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Trabzonspor punished over attack on assistant referee

Trabzonspor's supporters
Image: Trabzonspor and Fenerbahce supporters are bitter rivals

Trabzonspor have been ordered to play their next four home games behind closed doors after a fan attacked an assistant referee during a Super Lig match last month.

The club has also been fined just over £220,000 (915,000 Turkish lira) by Turkey's football federation following the latest incident which has heaped new shame on the Turkish game.

Trabzonspor were trailing 4-0 to Fenerbahce with two minutes remaining when the referee called a halt after assistant referee Volkan Bayarslan was attacked during a pitch invasion.

Assistant referee attacked
Assistant referee attacked

Trabzonspor fans invade pitch and attack a match official

Bayarslan was pinned to the ground and kicked by the fan before security staff intervened.

Trabzonspor and Fenerbahce fans have a long history of enmity and in April last year Fenerbahce's team bus was shot at as the players were travelling in the Trabzon region, seriously wounding the driver.

The Turkish football authorities have long waged a battle against crowd trouble, introducing a hugely controversial identity card system for fans to attend games.

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