Cüneyt Çakır (pronounced [dʒynɛjt tʃɑkɯɾ]; born on 23 November 1976 in Istanbul) is a Turkish UEFA Elite association football referee.
He has been in the middle for more than 140 matches in the Süper Lig and was selected for the U21 finals in Sweden in 2009, taking charge of three games including England's penalty shoot-out win against the hosts in the semi-finals.[1]
He made his UEFA debut as the fourth official in the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round game between Skonto FC and Sliema Wanderers F.C. in July 2003.
He took charge of two matches at the 2007 UEFA European Under-19 Championship in Austria and was also the referee for two UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying fixtures.[2]
Çakır who lives with his wife in Istanbul and works in insurance, made his international refereeing debut in the 2008–09 UEFA Cup, taking charge of two games including the group stage fixture between FC Twente and FC Schalke 04 in December 2008.
He oversaw Fulham's second-leg win against Hamburger SV in the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League semi-finals, one of seven matches he refereed in total in the competition that season.[3]
On 29 September 2010, Çakır made his debut in the Champions League Group Stage when he took charge of group D fixture between Rubin Kazan and Barcelona, ending in a one all draw.[4] He also took charge of the match between Chelsea F.C. and FC Spartak Moscow on 3 November 2010.[5]
He has also refereed the UEFA Europa League Round of 32 match Manchester City-Dynamo Kyiv on 17/3/2011, which ended in a 1-0 win for City, but Dynamo Kyiv advanced to the next round after winning 2-1 on aggregate. Çakır sent off Mario Balotelli and dished out eight yellow cards.
On August 2011, he managed five games in 2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup, hosted in Colombia.
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