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Turkish Football Club President Holds Referees Hostage After Not Being Awarded a Penalty

Locking them up in the stadium seemed like a good idea at the time.
Trabzonspor supporters during a Europa League game against Napoli.

You know your beef with a ref is bad when the president of your country has to intervene.

After not being awarded a penalty, Ibrahim Hacıosmanoğlu, the president of Turkish club Trabzonspor, decided to lock four match officials in his stadium overnight, according to the Guardian.

"I told stadium security not to let the referees leave until the morning, until I arrived, but a very important person called me and asked me not to cause embarrassment in Turkey and around the world. He promised the [penalty] incident would be investigated," Hacıosmanoğlu said to Doğan news agency.

That person, it turns out, was Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Protests had grown to a fever pitch as angry supporters gathered around the outside of the stadium and finally, at 4 AM, the referees were released after Erdoğan persuaded Hacıosmanoğlu to let them go. The refs even had to be escorted by special forces.

There is something both impressive and unsettling about the matter of factness with which Hacıosmanoğlu conducted himself. This is a man who has never heard no before. I guess it sounds different when you hear it from the president of your country.