As a result of long studies, I have completed my first article. I wish good luck to the homeland, nation and community, and move on to the main section without extending the unnecessary entrance part.

Our subject is American football (or protected football in official form) refereeing in our country. When the name sounds "Aaa Does he played in Turkey?", "Is that a baseball?", "Turkish football (!!!!!!!) Standing Why are you playing him?" Since we know that this sport, which can create a lot of reactions, has been played for years, first organizations are made among us, then we are under the roof of a federation, we can guess that American football refereeing has a not so short history.

I do not want to write too long before the Federation. In general, the teams that will play in that match, etc. We have a beginning where 3-5 non-playing players, other team players / coaches who came to watch the match, served as referees. Refereeing is a concept that gradually gets serious, at least the more experienced people are "assigned" for the refereeing, and the referees who go out of the city are paid by the teams playing in the relevant match over the prices of the best bus companies of the time.

The oldest, serious referee building and awareness movement I can remember right now was in the 2002-2003 season, if I'm not mistaken. In one of the meetings we held under the name of AFK, Bülent Batmaca from Ankara and Alper (Özpınar) , whose surname I cannot remember from Istanbul, were assigned for the organization of referee training and appointments, and referee training materials were brought from abroad with our budget consisting of the works of these two and the money we collected among us. I don't know if any of us were surprised by the images on the CDs and the decisions made based on those images.

Of course, it was not so fast that we, who tried to do this sport with only jerseys and tights for many years, adopted the "facemask" rule instead of "head tackle".

In the following years, it was possible to create a pool with the money collected from the teams, to meet the travel expenses of the referees who will go out of the city and even to make small payments to the referees who will conduct matches in their city. And even the teams were given the practice of sending referees to the displacement as a disciplinary sanction.

Let's touch the visual part of the job and move on to the federation period. Of course, at the beginning, everyone is wearing their own clothes, usually their own team's coat, t-shirt, etc. was dating something. This, of course, made it easier to say, "The referees from Hacettepe are annoying to us anyway" or "The referees from Bilkent are playing fouls on everything" (I didn't want to use XY, I used the names of these two teams because I knew they were two teams that knew me and would not be taken because I used their names ...). Our efforts, such as the development and standardization of the organization we made among ourselves, will be reflected in the refereeing, so black t-shirts with AFK logo were made first. Thus, it became clear that the 7-person team who were on the field outside of the teams also had a common point. Afterwards, we proceeded as the obligation to wear a black-weighted shirt, a striped shirt and a dark-colored tracksuit.

However, this was a development that was welcomed by the community, first with joy, then with amazement, and then with sadness at some points, for us to join a federation. The first big problem of being under the roof of an official federation was of course refereeing.

Injured players could no longer manage matches of their own teams, and players and coaches of other teams. The nice point after the referee was found was that we wouldn't have to raise money among ourselves to give money to the referees, but finding a referee was a priority.

In the first year of the federation, many teams in Ankara did not complete the club process or did not participate in the league organized by the federation, even though they were clubs for various reasons, both the number of matches were low and a group that could act as a referee because they were not licensed from the federation.

In one of the preparatory matches organized by the Federation before the league, I took the field with six referees who had just met American football and tried to be the referee by scanning an area of ​​120 × 53 yards completely and I flagged for the facemask at a distance of 25 yards, and then the district referee said, "Didn't you see that facemask was done?" after she asked (while her hands were smiling in her pockets) "I saw it, but I was excited, I couldn't do anything." Let's count I forgot the match I got the answer. Again, after a nice and hard tackle from a new referee, "This move was too hard, I can't let that much. Let's close this issue by saying that he tries to give a “personal foul” even though he does not know his name, or that the dialogue he had with the referee who flagged in the match where a close friend was the chief referee, remains painful but funny memories.

Referee - My professor facemask

Referee - ( glad that a new referee came to him with such determination and named the foul, moreover, by name) Who did it?

H - I don't know

BH - To whom?

H - I don't know

BH - Which team player did it?

H - I don't know.

BH - What color jersey did the player make?

H - I don't know

BH - (With a deep sadness) Okay, you can go.

Of course, the flag was canceled.

Do not be misunderstood, I am not saying that people who do not have an American football background are not referees. But because of my refereeing in different branches, it is a difficult job to be able to master a branch that you are completely foreign to, especially a pulsed sport (I do not call it contact sports, after all, we do not dance), which has toughness like American football.

Therefore, in the first step, it was necessary to refer people who had somehow cut off from sports to refereeing. It was achieved well and badly. Referees such as Hakan Erkut, Serdar Çağlar, Hilmi Çeltikçioğlu and of course I am the best of the good :) among the good referees who are active or not today, were people who came from the community as well as acting as referees during the AFK period.

Of course, in the absence of experienced and knowledgeable referees, we are more likely to serve as the referee, but for the remaining positions, we again distribute the people from the community to the matches in a homogeneous way (Like an experienced for Line, an experienced for the back, so let's give one more to your umpire. ) to see the game and the refereeing and to improve themselves by interspersing the other referees.

Many people from the community, including myself, who cannot finish counting their names here, showed great sacrifices to keep the system that was tried to be established. Keep managing matches on Saturday in Eskişehir and Pazar in Konya. We had agreed to direct one game in Ankara on Saturday and two in a row in Sunday Istanbul. Meanwhile, the "outside" arbitrators, in general, began to integrate into the system.

Let's touch a little visual again. I served as the referee in the first official match of the Federation. With the contributions of Soner Yılmaz, who was in the federation at the time, a referee outfit consisting of a black long sleeve top and white bottom (although it made us feel more like a ballet than the referee) and black and white hats were made for the referees. We didn't wear those pants after the first game.

I think the referees, who took part in the final match of the first year, had a uniform / trouser suit that resembled a referee uniform. At the beginning of the second year, it was decided to wear black plain t-shirts and dark tracksuits as a quick solution with the disappearance of most of the "outsiders" who were referees in the first year and the insufficient number of top. Afterwards, a uniform / trouser suit, which we do not know where the design of the federation was taken, was made. It was also another case that 70 TL was charged from the referees for the referee uniforms during the period when they received 40-50 TL per match according to the status of the referees. The people who played in their first match and could not get their money due to the cost cut, left the referee when they could not play the second match. The next year, the black t-shirt solution was used as the number of referees with jerseys decreased. For the first time in this year, all the referees had stripes (although the lines were in the NFL setting). The referees who are still managing matches use these jerseys. Just because there is not the required number of black hats, the chief referees must wear white and others red hats.

Let's move on to the troubles of the arbitration institution. First of all, the point I want to emphasize is the frequent change of the federation president and management, as well as the constant change of MHK. Especially people who leave MHK are often offended and stop refereeing. You can imagine how well an organization will function without consistent, stable management at its top.

Another big problem is the referee payments. The referees of that period know that in the season when the Financial General Assembly could not be held, we had to go to the matches by spending money from our pocket (without even the travel fee, let alone the referee fee). Even though those payments were made by the next administration, some things like the Cyprus flight ticket payments made by two people boiled over. Such payment problems were repeated later, which caused a group of people who did not referee just like us to say goodbye to refereeing. At this point, "They shouldn't come to make money anyway!" I hear their grunts and ask about your love affair etc. Why spend money out of your pocket every weekend for a sport that doesn't exist and stand in the sun / rain / snow?

The disciplinary board and penalties created another problem. Let's give an example with three matches played in the same season. After another change of board and chairman in between, the referrals to the disciplinary board for these 3 matches were somehow completed. However, after the first match, the player who clearly punched the table and verbally attacked the referees after the first match, and the coach and the players who verbally attacked the referees in the second match, while the penalties of the coaches and players who verbally attacked the referees after the match are out of time due to the disciplinary regulations cannot be determined within one year, the referees after the third match Players who verbally and physically attacked could be punished because their actions were made less than a year ago. In addition, players who verbally assaulted the referees and even swore at the referees in the last week of a season were unfortunately forgiven directly by the new federation president after a change of management and president, "If these guys are going to play comfortably, why should I bother!" there were referees who left their duty saying.

Problems do not end with counting, but if we say that we need to try ourselves with a sack after sticking the needle in plenty of sports-independent people involved in the administration of the federation, the efforts of some board members from the community to influence the referees in favor of the team of their origin and the administrative squeezing of the referees who decide against their own teams by using their authority. and their efforts to put pressure are not inexcusable, I guess.

As if all this was not enough, some team managers and coaches perceive the referees as enemies, this situation affects especially the new players in the team, and they insist that every decision made against their team is wrong, every position that is not given because it is not a foul but is actually a foul. It is a factor that harms the arbitration institution. I am sure you have witnessed that people who tried to criticize the referee without knowing anything said to me that they did not see or saw the referee, but instead of committing the required foul, we made 5 TDs but canceled both. When I objected to me after a match and told him that the rule was not what he knew, "How will you know, have you read the rule book in your life?" who said,

Love and respect to everyone ...