very seriously.
But Faruk Koca, the president of Turkish Super Lig club MKE Ankaragucu, took things a little too far recently.
Koca, who ironically won the Turkish Football Federation’s Fair Play President of the month award last October, raced onto the field and punched referee Halil Umut Meler after his team’s draw against Caykur Rizespor.
Meler went crashing to the ground and was later hospitalized. He suffered a facial fracture as well.
“There is no life threat for the moment. He only has bleeding around his left eye and a small fracture,” Dr Mehmet Yorubulut, the hospital’s chief physician said. “We will (monitor) our referee until the morning due to head trauma. We will discharge him from hospital after the necessary examinations in the morning.”
Kuca’s outburst came after Ankaragucu conceded a 97th-minute equalizing goal in the 1-1 draw.
In response, the Turkish Football Federation has suspended all matches in the immediate future.
“The matches in all leagues have been postponed indefinitely,” TFF chairman Mehmet Buyukeksi said at a news conference following the incident.
“This attack is a night of shame for Turkish football.
“Football matches are not a war, there is no death at the end. Not all teams can become champions at the same time. We all need to understand this. We invite everyone to take responsibility.”
Kuca also looks set to face legal repercussions following the attack.
“An arrest warrant was issued for the suspects who carried out the attack. We will follow the course of the investigation meticulously,” Turkey’s justice minister, Yilmaz Tunc, said on Tuesday morning.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino also weight in, stating that “there is absolutely no place for violence in football, on or off the field.”
Which is all to say, maybe don’t hit a referee, regardless of how bad of a job you think they’ve done.