9 of the craziest moments in Turkish Super Lig history: Guns, brawls, kidnappings…

Look up ‘melodrama’ in the dictionary and you’ll read an entrance that simply says: ‘See Turkish Super Lig’.

Honestly, it feels like not a week goes by without something genuinely batsh*t happening. Guns, violence, kidnapping… Guy Ritchie is directing the Turkish Super Lig. That’s the only explanation. It’s not real. It can’t be.

We allowed ourselves to be sucked into the topsy-turvy rabbit hole that is the Super Lig. Come with us as we guide you through the madness.

The sucker punch that rocked Turkey

When Ankaragucu took on Rizespor back in December, the ref sent off a player from each side. Rizespor were 1-0 down, but equalised in the 97th minute, and it was all too much for Ankaragucu’s president.

Faruk Koca, the aforementioned president, stormed the pitch, and dropped the ref with a single punch to the face. Somebody else then kicked the ref in the head as he lay on the pitch.

The referee was hospitalised and interviewed on Turkish TV, wearing a neck brace and sporting a black eye and a broken face.

“Faruk Koca punched me under my left eye and I fell to the ground. While I was on the ground, they kicked my face and other parts of my body many times,“ Meler (the ref) told reporters.

“Faruk Koca told me and my fellow referees: ‘I will finish you’. Addressing me in particular, he said: ‘I will kill you’.”

The entire league was suspended, and Koca was arrested, obviously. “My brain went crazy,” Koca said. No sh*t. “My eyesight blacked out! I don’t remember what I did!”

Pants on fire.

The Battle of Trabzon

In March 2024, Trabzonspor suffered a 2-3 defeat to Fenerbahce, with whom they have previous, after a late Michy Batshuayi winner.

Trabzonspor fans invaded the pitch, someone ran at Fener’s goalie with a corner flag pointed like a spear, fights broke out between players and supporters.

Fenerbahce’s Bright Osayi-Samuel was having none of it.

🚨😳 Bright Osayi-Samuel after Trabzonspor vs Fenerbahçe game.pic.twitter.com/uasxI4tUPe

— TheSecretScout (@TheSecretScout_) March 17, 2024

Genuine attempted murder

Back in 2015, Fenerbahce were travelling back to Istanbul after beating Rizespor to go clear at the top of the league. On the way to the airport, some evil lunatic shot at the bus with a shotgun, seriously injuring the driver but, thankfully, not killing anyone.

Truly disgusting.

A game of one half

In 2014 a match between Trabzonspor and Fenerbahce (those two again) was called off at half-time after the home fans peppered the Fener players with missiles.

Kidnapping the officials

Trabzonspor again…

In 2015, Trabzonspor weren’t awarded a penalty that club president Suleyman Hurma thought they should have been given.

A sane person would perhaps complain after the game, or simply get on with life and move onto the next game, but it turns out Hurma is a mad b*stard.

He locked the ref and his assistants inside the stadium and refused to let them out until Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intervened via phone call the following morning.

Graeme Souness doing Graeme Souness things

According to Souness himself, when the Scot was appointed by Galatasaray as manager, Fener’s vice-president remarked, “What are Galatasaray doing signing a cripple?”

Graeme had recently had open-heart surgery, and he didn’t take that comment well, as you’d imagine.

Nine months later, Gala played Fener in a two-legged Turkish Cup Final, and won it in extra-time at Fenerbahce’s place. Somebody handed Souness a Gala flag and… well, he ran to the centre circle and planted it there.

Pandemonium. Souness is escorted down the tunnel by police, where he still ends up getting inexcusably clocked in the head by a Fener fan. Souness gonna Souness *shrug emoji*.

Falcao discovers what it must feel like to be the Pope

When Radamel Falcao signed for Galatasaray in 2019, it was a big deal for the Istanbul club, but when the Colombian stepped off the plane in Turkey, he looks shocked to be greeted by literally 25,000 Gala fans chanting and burning flares.

Might start doing that in the office every morning. Get morale going a bit.

Attack on the assistant referee

In 2016 Trabzonspor were 4-0 down to Fenerbahce in the 89th minute, when a Trabzonspor fan (and we use the term loosely) got onto the pitch and assaulted the assistant.

The game was abandoned, and Trabzonspor were made to play four games behind closed doors.

The night of the wooden spoons

Okay, this one’s not technically in the Super Lig but: Karabukspor and Elazigspor, April 2016. Some mad c*nt in a Karabukspor shirt makes his way onto the pitch and starts attacking the ref by throwing wooden spoons at him.

Super weird. Why wooden spoons?

The attack didn’t last long because one of the Elazigspor players flying side kicked him in the mush. Less Emre Can, more Jackie Chan.

READ NEXT: We can’t get over the 10 most valuable players in the Turkish Super League

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every team to play in the Champions League knockout stages?