Referees coming in for considerable flak is nothing new. It happens on a weekly basis in England – Jon Moss recently became the latest hate figure for a frenzied public, drunk on the super-strength brew that is the Premier League.
But hey, at least we kept it relatively civil and restricted our anger at Moss to Twitter (which he probably doesn’t read) and angry Monday morning mutterings to Sandra in accounts (which he definitely can’t hear).
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Not everyone is able to keep their aggression that passive, however. In Turkey, things got considerably more physical at the weekend when an assistant referee was attacked by a fan.
The assault took place during a Super Lig game between Fenerbahce and Trabzonspor. The latter were being trounced 4-0 by title-chasing Fener and, according to a report by The Guardian, their supporters had begun throwing projectiles on to the pitch.
This is crazy enough in itself, but one fan then took it even further by leaping from the stands and on to the turf, where he attacked the assistant ref. After bundling Volkan Bayarslan to the ground the fan began kicking and punching him, but was quickly dragged away by a small army of security personnel.
Bayarslan took the incident extremely well, trotting off with a smile on his face and an all-in-a-day’s-work wave to the crowd.
That was the end of the game, however, with players and officials retreating to the dressing rooms. For obvious reasons, it is now likely that Fenerbahce will be awarded the win.
While Trabzonspor fans clearly need to improve their behaviour, the team have hardly been perfect this term. Earlier this season they had four players dismissed during a match – one of them for nicking the ref’s red card and pretending to send him off. If the players can’t behave, what hope for their impressionable fans?
