Howard Webb urges officials to clamp down on unacceptable behaviour to prevent a repeat of Turkey incident

Howard Webb urges officials to clamp down on poor behaviour (PA Archive)

Referee chief Howard Webb has told officials to “keep the foot on the gas” and clamp down on unacceptable behaviour to prevent a repeat of the recent scenes in Turkey.

Domestic football in Turkey was briefly suspended after one of the country’s top referees was punched to the ground by a club president following a Super Lig match on Monday.

Halil Umut Meler was approached on the pitch and hit by MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca, sparking chaotic scenes as players and officials joined the melee or tried to intervene, with Koca since being permanently banned.

Meler had sent off one player from each side, then allowed an equaliser for opponents Caykur Rizespor in the seventh minute of injury time to force a 1-1 draw.

The incident has been condemned throughout the football world but, with statistics showing that cases of players surrounding referees in England have decreased, Webb wants such stringent officiating to continue.

“In terms of what we saw in Turkey, it was pretty outrageous really and I hope we never see that again at any level,” the chief refereeing officer of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited said.

“I asked the officials back in the summer to be really strong and robust in terms of their interventions around behaviours which were unacceptable and to stop turning blind eyes.

“They’ve done that, they’ve really done well in that respect, they’ve consistently sanctioned players who have shown open dissent in a way that was undermining the authority of the officials in a way perhaps they didn’t do previously.

“We’ve only seen one team charged this season for surrounding in the Premier League and then, I’m hoping, over time the number of cautions for dissent reduces too.

“But we’ve got to keep the foot on the gas because otherwise it will slide and we can’t allow that to happen and I think the events in Turkey really are an example of how we have to continue to work together to prevent that type of thing from ever happening here again.”