MILAN – Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir will officiate Olympique Marseille v
Inter, the first leg round of 16 match of the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League
scheduled for Wednesday 22 February at the Stade Vélodrome (kick off at 20:45).
For Cakir, it will be his second match involving the Nerazzurri after Werder
Bremen v Inter (Matchday 6 of the 2010/11 UCL, 3-0, with Inter having already
qualified), and he will have Bahattin Duran and Tarik Ongun as assistant referees with
Tolga Ozkalfa as the fourth official. Huseyn Gocek and Bulent Yildirim will
serve as additional assistants.
Cakir, an insurer by profession, was born in Istanbul on 23 November 1976. At
only 25 years of age he refereed his first match in the Turkish top division.
In January of 2006, at 29 years old, he received his UEFA nomination, and in
August of 2008 he was designated for the Champions League preliminary phase. In
2009 he was called up for the UEFA U-21 Championship and then after his
promotion to the Premier Development he participated seven times in the 2009/10
Europa League. In September 2010 he made his debut in the group stage of UEFA
Champions League, officiating a match between Rubin Kazan and Barcelona. In the
summer of 2011 he was promoted to the "Elite" category of UEFA
referees (fourteen years after the last appearance of one of his countrymen,
Ahmet Cakar, on the list). He then participated in the Under-20 World Cup in
Colombia. He has also been selected for the 2012 UEFA European Football
Championship in Poland and Ukraine.
