![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/ccakir.jpg\" "\\"ccakir\\"")
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Euro semi-final referee gives Turks reason to smile<\/p>\n
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Missing out on Euro 2012 was painful for soccer-mad Turkey but having a Turkish referee at the finals has helped restore some pride to a country still smarting from match-fixing allegations and high-profile arrests.<\/p>\n
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Cuneyt Cakir, a 35-year-old Istanbul native who runs an insurance branch office, is the youngest referee at the tournament and will take charge of the semi-final between Spain and Portugal in Donetsk on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
“Cuneyt Cakir… makes us Turks smile once again through his appointment to blow his whistle at the Euro semi-final,” newspaper Milliyet wrote this week.<\/p>\n
Hurriyet newspaper said on Wednesday the Iberian clash would resemble Spain’s El Clasico and was a great honor for Cakir.<\/p>\n
Cakir, whose father was a referee, regularly officiates at the notoriously volatile derbies between the three major Istanbul clubs.<\/p>\n
Turkey, semi-finalists at Euro 2008, lost to Croatia in a playoff for the Euro 2012 finals after finishing second behind Germany in their qualifying group.<\/p>\n
However, Germany playmaker Mesut Ozil, who was born in Gelsenkirchen but whose family hail from Turkey, is another favorite with the Turkish public.<\/p>\n
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Ahram online sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Euro semi-final referee gives Turks reason to smile Missing out on Euro 2012 was painful for soccer-mad Turkey but having a Turkish referee at the finals has helped restore some pride to a country still smarting from match-fixing allegations and high-profile arrests. Cuneyt Cakir, a 35-year-old Istanbul native who runs an insurance branch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":54436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1478,615,3996,89,922],"tags":[8230,9790,51],"class_list":["post-54435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-portugal","category-spain-eu-members-european-countries-english","category-sport","category-turkey","category-world","tag-cakir","tag-portugal","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}