The president of a top Turkish football club has resigned after punching a referee to the ground at the end of a match.

Faruk Koca, who has also been arrested, said he was “embarrassed” and “saddened” by the incident.

The MKE Ankaragucu president hit the referee Halil Umut Meler at the end of a match in the country’s highest league on Monday, sparking a melee of players and officials either joining the chaos or trying to intervene.

As Meler lay on the ground he was also kicked in the head at least once.

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Koca announced his resignation in a statement on the club’s website.

“Nothing can legitimise or explain the violence that I committed,” he said.

“Sports fields should be the venue for gentlemanly competition. Any attitude that casts a shadow on fair play, including my own, should not be present in stadiums,” he said.

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Meler was hospitalised with a slight fracture near his eye, but is not in a serious condition.

During the game he had sent off one player from each side in the Super Lig clash, before allowing an equaliser for opponents Rizespor in the seventh minute of injury time to force a 1-1 draw.

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Turkey‘s minister of justice Yilmaz Tunc said Koca had been arrested “for the crimes of injuring and threatening a public servant due to his public duty”.

The Turkish Football Federation has suspended all league games indefinitely.

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