Halil İbrahim Dinçdağ

Halil İbrahim Dinçdağ — Biography

Halil İbrahim Dinçdağ is a Turkish football referee and former player, born in Trabzon in 1976. After thirteen years of officiating matches in his home city, he was told in 2009 that his referee's license would not be renewed; days after he appealed the decision, newspapers published reports about his sexual orientation. He subsequently lost his job at a local radio station and relocated to Istanbul to escape media intrusion into his private life.

Dinçdağ took the Turkish Football Federation to court over discrimination and won, with the federation ordered on 30 December 2015 to pay him ₺23,000 in compensation — a landmark ruling in Turkey on sexual-orientation-based discrimination. In the years that followed he remained a visible figure in football circles, drawing solidarity from fan groups in Germany and receiving an honorary award there in 2023.