Fırat Aydınus

Fırat Aydınus — Biography

Born on 25 October 1973 in Istanbul, Fırat Aydınus is a former Turkish international football referee and a graduate of geophysical engineering from Istanbul University. He began officiating as an Istanbul regional referee in 1993, held a FIFA badge from 2006 to 2014, was promoted to UEFA's Elite Development category in January 2012, and became one of the first Turkish referees to take charge of a UEFA Champions League group-stage match, in September 2012. He also officiated at 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches before being dropped from the international list later that year after failing the Yo-Yo fitness test.

Ahead of the 2015-16 season, Aydınus was among the first nine referees to sign a professional contract with the Turkish Football Federation. He was suspended by the Central Referees Committee in 2022 but returned to duty 85 days later, before retiring from refereeing following a Fatih Karagümrük-Alanyaspor match on 22 May 2022. Over his career he took charge of 346 Süper Lig matches, refereed the 1. Lig play-off finals in the 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2013-14 seasons, and officiated two Turkish Cup finals and one Super Cup final; across 458 matches in total he issued 1,954 yellow cards and 164 red cards and awarded 136 penalties.

Since retiring from active refereeing, Aydınus has moved into football punditry, writing a regular column for Hürriyet in which he reviews controversial incidents and refereeing decisions from Süper Lig matches, and he also appears as a match analyst on channels such as CNN Türk.