Fenerbahçe Vice President Acun Ilıcalı's Criticisms and Statements About Referees

Fenerbahçe Vice President Acun Ilıcalı's Statements

Fenerbahce Vice President Acun Ilıcalı, held a press conference about referee decisions and various current issues and made important statements. Ilıcalı particularly voiced his criticisms about referee practices and gave some concrete examples. Here are some of the points Acun Ilıcalı brought up at the meeting:

“We will evaluate the situation after the Antalyaspor match.” "We will listen to the referee coaches and I will make a detailed statement on this issue. The current state of football in Turkey has really become questionable. Is football a sport where language and justice are applied, or is it something else?"

“DON’T USE MUCH TALK!” “What I will talk about is concrete and clear! There will be those who will respond to me, but I will only speak concretely. I will not express my claims through gray areas. If there is anyone who will respond, let them come to me with concrete data! No one should ramble on and on, and no one should attack us to spew their own hatred!”

“A GALATASARAY MANAGER…” “Two years ago, after the Fenerbahçe match, a Galatasaray manager said, ‘We will not let the league end.’ This was a concrete threat. He later apologized, but developments occurred as a result of this threat and Fenerbahçe was wronged. Three penalties were not given in one match! Jorge Jesus going crazy and getting a red card was another thing. Afterwards, Galatasaray said, ‘Why are you stressing out about football? We are brothers,’ and the season ended.”

HARSH WORDS TO TORREIRA “Last year, after the Trabzonspor match, Dursun Özbek made a statement. They said he was the worst referee, but many commentators argued the opposite. They say about our match, ‘You have dirty business.’ The TFF was heavily criticized. Last year, there was an operation regarding yellow cards. There was a disproportion of 15 yellow cards for three. Afterwards, they say, ‘We want local referees, we are all brothers, let’s not tense football.’ Last year, a player who cheated in the last derby raises his fist to the stands after a red card!”

“LUCAS TORREIRA’S FISTS…” “The fists of joy raised by Lucas Torreira after the red card in the derby last year are a fist raised to Turkish football and fair play.”

“YELLOW CARD OPERATION” “The consensus of the commentators is that Galatasaray was not shown a total of 14 yellow cards! If anyone has an objection, instead of making up words, let them speak with numbers! The number of yellow cards shown to Fenerbahçe is one! And one to Beşiktaş! Can a player who is afraid of a red card have the same relationship with the ball? If a player has a yellow card, can he make another intervention in a situation that could result in a red card? We are asking these questions. This is a yellow card operation! If the referee does not give yellow cards, can a match be fair?”

THOSE WORDS TO HALİL UMUT MELER “We knew what would happen when they assigned the referee who tried to have us lynched in Trabzon and gave the initiative to play the goalkeeper while his head was bleeding, to our match. The referee of that match in Trabzon… We told the players, ‘There will be a goal, a penalty, you score 3-4.’”

“GALATASARAY MATCH STOPPED FOR 17 MINUTES, EXTENDED FOR 6 MINUTES” “This week was the week to make 2x2 3! I have never experienced such a comedy in my life! In the Galatasaray-Kasımpaşa match, VAR reviews lasted 9.30 minutes in total. Even a primary school graduate can count the minutes! Galatasaray is trailing 3-2 and there is a 9-minute VAR review, a total of 17 minutes of play was not played! The match was extended for only 6 minutes! A goal was scored in the 6th minute of these 5 minutes! Then the match suddenly started not to end. 6 minutes were extended, but you were shown 9 minutes! Kasımpaşa clears the ball at the last moment, the referee stops the match. What I am saying is concrete!”

“THE PRESIDENT SAID THE OPERATION!” “Our president said, ‘Get ready for the operation, we will have trouble tomorrow. Please motivate the players, we need to score more goals.’”

“HE STARTED TO PLAY IN OUR MATCH!” “The flag goes up on Edin Dzeko’s ball in the Antalyaspor match. In the second half, a long ball comes, whoops, the flag goes up. Continuous flags during our attacks! It is unknown whether it is offside or not and we cannot go to VAR! VAR went up in our match! The match started in 18.6 seconds! Can a VAR review be possible in Turkey in such a short time? The match started while looking at the position on the tablet!”

“THIS IS CALLED DISGRACE!” "What is happening is not football! Something else is being played! This is called disgrace! The rules are not being applied, other things are being applied! For some reason, against Fenerbahçe..."

“WHEN IT’S ABOUT FENERBAHÇE, I DON’T KNOW ANYONE!” “My father was a Beşiktaş fan. I have friends who support Galatasaray. We all have similar circles. We are children of the same homeland. Private life is different, but when it comes to Fenerbahçe, I don’t know anyone!”

“OKAN BURUK IS TELLING THE TRUTH” “Okan Buruk says in the 88th minute, ‘If you give this penalty, you can’t manage the match here.’ This is where we have come to in Turkey! Actually, Okan Buruk is telling the truth. Because 8 referees say penalty, but Okan Buruk says, ‘If you give a penalty, you can’t manage the match here.’ After the referee’s threat, extra time is reduced to 6 minutes. The referee wants to continue his career. He already knows the referees he has been through. He knows that if you do something against Galatasaray, you won’t be given the match. Let’s pray that he didn’t blow the whistle and end the match in the 86th minute.”

“THEY WILL SAY AGAIN ‘DON’T BURDEN THE REFEREES’” “Last year, the referee of the Galatasaray match says, ‘I don’t know in what mood I gave the penalty.’ That mood, that mood! After the operation is over, it will be said, ‘Don’t be hard on these referees, these referees are our children!’ They will say, ‘Don’t tense up football!”

“MOURINHO’S REACTION MAKES WORLD HEADLINES” "Jose Mourinho showed his reaction and made headlines around the world! If we continue with this mentality, it is unknown where Turkish football will go!"

“WE MET WITH TFF, THEY WANT JUSTICE” “We visited the TFF today and presented the documents. This TFF is still very new. It is not a federation that says ‘Let’s attack, let’s charge’. This federation has made promises to us and wants to bring justice. The TFF wants justice, we want justice too! We don’t want privilege! We will achieve this! Not by burning things down or destroying them! We will destroy them with concrete examples and communication. Why will we destroy the TFF? If the TFF President said ‘There is no problem’, we would take a different stance. The TFF President does not talk to the referees. He can only change the officials there. The TFF President is also aware of the situation. The TFF President said ‘Trust us on justice, we will not make concessions to anyone’. Beşiktaş and other clubs have made similar statements. The TFF says it will bring justice. There is a structure here, the documents are there. The TFF will destroy this structure, we believe that.”

“WE WILL OVERTURN THE SYSTEM AND BECOME CHAMPIONS” “Success is achieved by coming together. To those who are making waves on social media and waiting for us to fall, I say this, we have Fenerbahçe fans behind us! They elected us, please excuse us! We will not go with your efforts to destroy us! We will walk with a bang with our fans who know how to get back up when we fall. I will do my best. The economy has improved since the day the president took over, the championship was taken from us last year. We will overthrow the system and run towards the championship together. The only formula for success is unity.”

“WE WILL DEMOLISH IT WITH ALLAH’S PERMISSION!” “Let them continue with the operation on social media, we have never been afraid of this. I have been famous for 20 years, nothing has been written about me for 20 years. I laugh at these. We have come together as a management and team. Those against us are obvious, God willing, we will destroy them and become champions. We just want support.”

FOREIGN REFEREES “We came to destroy this system and we will destroy it. There is no obligation for local referees. I think the TFF President will look into this issue deeply and if there is no hope, a foreign referee will come. Isn’t there a foreign coach at the head of the National Team?”

“THE REFEREE ENTERS WITH THE ‘BIGGEST GALATASARAY FAN’ NICKI” "Referee Cihan Aydın attends a meeting with his daughter's nickname. Our child enters with the nickname 'The biggest Galatasaray fan Mira'. I won't talk about the rest of this! It doesn't seem like a big scandal this season! We've had bigger scandals! What will happen if his daughter is a Galatasaray fan and the referee is a Galatasaray fan..."

“THE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERATION IS ALSO SURPRISED” "The Federation is a new federation. We will not show an aggressive attitude towards them at the moment. The Federation President is also surprised by the mistakes."

“WHY WOULD THE PRESIDENT WANT FENERBAHÇE TO BE BAD” “There was an attempt to create the perception that Fenerbahçe and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan were on bad terms. Efforts were made to make Fenerbahçe fans believe this. He is a football and sports enthusiast. Why would he want Fenerbahçe to be on bad terms?”

“ARE YOU A MANIAC?” "We trust the TFF right now. They are trying to do something. Why shouldn't we trust them? Are you crazy? If things don't get better, if they continue the same way, then we will talk."

GALATASARAY, BEŞİKTAŞ MATCH, FOREIGN REFEREES “I am not saying that mistakes were not made against Galatasaray, of course they can be made. There is no situation regarding the penalty against Galatasaray! The referee coaches say this. They tried to carry out an operation on Fenerbahçe, that is what I am saying. Beşiktaş’s position is 100% penalty, what can I say? The guy is wrestling. They have valuable managers, they will tell you. If it were up to me, I would bring in a foreign referee tomorrow. The TFF President is not thinking about a foreign referee right now, I respect that. Let a foreign referee come, let the country be at ease.”

“THEY WILL BE DISGRACED! THIS IS NOT PATAGONIA” "First the management changed in TFF, the system will collapse. We will show it like this, we will disgrace it, everyone will agree and the system will collapse. There can't be this much injustice! This is not Patagonia!"