Turkey crackdown on insider gambling to widen, prosecutor says
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A Turkish football federation probe found that officials in Turkey's professional leagues were betting on games.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- Turkey is widening its probe into insider betting in football to include coaches, commentators, and club chairmen.
- Eight people were arrested, 1,024 players were suspended, and 149 referees were suspended for betting violations.
- Turkey is working with UEFA and Interpol and monitoring illegal gambling abroad to "clean our football".
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ANKARA - A huge investigation into insider betting in Turkey’s soccer leagues is likely to widen and include coaches, commentators and club chairmen, a prosecutor was cited as saying on Nov 20.
Earlier this month, Turkey’s football federation suspended 149 referees and assistants after an investigation found that officials in the professional leagues were betting on games.
The net widened last week with the arrest of eight people, including the chairman of a top-tier club, and the suspension of 1,024 players
Matches in the second and third-tier leagues were suspended for two weeks.
“We may carry out another operation in the coming days. We want to clean our football, absolutely,” Istanbul chief prosecutor Akin Gurlek was cited by NTV and other media on Nov 20 as saying.
“Whoever was involved in cheating, we are chasing them. There will be club chairmen and club executives in the probes... There may be ties between chairmen and referees, coaches and commentators. We are investigating everything.”
Turkey was working with European soccer governing body Uefa and global police body Interpol, Gurlek said.
Authorities were also monitoring Turks suspected of illegal gambling in Montenegro, Cyprus, and Georgia.
Gurlek also said that his office was waiting for responses from some foreign betting companies abroad whose platforms were used by Turkish suspects for illegal bets.
There was no immediate comment from the TFF, but its president, Ibrahim Haciosmanoglu, has acknowledged a “moral crisis in Turkish football”.
The federation’s own investigation showed that 371 of 571 referees in Turkey’s professional leagues had betting accounts.
Under Turkey’s sports disciplinary regulations, if someone is found to have impacted the outcome and progression of a match or received forms of payment for this, they are banned from the sport indefinitely.
If these violations are carried out by club executives, the club is relegated and those involved face fines. REUTERS
