Salam alaykum! Due to illnesses, this week’s Friday Fill-in had to be pushed until Saturday. We’re so sorry for the delay. If you have a story or athlete you’d like to pitch for the Friday Fill-in, email us at TheAthleticUmmah@gmail.com.
The Headlines
Puma to end sponsorship of Israel national football team in 2024: Sportswear giant Puma will stop sponsoring Israel’s national football team in 2024, as first reported by the Financial Times. According to a Puma spokesperson, the decision had been planned since 2022 and was unrelated to consumer boycott calls against Israel. Nevertheless, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) claims this as a victory. They said that Puma has been the target of a worldwide BDS campaign since it signed on as Israel’s kit manufacturer in 2018, and they claim that leaked internal messages reveal Puma has been under tremendous pressure to drop their deal with the Israeli national team.
Messi’s Inter Miami to tour Saudi Arabia, play Ronaldo’s Al Nassr: Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami CF has announced that they will travel to Saudi Arabia during the 2024 pre-season to participate in the Riyadh Season Cup. The competition will be the American club’s first-ever international tour, and they will play matches against Saudi Arabian powerhouses Al-Hilal SFC (Monday, Jan. 29) and Al Nassr FC (Thursday, Feb. 1) — the latter club led by Messi’s former La Liga rival Cristiano Ronaldo.
Draymond Green suspended indefinitely after punching Jusuf Nurkić: Basketball player Draymond Green has been suspended indefinitely by the NBA after striking Bosnian big man Jusuf Nurkić during a Tuesday night game between the Golden State Warriors and the Phoenix Suns. It’s Green’s second suspension of the season, and the NBA says he needs to meet “certain league and team conditions” before returning to action. Nurkić immediately went down after the punch, but eventually got up and stayed in the game. “That had nothing to do with basketball,” Nurkić said after the game. “I’m just out there trying to play basketball.”
What You Might’ve Missed
How do you react when your team loses a match due to what you think is a bad refereeing performance?
If you’re the average fan, you might blame the referee for missing “such an obvious call” and forget about it by the time the next match rolls around. Or, if you’re a psycho like myself, maybe you note the referee’s name in a list of every official who has wronged your team (à la Ryan Howard from The Office) to mentally prepare yourself for the next time they officiate a match your club is involved in. (Mateu Lahoz, I see you. 👀)
However you cope, hopefully you don’t do what Turkish politician Faruk Koca did earlier this week and punch a referee.
On Monday, Dec. 11, football clubs MKE Ankaragücü and Çaykur Rizespor met in a Turkish Süper Lig match. Koca was the club president of the hometown club Ankaragücü, and he was probably hoping for a win to help pull his club into the top half of the Turkish league table.
Up 1-0 in second half stoppage time, his prayers appeared to be materializing. Despite a red card in the 50th minute, a 14th-minute goal by Olimpiu Moruţan meant the hosts Ankaragücü were on the road to victory. A red card to Rizespor’s Emirhan Topçu in the 90+5th minute seemed to all but cement the win.
But just two minutes later, Rizespor found an equalizer. A header by one of their players rebounded off of the post, and Argentine Adolfo Gaich was in the perfect position to chest the ball into the gaping goal. The Ankaragücü players raised their hands to suggest Gaich was offside, but neither the referee nor the linesman were having it.
The game finished 1-1, and Koca was livid.
The 59-year-old rushed onto a pitch with a group of men and struck referee Halil Umut Meler’s face. Meler was knocked out by the blow and was kicked several times in the ensuing melee.
“Faruk Koca, said to me [and the other officials], ‘I will finish you.’ Addressing me, he said, ‘I will kill you,’” Meler said in a statement.
A few minutes later, Meler was shown standing up with a black eye. He eventually made it to the dressing room with the help of police.
Meler was released from a hospital in Ankara on Wednesday, after undergoing observation and receiving a phone call from Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
As Meler recovered, the hammer came down on Koca for causing what has been described as Turkey’s “night of shame.” He resigned as Ankaragücü’s club president — a role he took up in 2021 — despite insisting his team was cheated by the referee.
“No matter how great an injustice or how wrong [the officiating] was, nothing can legitimize or explain the violence that I perpetrated,” Koca said in a club statement.
“I apologize to the Turkish refereeing community, the sports public and our nation.”
But obviously, an apology was not enough to excuse such a brazen act of violence. Yılmaz Tunç, the Turkish Minister of Justice, said on X (formerly Twitter) that Koca was among three people “arrested for the crime of, ‘injuring, on a sports field in a way that resulted in a fracture, [of] a public official who was performing their public duty.’”
Furthermore, Koca has been banned from football for life by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF). The Turkish Professional Football Disciplinary Board also ordered Ankaragücü to play five home games without any fans in attendance and issued the club with a fine of 2,000,000 Turkish lira – approximately $69,000 USD.
Matches in Turkey will resume on Tuesday, after the TFF indefinitely postponed all games in the country’s leagues.
Unfortunately, referee abuse is something that is often excused in all levels of sports — it’s something I’ve written about for CBC, Canada’s national broadcaster. But it’s good to see Turkish officials take the side of the referee and not let Koca escape with a slap on the wrist. It’s these kinds of heavy punishments that will deter more suits, players and fans from literally taking matters into their own hands.
Muslim Athlete of the Week
This week was decision week for some football clubs in the UEFA Champions League (UCL), as their futures in the competition would be sealed with the last round of matches.
One of those clubs was FC Porto, a Portuguese giant that last won the competition in 2004. They were joint-2nd in Group H, level on points with Shakhtar Donetsk for the group’s last round of 16 qualifying spot — and as fate would have it, their final group game was a winner-takes-all match against their Ukrainian opponents.
Porto had the advantage though. Not only were they hosting the game in their famous Estádio do Dragão, one of the most intimidating stadiums in the Iberian Peninsula; but they had also made it to the round of 16 in five of their last seven appearances in the UCL.
Still, Porto needed a strong performance if they wanted to see out Shakhtar — and thankfully, they got that from their offence. A five-goal showing, including two goals and two assists by Galeno, secured a 5-3 win for Porto and qualification out of the UCL group stage.
Although Galeno took home the Man of the Match award, Porto’s Iranian forward Mehdi Taremi also had a very good performance.
Taremi, who’s one of the best Shia Muslim athletes in the world, constantly eluded his markers and peppered Shakhtar’s goal with a game-high six shots in total. He also won three aerial duals and successfully made 5 tackles, the most out of all players and a very impressive number for an attacker.
His crowning moment came in the 62nd minute. After a great run by Galeno, the ball was chipped to Taremi — who had once again escaped his marker — into Shakhtar’s box. Despite the awkward angle and body position, Taremi somehow contorted his body and struck a powerful shot at Shakhtar’s net.
Goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk got a forearm on it despite not expecting a shot, but nevertheless, he was overpowered by the Iranian’s attempt.
Taremi’s goal was his second in the UCL this season and Porto’s third of the night; a deserved goal for one of the game’s best performers. The goal was also Taremi’s 10th in the UCL, making him just the third Asian player to reach double-digits in Europe’s premier club competition.
For his performance, football statistics website WhoScored.com gave Taremi an 8.9 rating out of 10. It was the second-highest rating of the match (after Galeno’s 9.9 rating) and Taremi’s second-best rating of the season, after his 9.1 rating in Porto’s 4-1 win over Royal Antwerp in October.
Mehdi Taremi has been one of the most consistent Muslim goalscorers in Europe for a few seasons now, and his performance against Shakhtar is the latest in a list of top outings he’s had when Porto needed him most. For his excellent showing, he’s our Muslim Athlete of the Week.
Headline image credit: magzter.com
[…] didn’t we cover this story last week? *Checks notes.* Nope, Turkish club presidents just really like protesting calls by the referee […]