Examining the Effect of Physical Attacks on Referees in Football from Public Aspect; MKE Ankaragücü-Çaykur Rizespor Inc. Match Example

This research determines how physical attacks on football officials affect public perception, using the MKE Ankaragücü - Çaykur Rizespor Inc. match as an example. Within the framework of the study, several technical data were computed on the coverage rates of the match in which the physical attack was the subject, in both national and international media, as well as the number of fouls, objections, cards, passing, and ball winning rates. Data were collected from national and international online football databases in the collection of research data. The frequency and percentage values of the obtained data were analyzed by the SPSS 22.0 package program. As a result of the research, it was specified that the yellow and red cards received by the teams in the match where the incident took place, the number of fouls, the objections of the players and the technical staff on the benches to the referee after the decisions made, the average card analysis of the MKE Ankaragücü team throughout the season was lower than the average card analysis of all teams, and there was no significant difference between the number of cards shown by the referees based on the last five seasons. Furthermore, it was determined that the incident was interpreted as “shameful” in the national and international sports media.