1
TAXI FOR HAKAN SUKUR
Former Turkey international Hakan
Sukur is working as a taxi driver in
the USA these days after being driven out
of his home country following a dispute
with its ruling president, Recep Erdogan.
Sukur, who played at the 2002 World
Cup and won the 2000 UEFA Cup with
Galatasaray, went into politics after retiring
as a player in 2008. He won a seat in
parliament in 2011 as a member of the
ruling AKP party, but fell out with Erdogan
and was accused of plotting to overthrow
him as a member of the Gulen opposition
movement, which is classed as a terrorist
organisation in Turkey.
In 2017 he moved to the US in exile,
with his wife and children, and says: “I
have nothing left, Erdogan took everything:
my right to liberty, freedom of expression
and right to work. Nobody seems able
to explain what my role in this coup was
supposed to be. I never did anything
illegal, I am not a traitor or a terrorist.
“I might be an enemy of this
government, but not the state or
the Turkish nation. I love my country.
“After the split with Erdogan, I started
to receive threats. My wife’s shop was
attacked, my children were harassed,
my father put in prison and all my
assets confiscated.
“So I moved to the United States,
initially running a cafe in California, but
strange people kept coming into the bar.
“Now I drive for Uber and I sell books.”2
WONKY LINES DELAY
SERIE A GAME
Verona’s recent 2-1 victory at
home to Genoa in Serie A had to be
delayed by 15 minutes because the
penalty-area lines were not straight.
Referee Maurizio Mariani noticed
the problem at the Stadio Marc’Antonio
Bentegodi during his pre-match
inspection of the pitch.
Kick-off had to be suspended while
Verona ground staff had “to redraw the
lines that mark the penalty areas”.3
CHRISTMAS DAY FOOTBALL
FOR EX-PRESIDENT
Now a political refugee in
Argentina, the exiled former president
of Bolivia, Evo Morales, has always been
keen to put on a pair of football boots.
And it was no different this Christmas
Day when he joined in a game with
members of the Bolivian community
in the Argentinian capital at the Campo
De Deportes del Colegio Nacional de
Buenos Aires.
Morales who was forced to resign
following a wave of protests, and under
pressure from police and the military in
his homeland, spent a month in Mexico
before arriving in Argentina in December,
having fled Bolivia when a warrant was
issued for his arrest.4
PORTUGAL TRIUMPH
ON THE BEACH
Portugal beat Italy to win their
third Beach Soccer World Cup.
A hat-trick from Jordan Santos, two
goals from Leo Martins and one from
Lourenco gave the Portuguese a 6-
win over their opponents in Paraguay.
Now held every two years, Portugal
also won the tournament in 2015 and
2001, making them the second-most
successful country in the beach soccer
format. They still, however, have a long
way to go to catch up with Brazil, who
have won the tournament 14 times since
it began in 1995.REPORTS WE COULDN’T MAKE UP
blatantly absurd, as slight as the merest
projection of a toenail or a kneecap; calls
that no human eye can detect, meaning
that they cannot be “clear and obvious”
referee errors. Yet these subliminal
calls are repeatedly accepted as strong
enough reasons for ruling out goals.
These decisions fly in the face of VAR
Protocol, which states the ref’s original
decision “will not be changed” unless
VAR proves a “clear and obvious” error.
There is another reason to be
suspicious of these VAR offside calls.
At the other end of an offside call is
the team-mate providing the assist. The
exact instant at which the ball is passed
must be recorded. That moment has
then to be co-ordinated with the exact
positions of toenails and kneecaps. No
wonder VAR decisions entail delays.
The nonsense surrounding these
millimetric offside decisions can be quite
easily banished by insisting that any call
must involve a measurement that can
be detected by the human eye. If there
is genuine uncertainty there can be no
clear and obvious error. The original
referee human-eye call must stand.
The argument against everything I
have just laid out is that VAR is impartial,
therefore its decisions will strike a fair
balance between goal and no-goal
decisions. But that doesn’t happen. The
“no goal” sign is the one we keep seeing,
with quite likely a well-worked goal ruled
out by an errant toenail.
One feels an impulse to get as precise
and picky as the VAR and point out that
it is the tip of the player’s boot that is
offside, whereas the rules specify “feet”...
Ultimately, what ensures that VAR will
be a negative, anti-goal system is that it
operates within the long-standing referee
culture that is always looking to resolve
doubtful plays in favour of defenders.
That bias may not be easy to get rid
of, but it will have to go if VAR is to prove
a reliable aid to refereeing.
Lines...things
weren’t straight
forward at VeronaDriven out...
Hakan SukurSand kings...Portugal (in
white) beat Italy in the FinalHere we are
in 2020, and VAR
has plunged us
back 60 years
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