Faruk Koca, the former president of Ankaragücü, who was banned from professional football a year ago for savagely assaulting the referee at the end of a Turkish Premier League match, was sentenced to more than three years in prison by an Ankara court on Monday.
The incident took place in December last year when, after the match between Ankaragücü and Rizespor ended in a draw, Faruk Koca, who had been watching the match, jumped onto the pitch and ran up to the referee, Halil Umut Meler, punching him in the face and shouting ‘I’ll kill you!
Koca was reportedly angry about the referee’s decision to send off a player during the match and disallow a goal for the team; the referee had also given a penalty in injury time in favour of Rizespor that had allowed them to equalise the match. After falling to the ground as a result of the initial punch, the referee was subsequently punched to the ground by several members of the team’s coaching staff, resulting in a head injury and a fracture near his eye.
Following these serious incidents, which sparked immediate condemnation throughout the sporting world, the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) decided to suspend all football matches throughout the country, and later announced the lifetime suspension of Ankaragücü’s president, who was also fined 2 million liras and ordered to play 5 matches at close doors in his own stadium. Although Koca later apologised for the incident, he insisted that the referee had cheated his team.
As reported by the Turkish news agency Anatolia, the sentence announced on Monday imposes a prison sentence of 3 years and 7 months on the former club president for the crime of ‘intentionally injuring a public sports authority’, and another 6 months and 20 days in prison for the crime of ‘threats’; it also imposes a suspended sentence of 5 months in prison for the crime of ‘violating the law on the prevention of violence in sports’. The court also handed down prison sentences of between 1 and 5 years for three other members of the Ankaragücü coaching staff who were involved in the assault on the referee, for the offence of ‘deliberate injury’.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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