Referee earnings revealed: Earned 5 times more than everyone else

The payments made by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF), particularly to referees officiating in the Süper Lig, have come to light. Under the foreign referee practice that has been frequently debated recently, the federation applies a significant pay gap between Turkish and foreign referees.

While a local VAR referee receives 26 thousand 250 TL per match, a foreign VAR referee brought in from abroad is paid about 2.5 times that amount. The TFF pays a foreign VAR 1,400 euros per match, or approximately 62 thousand 700 TL. The transportation, accommodation and other expenses of these referees are also covered by the federation.

The pay gap in question peaked in the major derby played between Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe. Slovenian Slavko Vincic, the center referee of the match, had 6 thousand euros deposited into his account. This payment, equivalent to approximately 269 thousand TL at the current exchange rate, is nearly five times higher when compared with the 52 thousand 500 TL earned by a local center referee from the same fixture.

Here are the annual earnings received by the referees:  

Cihan Aydın: 1 million 678 thousand 375 TL

Atilla Karaoğlan: 1 million 608 thousand 25 TL

Zorbay Küçük: 1 million 595 thousand 650 TL

Ali Şansalan: 1 million 550 thousand 425 TL

Ozan Ergün: 1 million 490 thousand 500 TL

Mehmet Türkmen: 1 million 437 thousand 775 TL

Yasin Kol: 1 million 378 thousand 925 TL

Kadir Sağlam: 1 million 354 thousand 750 TL

Oğuzhan Çakır: 1 million 322 thousand 950 TL

Ümit Öztürk: 1 million 252 thousand 325 TL

Halil Umut Meler: 1 million 214 thousand 275 TL

Direnç Tunusluoğlu: 1 million 197 thousand 275 TL

Çağdaş Altay: 1 million 129 thousand 625 TL

M. Ali Metoğlu: 1 million 118 thousand 940 TL

Adnan Deniz Kayatepe: 1 million 49 thousand 375 TL

Arda Kardeşler: 1 million 6 thousand 875 TL

Emre Kargın: 970 thousand 640 TL

Alper Akarsu: 947 thousand 515 TL

Burak Pakkan: 944 thousand 100 TL

Abdullah Buğra Taşkınsoy: 921 thousand 150 TL

Turgut Doman: 879 thousand 625 TL

Batuhan Kolak: 872 thousand 190 TL

Sarper Barış Saka: 804 thousand 50 TL

Ömer Faruk Gültekin: 756 thousand 650 TL

Referee Yiğit Arslan: 753 thousand 800 TL

Ali Yılmaz: 744 thousand 390 TL

Ömer Tolga Güldibi: 730 thousand 190 TL

Gürcan Hasova: 651 thousand 750 TL

Erkan Özdamar: 627 thousand 400 TL

Ömer Faruk Turtay: 625 thousand 450 TL

Oğuzhan Aksu: 598 thousand 800 TL

Fatih Tokail: 487 thousand 550 TL

Volkan Bayarslan: 391 thousand 100 TL

Alpaslan Şen: 283 thousand 750 TL