{"id":24916,"date":"2023-12-15T19:50:01","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T19:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch"},"modified":"2023-12-15T20:37:42","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T20:37:42","slug":"koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch","title":{"rendered":"Koca given permanent ban for referee punch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Eritrea. <\/strong><\/span>MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca has received a permanent ban for punching referee Halil Umut Meler, says the Turkish Football Federation.<\/p>\n

Koca was arrested after he ran onto the pitch and struck Meler following a draw with Caykur Rizespor in the Turkish top flight.<\/p>\n

Ankaragucu have also been fined two million lira (\u00a354,000) and ordered to play five home games without fans.<\/p>\n

All Turkish league football was suspended after Monday’s incident.<\/p>\n

The TFF has since decided that games will resume on Tuesday, 19 December after a one-week suspension.<\/p>\n

Meler received several blows from others as he lay on the turf and suffered injuries including a minor fracture.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old is one of Turkey’s top referees and officiates international games for Fifa. He is also on Uefa’s elite referee list.<\/p>\n

He was taken to hospital for treatment for his injuries before being released on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said Koca and two others were formally arrested for “injuring a public official”.<\/p>\n

Koca later stated Ankaragucu saying he had resigned as club president and apologising for his actions.<\/p>\n

“No matter how great an injustice or how wrong [the officiating] was, nothing can legitimise or explain the violence that I perpetrated,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I apologise to the Turkish refereeing community, the sports public and our nation.”<\/p>\n

He added he felt “great embarrassment” for the “grave incident that I caused” but hoped it could help Turkish football address its “culture of violence”.<\/p>\n

Fifa president Gianni Infantino said the incident was “totally unacceptable” and violence had “no place in our sport or society”.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Eritrea<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Eritrea. MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca has received a permanent ban for punching referee Halil Umut Meler, says the Turkish Football Federation. Koca was arrested after he ran onto the pitch and struck Meler following a draw with Caykur Rizespor in the Turkish top flight. Ankaragucu have also been fined two million lira […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":24914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[242,243,233],"class_list":["post-24916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-eritrea","tag-eritrea"],"yoast_head":"\nKoca given permanent ban for referee punch - Eritrea<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca has received a permanent ban for punching referee Halil Umut Meler, says the Turkish ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Koca given permanent ban for referee punch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca has received a permanent ban for punching referee Halil Umut Meler, says the Turkish ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eritrea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-15T19:50:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-15T20:37:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/12\/sm_1702659753.04827.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"787\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"485\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Koca given permanent ban for referee punch\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-15T19:50:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-15T20:37:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch\"},\"wordCount\":279,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/12\/sm_1702659753.04827.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Eritrea\",\"Eritrea\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch\",\"name\":\"Koca given permanent ban for referee punch - Eritrea\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/12\/sm_1702659753.04827.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-15T19:50:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-15T20:37:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca has received a permanent ban for punching referee Halil Umut Meler, says the Turkish ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/12\/sm_1702659753.04827.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/12\/sm_1702659753.04827.jpg\",\"width\":787,\"height\":485,\"caption\":\"Koca given permanent ban for referee punch\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Koca given permanent ban for referee punch\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/\",\"name\":\"Eritrea\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Koca given permanent ban for referee punch - Eritrea","description":"MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca has received a permanent ban for punching referee Halil Umut Meler, says the Turkish ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Koca given permanent ban for referee punch","og_description":"MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca has received a permanent ban for punching referee Halil Umut Meler, says the Turkish ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch","og_site_name":"Eritrea","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2023-12-15T19:50:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-12-15T20:37:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":787,"height":485,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/12\/sm_1702659753.04827.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Koca given permanent ban for referee punch","datePublished":"2023-12-15T19:50:01+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-15T20:37:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch"},"wordCount":279,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/12\/sm_1702659753.04827.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Eritrea","Eritrea"],"articleSection":["all news","sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch","name":"Koca given permanent ban for referee punch - Eritrea","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/12\/sm_1702659753.04827.jpg","datePublished":"2023-12-15T19:50:01+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-15T20:37:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca has received a permanent ban for punching referee Halil Umut Meler, says the Turkish ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/12\/sm_1702659753.04827.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/12\/sm_1702659753.04827.jpg","width":787,"height":485,"caption":"Koca given permanent ban for referee punch"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/koca-given-permanent-ban-for-referee-punch#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Koca given permanent ban for referee punch"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/","name":"Eritrea","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}