This is something you just don't see in football.
A Turkish referee by the name of Deniz Coban was fooled during a match between Kasimpasa and Rizespor, when he awarded a penalty for a blatant dive. The spot kick was converted with the last kick of the game and the match finihsed 1-1, but Kasimpasa were furious as they had been denied a win due to a refereeing mistake, and rightly so as it was as blatant a dive as you will see:
As the Kasimpasa manager was in front of the television cameras during his post match interview, the ref interrupted him to say the following:
I apologise to you, to the Kasimpasa team to the Rizespor team and to the Turkish Football Federation as well as the refereeing committee and have to consider my future after this.
A referee coming on live TV to admit he made a mistake and to apologise? You couldn't imagine Mike Dean doing that.
The Kasimpasa manager was surprised by what he saw, but immediately accepted the apology and expressed his respect for his actions.
We all make mistakes but the fact that you had the courage to come here and admit this deserves a lot of respect. Do not talk about leaving the profession the game needs more people like you.
You can watch the interview here:
Is this something that referees should do on a more regular basis? In England, The FA will punish anyone who criticises a referee or one of his decisions these days, so is accepting that human error can happen the best way to solve the problems that are happening time and again with referees?
It certainly defused the situation in Turkey, so perhaps it is something that other referees should look to do, and maybe then you wouldn't have Arsenal fans getting 100,000+ signatures on a petition to not have Mike Dean referee their matches.
via 101gg
