Turkish clubs concerned, angry about referee decisions

By Emre Asikci

ISTANBUL (AA) - Some Turkish football clubs are expressing concerns about questionable decisions by referees in Super Lig matches.

Fenerbahce released a statement after a controversial incident occurred during a derby match against Galatasaray on matchday 24.

The Yellow-Canaries bemoaned a tight offside call that nullified a goal, giving Galatasaray a benefit from the decision by the VAR -- Video assistant referee.

The play in question came during minute 75 when Ozan Tufan leveled the match with a header. But the goal was disallowed for an offside call after a VAR review.

Fenerbahce also expressed concern about the referee decision’s after VAR denied a penalty in a match against Fraport TAV Antalyaspor, the club said Friday.

Galatasaray was furious with a referee's decision against Egyptian forward Mostafa Mohamed in a match with MKE Ankaragucu.

Mohamed was shown a red card for elbowing in the Super Lig battle on Wednesday.

Lions chairman Mustafa Cengiz described it as a shameful decision.

Besiktas released a statement criticizing league refereeing standards.

"We want to believe that referees will manage football matches with fairness and good faith," Besiktas said on Twitter.

Another Super Lig club, Demir Grup Sivasspor, also released a statement saying that they were worried about the unfairness of the referee’s decisions ahead of a league match with Galatasaray.

Also, Ahmet Agaoglu, the president of Trabzonspor, said on Thursday that the Turkish Football Federation, TFF, is far from independent.

Agaoglu said that the club would appeal to FIFA on Monday on grounds of not being independent of TFF boards, adding that "the appeal to FIFA is a service to Turkish football."