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“The Galatasaray and Fenerbahce derby is the biggest sport event in Turkey,” says Burak Abatay from BBC Turkish.<\/p>\n
“Life stops on derby evenings – even the terrible Istanbul traffic is relieved. It is very big tension. The match [last night] was played in this tension.<\/p>\n
“There has been a great chaos in Turkish football for a long time. The main discussion is usually about the referees.<\/p>\n
“Last season a referee was attacked by a club president in the centre of the pitch. And two teams withdrew from the pitch last season. Another club did the same this season.<\/p>\n
“In the middle of this season, foreign referees started to work as VAR referees in all matches, but this did not reduce the controversy.<\/p>\n
“President of the Turkish Football Federation Ibrahim Haciosmanoglu stated that the reason for a foreign referee to officiate the derby was ‘to prevent these discussions and not to put the referees in a controversial position’.”<\/p>\n
Abatay added: “Galatasaray’s manager Okan Buruk called Jose Mourinho ‘The Crying One’ after the match. He also criticised [referee] Vincic.<\/p>\n
“Many football analysts say that Turkish football needs more structural and long-term change.”<\/p>\n
And Mourinho’s own club claim change is required, with Fenerbahce vice-president Acun Ilicali claiming there is no protocol for selecting referees in Turkey, “unlike England”.<\/a><\/p>\n “In England, if somebody [is] from Newcastle, you cannot be a ref of a Newcastle game,” he told Sky. “[The] problem in Turkey is nobody’s asking referees ‘Which team do you support?’ We don’t know – they can be a Galatasaray fan or Fenerbahce fan.”<\/p>\n Uefa told BBC Sport it “works with its 55 member associations on refereeing”, but the responsibility lies with individual associations to manage the process for its own officials.<\/p>\n In England, professional referees have to declare which teams they support as part of transparency measures – so they avoid games involving their own team.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n