Turkish soccer was already reeling from a betting scandal that implicated hundreds of match officials last month.
Now the players are at the centre of the storm, after 1,024 were suspended by the Turkish Football Federation as part of the same investigation.
In a statement, the federation said the players were found to have participated in betting activities and had been referred to its Professional Football Disciplinary Board.
Here is what happened, and what the implications could be.
RM Block
Who is involved?
The Turkish federation published a list of the suspended players, which included 27 players who represent clubs in the Super Lig, Turkey’s top division.
Those 27 were spread across 14 of the 18 top-flight teams, including two at Galatasaray, the current champions. Alanyaspor had four, plus two each from Besiktas, Konyaspor, Kayserispor, Caykur Rizespor, Gaziantep, Goztepe, Kasimpasa, Trabzonspor and Fatih Karagumruk, and one apiece at Antalyaspor, Eyupspor and Samsunspor.
The remaining 997 players were from the lower divisions of Turkish soccer.
The federation announced that while the Super Lig and the second-tier division, 1. Lig, will continue as usual, matches in the two divisions below have been postponed for two weeks.
Are any high-profile players on the list?
Yes. Perhaps the best known is the 25-year-old Eren Elmali, a defender for Galatasaray who has played in all four of the Istanbul club’s Champions League games this season, including a 1-0 win over Liverpool in September. He has played 20 times for Turkey’s national team and had been in its squad for its World Cup qualifying matches this week against Bulgaria and Spain, but he was removed when the allegations were announced.
“I want to make it clear that the reason my name appears in this file is because, about five years ago, a bet was placed on a match involving my former team, without my knowledge or involvement,” Elmali wrote in an Instagram story post. “Since that day, I have had no connection whatsoever to betting or this issue.”
Another player implicated was Celil Yuksel, a 27-year-old midfielder who started out in the youth ranks at Galatasaray but now plays for Samsunspor.
He wrote on Instagram: “I have full faith that Turkish justice will prevail. The accusations made against me are unlawful, and I deeply regret that my career has been affected in this way. I would like to state that I will pursue my right of defence through all legal means available.”
The Besiktas players named are 24-year-old goalkeeper Ersin Destanoglu and long-serving midfielder Necip Uysal (34) who has been capped once for Turkey.
On X, Destanoglu wrote that the allegations made against him were “completely baseless, unfounded and untrue.” He added: “I will not allow myself to be judged in the public eye based on these defamatory and baseless accusations; I will exercise all legal rights granted to me by law to the fullest extent.”
Uysal said in a statement: “In my entire life, I’ve never even gone near betting, I’ve never downloaded a betting app on my phone, I don’t have any membership or account anywhere. An account was opened on a betting site using my Turkish ID number, without my knowledge. Through that account, two bets were placed using a bonus coupon – but I did not open that account, and I did not place those bets.”
Who else was implicated in this investigation?
The revelations around players follow news on October 27th that hundreds of match officials in Turkey had been accused of betting on the sport over a five-year period, dating back to 2020.
Ibrahim Haciosmanoglu, president of the Turkish Football Federation, detailed at a news conference that 371 of the current active 571 match officials in Turkish soccer had betting accounts. Of the 371, it was revealed that 152 were actively gambling. Haciosmanoglu told reporters that one official had wagered 18,277 times and a further 10 referees had placed more than 10,000 bets each. He added that seven referees and 15 assistant referees who were actively making bets officiated in Turkey’s top two divisions.
“To get Turkish football back to where it belongs, we need to clean up whatever filth there is,” he said.
Four days later, the federation announced that 149 match officials had been suspended. The terms range from eight to 12 months, while investigations continue into three referees.
What other investigations are ongoing?
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has been looking into allegations of match fixing since April. Another investigation carried out by the Antalya Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office was combined with the Istanbul one.
On November 7th, Reuters cited the country’s state-owned Anadolu news agency in reporting that Turkish authorities had issued detention orders for 21 people, including 17 referees and a club chair. Four days later, Reuters reported that eight people, including the chair of a prominent Turkish club, had been arrested.
What are the rules in soccer around player bets?
Fifa’s code of ethics outlines that officials, players and nearly all participants in the game are “forbidden from participating in, either directly or indirectly, betting, gambling, lotteries or similar events or transactions related to football matches or competitions and/or any related football activities.”
Under Article 27, those who break the code risk a minimum penalty of 100,000 Swiss francs (€108,000) and a suspension from soccer lasting up to three years.
Article 57 of the Football Disciplinary Directive, referenced by the Turkish federation in its news release, prohibits players, officials and others involved in soccer from betting on matches. Offenders face suspensions ranging from three months to a year if found guilty.
Uefa, European football’s governing body, said it is in contact with the Turkish federation but had no further comment at this stage.
– This article originally appeared in the New York Times
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