 announced on Monday.){kind=link}
Hundreds of Turkish football referees, including several officiating in top national leagues, are under investigation for allegedly placing online bets in violation of professional rules, the head of Turkey’s Football Federation (TFF) announced on Monday.
TFF President İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu said an internal investigation covering 571 referees revealed that 371 had online betting accounts and 152 were actively gambling. The inquiry, carried out in coordination with state authorities, found that about one in four professional referees had engaged in betting activity.
“We are determined to clear football of any trace of corruption. We will make no exception,” Hacıosmanoğlu told reporters at the federation’s training center in Riva, near İstanbul.
According to Hacıosmanoğlu the figures include seven top-tier referees, 15 assistant referees, 36 lower-division referees and 94 assistant referees. He said 10 referees had each placed over 10,000 bets, while one had wagered 18,227 times.
A total of 42 referees were found to have bet on more than 1,000 matches, he added, without disclosing whether any bets were tied to games they officiated.
The TFF chief said disciplinary proceedings had begun and that those implicated would be “punished swiftly under federation rules.” The results of the investigation have been shared with FIFA and UEFA, football’s global and European governing bodies.
The scandal has deepened long-standing concerns about match integrity in Turkey’s domestic leagues, which have often been criticized for referee bias and transparency issues.
In recent seasons the TFF has relied on foreign officials to operate the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system in the Süper Lig, the country’s top division. Earlier this year, a foreign referee was appointed to oversee the high-profile İstanbul derby between Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe.
Turkey’s leading clubs — Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş — have called on the federation to disclose the names of the referees and the matches involved, urging full transparency as disciplinary action proceeds.
With reporting by Agence France-Presse