Hull City owner Acun Ilıcalı is also actively involved at Fenerbahçe, and is never afraid to speak his mind on the affairs of either club.
The Turkish businessman is the vice-president at the Istanbul side. At the weekend, the Yellow Canaries secured a 2-0 win over Antalyaspor.
Despite the win, the Hull City president wasn’t pleased with the match officials involved in this clash.
He called a press conference today to lash out at the poor standards of officiating in Turkey. Asist Analiz took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to relay the 55-year-old’s comments.
According to the Turkish press, José Mourinho’s side believe they should have awarded a penalty against Antalyaspor. Edin Džeko’s goal was cancelled in the same tie, after the assistant referee flagged him offside.
The replay showed the Bosnian wasn’t offside. The Portuguese tactician pointed it out to the camera and received a yellow card from referee, Cihan Aydın. The Hull City owner expressed his unhappiness over the quality of referees in Turkish football and made his point to others who suggest Fenerbahçe get an easy ride.
“Today I won’t make a speech on the grey area. I’ll put everything clearly. No one should ramble on and try to take the conversation somewhere. Let the one who responds to the concrete issues [respond to what] we are going to tell right now,” he said.
“Two years ago, Fenerbahçe started the league well and suddenly, after a Galatasaray match, a Galatasaray executive made a statement saying, ‘we will not finish the league’, although he later apologised. After this threat, some developments took place in Turkey and Fenerbahçe was defeated many times? Yes.
“The Galatasaray front made statements saying ’why are you stressing these issues, why are you stressing football so much?’ They ended the league like this.
“All kinds of points are being stolen from Fenerbahçe, for those who do not know, you can go and look at the numbers. While there are disproportions such as 3 yellow cards to 15 yellow cards, the statement is made that we want a local referee.
“According to the unanimous decision of all referee commentators, the number of yellow cards not shown to Galatasaray this year is 14 in 7 games. If anyone has any objections, let me know that they should say ‘actually 13’ but they cannot say 12. Fenerbahçe had 1 yellow card, Beşiktaş had 1.”
Fenerbahçe appointed Mourinho as their new manager in the summer. He’s helped them to second spot, three points behind leaders Galatasaray. Mourinho’s side are level on points with third placed Beşiktaş, who have a game in hand.
In England, Acun Ilıcalı’s Hull City are 12th in the Championship.
