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In unsurprising news, the Turkish football club president who punched referee Halil Umut Meler in the face on Monday night has taken no responsibility for his actions. \u201cThis incident developed due to the wrong decisions and provocative behaviour of the referee,\u201d explained Faruk Koca. Presumably the A is silent.<\/p>\n
Koca, who runs Super Lig club Ankaragucu, said he was merely planning to spit in the referee\u2019s face after the 1-1 draw with Rizespor, when impulse took hold. \u201cI slapped the referee \u2026 After my slap, the referee threw himself on the ground. They immediately removed me from the scene because I have a heart condition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meler is in hospital with a fractured cheekbone after he was punched and then kicked in the head while lying on the floor. Fortunately, doctors have reported no brain damage and he is expected to make a full recovery. Turkish football has been stopped and Koca has been arrested along with two other attackers. The Turkish justice system must come down hard with life bans from sport and criminal sentences, though Koca is a well-connected businessman and former politician, so we shall see.<\/p>\n
Turkish club president Faruk Koca punches referee Halil Umut Meler <\/p>\n
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A melee erupts as Meler is attacked <\/p>\n
The risk here is that this is painted as a freak incident, as something that happened in another place, and therefore happens in another place. The reality is that abuse is endemic within every part football, and we don\u2019t need to look far to find frequent examples. Only this weekend a 14-year-old British referee \u2013 who wears a yellow armband to signal he is a child \u2013 had to abandon a game due to the threats he was receiving from an adult. He is now preparing for an FA disciplinary hearing into the incident.<\/p>\n
Football has a long-term problem with the denigration of officials, but recently a mistrust of the people running the sport has grown deeper and darker. The flaws of VAR have added fuel to the fire of conspiracy theorists, like the former England goalkeeper Ben Foster. He recently used his popular podcast in a conversation with fellow non-investigative journalist Mark Goldbridge to claim that the Premier League is involved in a cover-up with Sky Sports to hide referee mistakes (it is actually the opposite \u2013 each VAR farce is good content for Sky and a hit for their social media metrics. They go to town for about 48 hours on Sky Sports News).<\/p>\n
Such theories feed into the broader suspicion of officials, and that suspicion feeds football\u2019s culture of disrespect. And here\u2019s the thing; it is possible to change the culture. Some things have already changed. Fifteen years ago, it was not uncommon for a footballer \u2013 Wayne Rooney comes to mind but there were many \u2013 to swear generously into the stoic face of a referee. That player might, if they were unlucky, pick up a yellow card, but more often than not it was an accepted occupational hazard by referees who occasionally gave some stick back.<\/p>\n
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Wayne Rooney discusses the finer points of the game with Howard Webb <\/p>\n
The landscape has shifted with the FA\u2019s various respect campaigns and a strengthening of the rules which has emboldened today\u2019s referees to punish players for abuse. Last month, for the first time in more than a decade, a Premier League player was shown a straight red card for swearing at an official when Brighton captain Lewis Dunk launched a verbal tirade at referee Anthony Taylor.<\/p>\n
But while the culture has shifted a little on the pitch, it remains deeply poisoned off it. Afterwards, Dunk\u2019s manager Roberto De Zerbi said: \u201cI don\u2019t like 80 per cent of England\u2019s referees. It\u2019s not new. I don\u2019t like them. I don\u2019t like their behaviour on the pitch.\u201d Arsenal\u2019s Mikel Arteta and Chelsea\u2019s Mauricio Pochettino have both been scathing of referees this season, like many managers before them.<\/p>\n
Managers have a greater influence than they know. Taylor and his family were hounded by Roma fans at Budapest Airport after he refereed their Europa League final defeat, an incident which came hours after Roma\u2019s manager Jose Mourinho had confronted and swore at Taylor in the stadium car park. It was like something from the Trumpian playbook, a beaten leader playing on the emotions of their followers and showing them where to direct their rage. And Mourinho still denies the result.<\/p>\n
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Jose Mourinho was furious with Anthony Taylor in the Europa League final <\/p>\n
In the studios, pundits continue to berate referees on radio and television shows to audiences of millions, often prefacing their pre-planned speech with \u201cI don\u2019t like talking about referees but\u201d, as if their hands are tied and they are duty-bound to serve a vocal fringe on social media. Jermaine Jenas, who was part of the FA\u2019s \u2018Love Football, Protect the Game\u2019 campaign ahead of the new season, tweeted that referee Robert Jones was a \u201ccomplete s**thouse\u201d to his 280,000 followers during September\u2019s north London derby. That kind of public statement would be career-damaging in many professional spaces but in football, aimed at referees, it is not. We are desensitised to their abuse. Jenas has just been given a new gig as the front man for Formula E.<\/p>\n
Jenas\u2019s tweet was labelled \u201cdisgraceful\u201d by Ref Support UK, a charity which really shouldn\u2019t need to exist. It carries a dedicated advice and support hotline, and among its other tools is a professional counsellor who offers free sessions to referees under the slogan: \u201cYou no longer have to struggle in silence.\u201d It estimates at least four physical assaults on officials every week by players, coaches, fans or parents. Registered referees have fallen from over 30,000 to around 20,000 in just a few years as they flee the job, and the charity describes them as \u201can endangered species\u201d.<\/p>\n
But they can be saved, if we change how we talk about the game. Cricket might feel like another world, without football\u2019s emotive tribalism, but it sets one example to follow, where analysis of poor umpire calls focuses on the decision-making process rather than the person doing the decision-making. In football, post-match interviewers could decide not to chase a manager\u2019s angry soundbite about decisions, and studio pundits could avoid the bait of talking about them. <\/p>\n
This kind of measured conversation isn\u2019t hard, with a little collective will. When the discourse changes, the culture will change with it. Because the alternative is that nothing changes. Turkish football will soon restart, Melers wounds will heal, Koca will be forgotten. Until the next one.<\/p>\n