After the Clubs Association meeting, attended by Minister of Youth and Sports Osman Aşkın Bak, Ali Koç made a statement to the press.
After the meeting, Clubs Association President Ali Koç made a statement to the press. Sending a get-well message to Halil Umut Meler and condemning the attack, Koç said, “Hopefully, I believe that everything will return to normal as soon as possible and Turkish football will have the environment it deserves.”
Ali Koç also stated that the date of this meeting and the issues to be discussed were determined 10 days in advance, but after the attack on Meler, the agenda was only this development and other issues would be discussed at the next meeting.
Here are the statements made by Ali Koç after the Clubs Association meeting:
It was a long meeting. The events that took place before our eyes on Monday evening have deeply wounded our entire country. At the same time, the brand value of the country’s football has been damaged. It is not possible to accept such a violent event without any buts or buts.
What Halil Umut Meler went through hurt all of us. Most of all, it hurt his family. Get well soon to him and his precious family. What is important is that Turkey’s number one referee regains his health and returns to the green fields after reviewing the decision he made in the shock and sadness of that moment.
The day is the day to tackle the accumulated problems with great courage and to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent similar ones from happening again. We need to understand well how we got here. TFF, MHK, referees, clubs, fans, players, coaches… We all have to think about where Turkish football has come after these recent events.
“WE WILL GO TO OUR PRESIDENT”
Minister of Youth and Sports Osman Aşkın Bak attended the meeting. Two problems were focused on regarding the events coming to this point. Fair competition and financial issues. We find it valuable that the Minister hears the problems from us. We will visit our President, our Minister of Justice and our Minister of Internal Affairs, who have listened to the problems from the TFF President until today. We have determined that we need to meet frequently with the Ministry of Youth and Sports until the problems are resolved. We will take all the initiative and start working to solve the problems.
“CLUB PRESIDENTS WERE NOT ASKED ABOUT THE POSTPONEMENT DECISION”
Club presidents were not asked about the postponement decision. Decision to postpone indefinitely… Matches will not start immediately on Tuesday. He probably had a different calendar in mind. Afterwards, sanity prevailed.
“THE SITUATION OF THE REFEREE IS CLEAR”
The referees’ statements after leaving the hospital and the people they chose as spokespeople created great discomfort inside. The situation of the referee is clear. During the halftime, it was explained that very serious radical steps would be taken and that there was a road map to minimize this referee problem. TFF has also told us many times that it will not go with these referees. Now we will see where TFF is at. We’ve been talking about this for weeks. They went to Germany to appoint referees and were told that a new system would be introduced. We are waiting. At one point, TFF asked, ‘Do these referees want to eat us too?’ He had doubts. The referee problem continues.