Galatasaray President Dursun Özbek protests Icardi's penalty incident! 'He threw a right hook'

Galatasaray President Dursun Özbek made statements regarding the incident involving Icardi during the derby match played against Fenerbahçe.

Özbek said, "Football was on today's agenda. I wish for 2024 to be a beautiful year for Turkish football and our country. Yesterday's derby match was not a very good match. The performance level was not very high, but there was a struggle. What left its mark on yesterday's struggle was the penalty incident involving Icardi."

"VAR SHOULD HAVE INTERVENED"

Drawing attention to a specific issue, Özbek noted, "People involved in football; federations, broadcasters... Football is a sensitive game, it has great support in Turkey. Therefore, some actions must be avoided. In yesterday's penalty incident, Djiku specifically threw a right hook at Icardi. These things should not happen in football. This action should have been penalized. A sensitivity emerged yesterday. A referee might not see such an obvious position, but VAR should have intervened."

President Özbek added, "I also gave great support for VAR to come to Turkey. The questionable part is this; the match is filmed with 26 cameras. Did all 26 cameras go to VAR? If they did, there is a problem. In my opinion, the action is very clear. There is a rumor circulating; not all of the footage was sent to VAR. Those there could not fully analyze the position. I am calling on all authorities; let the incident be examined in all its detail. As we enter 2024, we are tired of chasing after these types of incidents," he said.

"A GENERAL PROBLEM"

Stating that this is not just Galatasaray's problem, Özbek said, "It is a general problem. For VAR to work better in this way, all the footage must be provided to them. I said earlier that Djiku threw a hook at Icardi. Of course, in the past, there were calls from some stakeholders to 'slap him.' It seems Djiku didn't quite understand, and he tried to implement that on the pitch."