Fenerbahçe’s Acun Ilıcalı Calls for Referee Reform in Turkish Football
In the 21st week of the Trendyol Süper Lig, Fenerbahçe defeated Göztepe 3-2 after coming from behind. En Nesyri (2) and Oğuz Aydın scored the goals that brought victory to Fenerbahçe, increasing their points tally to 48.
Following the match, Fenerbahçe Vice President Acun Ilıcalı shared his thoughts:
“Our fans are our driving force. There was great joy in the locker room. Watching the game gave me goosebumps. When we perform like this, no team can beat us. The stadium had the loudest cheers I’ve ever heard.
Let me emphasize something about controversies: we haven’t spoken about our rival for a month. And they, impressively, refrained as well—until the point difference dropped to six. Once foreign VAR was introduced, reactions began. We jointly requested foreign VAR, and now you’re opposing it. What exactly are you objecting to?
We never claimed that the world’s best referees would handle VAR. What we wanted was fairness in error distribution, and that’s why we supported foreign VAR. But now, foreign VAR is being criticized.
Unfortunately, yesterday, there were peculiar comments about today’s referee. Whether you’re being watched or not, what difference does it make? If referees are pressured a day before a match, we believe the main referee should also be foreign. There are significant complaints about central referees.
We are making our proposal: we want foreign referees for critical matches. In our last derby, we were subjected to numerous errors. Two clear yellow cards were missed. It’s evident there is an issue with referees, and each day brings another uncalled red card.”
