The hearing of Halil İbrahim Dinçdağ - Turkey’s first openly declared gay referee who was restrained from his profession - continued yesterday with a designated expert report saying that homosexuality was quite common among athletes and referees.
Dinçdağ sued Turkey’s Soccer Federation to claim his rights to officiate professional games.
“In today’s soccer industry, it is quite common to come across professional athletes and referees who are homosexual,” the expert report said.
It also underlined that Dinçdağ’s absence on the 209-2010 season was not his fault and his military exemption report due to sexual orientation had nothing to affect his sportive activities.
“Both Turkey’s constitution and Soccer Federation Main Statute prohibits all sorts of discrimination. Therefore, the aforementioned decision barring the plaintiff from the officiation of professional games due to health issues is unconstitutional, non-objective and against soccer federation regulations,” the report said.
The next hearing will be held on October 10. (ÇT/BM)
* bianet compiled this article from KaosGL website.
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