Turkish referee offered $5m to move to China

Turkey’s most famous referee Cuneyt Cakir has been offered a lucrative deal to call the shots in China’s top flight.

Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir has been one of the most respected officials in European football for the past several years. The experienced referee has been made a very tempting offer from the the Chinese Football Association (CFA).

The CFA are reported to have offered Cakir an annual salary of $5 million to officiate games in the country’s top flight. The claim has been confirmed by Turkey’s Central Arbitration Board’s president Yusuf Namoglu.

The Chinese are looking to attract experienced referees in order to improve the standard of the game in the Chinese Super League.

This isn’t the first time a nation with lower football standards has tried to entice foreign referees.

Last year, English referee Mark Clattenburg quit the world’s most respected league, the English Premier League, and moved to Saudi Arabia for an astronomical £500,000-a-year deal.

It’s uncertain if Cakir will quit his native Turkey and European football for China but it must surely put him in a difficult predicament.