Turkish football has been blighted by more on-pitch violence scenes after five players were sent off following a mass brawl.
Bursaspor were hosting Diyarbekirspor in the country’s second tier, with the visitors winning 2-0 thanks to a goal in each half. However, the scoreline was a mere subplot to what unfolded in added time as the sides came to blows.
It is unclear what triggered the ruckus but it seemed to involve virtually every player on the pitch and both coaching teams. Helmet-glad police were deployed to try and calm things down, but they were literally fighting a losing battle.
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Punches and kits rained in while bottles were also hurled. One player was even spotted aiming a flying drop-kick at a member of the opposition. The shoulder-high lunge just missed its target, who then retaliated by sticking the boot in himself.
Once order was finally restored after several minutes of fighting, a total of five players were dismissed, two from Bursaspor and three from Diyarbekirspor. The brawl underlined the state of chaos Turkish football finds himself in at present.
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Only last week, MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca entered the pitch and punched referee Halil Umut Meler, one of the country’s top officials. Meler was hospitalised while Koca resigned from his club and was hit with a lifetime ban from the game by the Turkish Football Federation.
And on Tuesday, in another referee-related incident, Istanbulspor players left the pitch in an apparent protest at a decision not going their way. Istanbulspor felt they should have been awarded a spot-kick when Florian Loshaj fell under a challenge by Batista Mendy before on-loan Southampton striker Paul Onuachu fired Trabzonspor into a 2-1 lead moments later.
Seemingly under the orders of chairman Ecmel Faik Sarialioglu, the Istanbulspor players then left the pitch, with the match halted in the 73rd minute.
Trabzonspor said in a post on their X, formerly Twitter, account: “The Istanbulspor match, which we played away in the 17th week of the Trendyol Super Lig, was stopped in the 73rd minute due to the players of the opposing team withdrawing from the field.”
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