Turkish club president pulls team off field after referee decides not to give penalty kick

It has been quite a few weeks of Turkish soccer as Istanbulspor walked off the pitch on Tuesday to protest the referee’s decision to not award the team a penalty in their match against Trabzonspor. This is as the league just resumed following a suspension due to MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca punching referee Halil Umut Meler in the face following the final whistle of Ankaragucu’s 1-1 draw. 

In the latest incident, Istanblspor’s president Faik Sarialioglu told the team to leave the pitch which led to the game being stopped in the 74th minute before eventually being abandoned. Some players like defender Simon Deli visibly wanted to continue playing in the match before the president made the decision to pull the team.

This decision led to Istanbulspor forfeiting the match. At the time of the incident, Istanbulspor were level 1-1 when Florian Loshaj went down following a tackle by Batista Mendy but Trabzonspor scored via forward Paul Onachu shortly after prior to the president calling his players off of the pitch.

“TFF will make the decision. My team and I want to stay in the game,” Trabzonspor coach Abdulla Avci said about the decision. “There is nothing that we can change by talking.”

While he’s right that the Turkish Football Federation will need to make a decision here, it comes quickly after they had to give Koca a permanent ban from Turkish soccer following his violent incident.

When fixtures resumed, children wearing t-shirts saying “Respect” presented flowers to the referees prior to Basakshehir’s match with Sivasspor. Istanbulspor is currently at the bottom of the Turkish Super League.