Jose Mourinho has slammed the quality of refereeing in Turkish football as he watched Fenerbache defeat Trabzonspor 3-2 in their Super Lig match on Sunday.
The former AS Romaboss stated he’d never watched the league before and suggested no one outside of Turkey does, but had been warned about what happens on the pitch before he arrived to take charge at Fenerbache.
He slammed referee Atilla Karaoglan’s performance during the match, saying he was drinking “Turkish tea”, a euphemism for being asleep during part of the match and missing many free kicks Mounriho believed should have been awarded.
He also noted a penalty in Fenerbache’s favour, which Mourinho said he would post footage of, on his social media, so the world can see how poor he believes the league to be.
On the Turkish league and officiating within it
“I didn’t watch the matches until I come because nobody abroad wants to watch the Turkish league. Who wants to watch this Turkish league abroad? They have the Premier League, they have the French league, they have the German league, they have the Portuguese league, they have the the Dutch League. Why should they see this? I didn’t. I started looking at it when I was invited to come to Turkey. Then, yes, I started looking at it, but I started looking at it in the perspective of trying to know my future players, my team. My focus was not on matches. My focus was on players. To try to know the most of them. I was told when the president met me, when the director met me, and even before that, that I even met other important clubs and respectful clubs in Turkey. But I couldn’t believe that this was the dimension. It’s too grey, it’s too dark, it smells bad. But that’s my job and I will give everything to my to my job, to my to my club.”
Fenerbahce head coach Jose Mourinho.
On the referee Atilla Karaoglan
“We were in good control. We were winning 1-0. When Atilla [Karaoglan] woke up because in the first half he was having probably Turkish tea. For not to say an alcoholic drink, so probably it was Turkish tea. When there was a clear red card on Bright [Osayi-Samuel].”
