07.03.2025 18:31
The President of the Turkish Football Federation, İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu, spoke at an event held at the TFF Hasan Doğan National Teams Camp and Training Facilities in celebration of International Women's Day on March 8. Addressing the issue of foreign referees, Hacıosmanoğlu said, "They want foreign referees, but my biggest dream is for one of our sisters to step up and officiate that derby match."
The Turkish Football Federation organized an event at the TFF Hasan Doğan National Teams Camp and Training Facilities on the occasion of International Women's Day on March 8. During the event, a panel titled "Women Decision Makers in Turkish Football" and a discussion named "Women Refereeing Training" were held. TFF President İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu made striking statements during his speech.
"LET WOMEN REFEREES MANAGE DERBIES"
At the end of the panel and discussion, Football Federation President İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu and TFF Vice President Mecnun Otyakmaz took the stage to present plaques. After the plaque presentation, Federation President Hacıosmanoğlu addressed the issue of foreign referees.
Hacıosmanoğlu expressed his strong desire for a woman referee to manage a derby, stating, "I hope this panel will be beneficial for you. Of course, my colleagues talked about gender equality. Our mothers are sacred to all of us, right? They gave birth to us. This means that women should always be ahead of us. I have always thought this philosophy in my life. I have never tried to walk ahead of them; I have always stayed behind them. My only wish is that I told the Chairman of the Central Referee Committee, recently our agenda has been whether foreign referees should manage derby matches. Because people are looking for material to talk about. As they find material, they continue to process it. I have only one wish from God, during my term, they want foreign referees, but my biggest dream is for one of our brothers to manage that derby match. For this, you need to work very hard," he said.
"THEY CANNOT APPROACH FOREIGN REFEREES"
TFF President stated that they are ready to do everything they can, saying, "I would like to thank the Turkish Education Foundation from here. Selçuk Bey has to continue this according to your requests. So that our women have more say. Of course, to succeed, we need to work hard. I hope one of our bright young brothers will emerge from among you to manage the derby match for the clubs that want foreign referees. Our women are the women of the Ottoman Empire. I told my referee friends yesterday. When managing matches, you pay attention to foreign referees during European Cup matches; they cannot approach the referee within half a meter. I said last night, what is the difference between you and them? Why do you allow it? You can enforce the rules; they cannot come close. You can warn them, and if they insist, you show a yellow card. If the same player makes the same move again, you show a red card," he said.
"DO WHAT IS NECESSARY, PROTECTION IS MINE"
If you are afraid of strong communities, if you show this bravery, all the protection of that man belongs to me. No one can harm you. Just do the right things. Success comes from there. You are the ones enforcing the rules on the field; you are the judges there. I hope that soon one of our female referees will manage a derby match in the Super League while the Turkish nation watches," he expressed.
GÜNDOĞDU: "IT'S HARDER FOR WOMEN REFEREES"
MHK President Ferhat Gündoğdu thanked the participants for coming. He then began his speech with the following statements:
"Our colleagues, our precious referees, are doing the hardest job, and we know how difficult refereeing management is in Turkey. But when we empathize from a female perspective, my colleagues who experience even more difficulties deserve great praise. I thank them for participating as well. First of all, happy Women's Day to everyone. I hope it leads to beautiful things. I hope today serves as a means for a beautiful future focused on education under the leadership of the Football Federation. We will not achieve any results without education and investment. We know this. However, we are so tired of daily tasks. While doing our daily work, we have no patience to invest, look to the future, and wait. We are facing difficulties from both our side, our stakeholders, and the services we provide. It is our duty to overcome this.
What do our female referees feel? What difficulties do they face? In our seminars, our male colleagues speak passionately. I look at our female colleagues; they say nothing, they thank us because it is their habit to look at everything from a positive side. Our desire is to capture the point where women's deep perspectives converge. If we can bring these two together, then real success will occur. While doing this, some of our habits hinder us. We have a lot of responsibilities to overcome these.
"WE HAVE 610 FEMALE REFEREES"
We have 610 female referees. When you look at the total number, it is 11 to 1 compared to men. Imagine a team where only one is a woman, and the rest are all men. There is a numerical imbalance. Of course, that one woman's voice does not come out; she says, 'I'm fine, coach,' that's what she says anyway. Because the voices of the 10 others are louder. We need to increase this number. After that, we can look at the quality. Our female referees are aware that we need to work in both directions. One of the indicators of this is that at the beginning of the year, we gave them a chance. Please, there is a requirement to run the men's race to take part in professional leagues as requested by UEFA; we said, make an effort to run this men's race, and we will open the way for you. They reacted very quickly to this because they are determined and ambitious; they want it. Most of the friends here ran the men's race. I believe that 2 of them will have matches in Europe next month. A larger group is coming behind. I want to say that we have created this competitive environment.
In January, we included 42 female referee friends in the rankings. The majority of this is spread across many provinces in Anatolia. Today, my friend Rümeysa Gök in Van and my friend Hatice Aydın in Tekirdağ having the same or similar conditions is my biggest wish. Our most important goal is to increase both the quality and quantity on the field while quickly training female referees for the VAR team. We are trying to quickly prepare them for UEFA teams by forming a VAR and AVAR team with one of our friends. We will achieve results for this goal next year. We are working for at least one female referee friend to take part in the A League next year. Our next goal is for them to take part in the Super League. This should not actually be a goal. The Turkish Education Association has provided us with great support for English education. Our aim here was to increase our strength abroad.
After Ferhat Gündoğdu's speech, women referees Melek Dakan and Arzu Görgün participated in the panel titled "Women Decision Makers in Turkish Football." The discussion on "Women Refereeing Training" was attended by female referees Asen Albayrak, Ayşenur Karakoç, and Selçuk Pehlivanoğlu, a member of the Presidential Education and Training Policies Board and the General President of the Turkish Education Association.