Acun Ilıcalı: “We’ve Demanded Foreign Referees Since August!”
Fenerbahçe Vice President Acun Ilıcalı made statements following the 4-2 victory against Bodrum FK in the 29th week of the Trendyol Süper Lig. Milan Skriniar, Oğuz Aydın, Sebastian Szymanski, and Talisca scored for the Yellow-Navy Blues.
“This was a tough match for us, but we secured an important win. We celebrated the victory with my fellow executives,” Ilıcalı said.
He also addressed the treatment of Fenerbahçe’s president, stating, “We travel to many away games, and we were treated well here. Football is an exciting sport. Some disrespectful remarks were made about our president, but we responded, and we received an apology. You can’t always control people, but I support preventing such incidents.”
On Foreign Referees
“Let me emphasize this once again: since mid-August, we have consistently demanded foreign VAR and foreign central referees. This is not about specific situations; we want justice. Even in today’s match, there was an irrelevant penalty given via VAR. We don’t see this as intentional, but foreign referees are necessary. Mistakes will still happen—it’s impossible for referees not to make errors. However, our stance has always been clear. We didn’t suddenly decide to demand foreign referees; we’ve said it from the beginning. Beşiktaş and Trabzonspor now support this stance as well. We’ve explained this 50 times, and now for the 51st time: We want foreign referees.”
He added, “We seek fairness. The pressure on Turkish referees makes foreign referees necessary. We trust our team and believe they will achieve good results in the upcoming matches.”
Ilıcalı also acknowledged Dusan Tadic’s milestone: “It was Tadic’s 100th match, and we celebrated it. Hopefully, he will continue contributing to the team. We also extend our wishes for a happy Ramadan Bayram to our country.”
