Letter from Fenerbahçe Club to the Turkish Football Federation!

Burak Kızılhan, General Secretary and Board Member of Fenerbahçe Club, sent a letter to the Board of Directors of the Turkish Football Federation regarding referee errors. Fenerbahçe Club shared the letter with the public through its official website.

The letter sent to the Turkish Football Federation reads as follows:

TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE TURKISH FOOTBALL FEDERATION

On December 4, 2023, former Super Lig referee Serkan Çınar made some carefully investigated statements on a YouTube program broadcasted by SkySpor Channel, which need to be thoroughly investigated concerning Turkish refereeing.

Referring to the Galatasaray – Çaykur Rizespor match in the 32nd week of the 2018-2019 Super Lig season, Serkan Çınar revealed dialogues with VAR during the match and subsequent events, bringing to light once again a chronic problem in Turkish refereeing with just one example.

During the match, Serkan Çınar stated that he was called by VAR for a penalty review and the images shown to him were different from those broadcasted. In the routine post-match evaluation meeting with the match observer, Serkan Çınar’s statement in the relevant interview clearly exposes the whole reality:

“Yes, sir, this image was shown to me. ‘Okay, sir, you’re right,’ he said. But it’s boiling outside. But probably to save themselves in VAR, they used their probably bilateral relationships to convey it to the public and the press like this… I called the observer, ‘Can you send me that image? My refereeing will be over. At least let me explain my problem to people,’ I said. ‘I can’t send it, Serkan, my head will also be on the line,’ they said.”

When the VAR referees of the mentioned match are examined, it is observed that they are the same names subject to multiple applications made by our club.

From Serkan Çınar’s statements, it is understood in detail how the match result was influenced by manipulation from the VAR referees during the match.

As we have persistently mentioned in each of our applications, the claim of the existence of a group that uses Turkish refereeing for their own interests and aims to design our league is becoming a reality day by day, moving away from mere allegations and suspicions.

At this point, with our Super Lig clubs, former FIFA-badge referees, and most recently Serkan Çınar’s statements on the agenda, it is not acceptable that a serious investigation has not yet been initiated.

Moreover, the concentration of all these allegations on certain referees and the mention of specific referees’ names in every scandalous incident serve as evidence supporting our claims.

Finally, in the face of serious allegations that have come to the attention of the public in recent months, we request your Federation to take action, initiate investigation processes by relevant Federation committees, especially the Central Referee Committee, without delay, and announce them to the public.

Respectfully,

Burak Ç. KIZILHAN
General Secretary Board Member

FULL STATEMENTS OF THE REFEREE IN QUESTION:

“I signaled for the ball to be out, took my position. The players are also protesting because there is a leg swing, there is a hit. The VAR referee said, ‘I’m checking, the attacking player hits the ball, the defending player hits the foot of the attacking player. I’m checking the offside.’ Now the job has changed. The players are also protesting, ‘Okay, gentlemen, the incident developed very quickly, we missed it too,’ we say. ‘The VAR referee is checking the offside, he said there was a hit, we’re going to check it ourselves,’ we say. The VAR referee called. We went and looked, they showed me an image… I said, ‘Why did you call me for this position, what did you see in this position?’ I said. ‘Coach, it’s not that image, there’s another image. We will show it to you’ they said. The image came. Of course, the screen you watch there is small. I’m looking at the image, ‘Do you see the contact here?’ I say. ‘Coach, he hits here,’ he says. ‘The attacking player hits the ball here. The foot swung by the defending player also comes to the foot of the attacking player,’ he says. ‘Okay,’ I say. ‘Do you see it?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Are you sure?’ I say. ‘Yes,’ they say. ‘If you see it, then okay, I’m giving the penalty,’ I said. ‘Okay, coach,’ they said. We gave the penalty. The image shown to me does not appear on the broadcast. The strange part is, you know what? The image that is not reflected in the broadcast… Observers immediately go to the broadcasting organization as soon as the match is over, take the image from them, and have a 10-15 minute meeting with the referee on the field. There, they evaluate critical positions. Then they go and write their report. The observer came, we talked and so on, ‘Serkan your decision is correct. But, right here, they didn’t broadcast the image shown to you. You’re right in the image shown to you,’ he said. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I took it with my phone, but they didn’t want to broadcast it. I had a hard time getting the image from the director. He didn’t want to give it. They said our heads will be on the line if we broadcast this image.’ They said to me what I’m telling. I talked on the phone, did this and that, I got it from the broadcasting organization by force, they said our heads will be on the line if we broadcast this image. They opened the image for me from the phone. We are in the dressing room with the referees. ‘Yes, sir, this image was shown to me.’ I said. ‘Okay, sir, you’re right,’ he said. But it’s boiling outside. But probably to save themselves in VAR, they used their probably bilateral relationships to convey it to the public and the press like this…”

“But probably to save themselves in VAR, they used their probably bilateral relationships to convey it to the public and the press like this… I called the observer, ‘Can you send me that image? My refereeing will be over. At least let me explain my problem to people,’ I said. ‘I can’t send it, Serkan, my head will also be on the line,’ they said. This issue, later on, marked the end of my refereeing.”