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Amid the ongoing uproar in Turkey over the nature of football officiating,149 referees and assistant referees have been suspended by the Turkish Football Federation on Friday. Investigations revealed that officials working in the country’s professional leagues were allegedly betting on football matches. The federation’s disciplinary board imposed bans ranging from eight to twelve months on these 149 officials due to their involvement in betting activities, while investigations into three others are still ongoing. ALSO READ| Viral ‘Sky Football Stadium’ Wows Internet, But Is Saudi Arabia Really Building It? The Federation had revealed that 371 referees out of 571 in the professional leagues have sports betting accounts, among which 42 referees have personally placed bets on over 1,000 matches, prompting the prosecutor’s office to open an investigation into alleged match-fixing rampant in the Turkey. The TFF published the complete list of names on its website, stating that penalties were determined by considering the “severity of the act”. No further details of the ongoing investigations or the cases were provided. TFF President Ibrahim Haciosmanoglu stated that the federation’s probe—based on data from state institutions—revealed that 371 out of 571 active referees in Turkey’s professional leagues had betting accounts, with 152 of them actively gambling. “There is a moral crisis in Turkish football. There is no such thing as structure. The fundamental problem at the core of Turkish football is an ethical one,” Haciosmanoglu said. “Ask any referee if there is even one who has not received his pay, I will resign as federation president. In fact, we improved their salaries last year, and again this year.” ALSO READ| Why Is There Just One Boxing-Day Match In Premier League This Year? Haciosmanoglu noted that some referees had placed a staggering number of bets, with one betting 18,227 times, and 42 referees having bet on more than 1,000 football matches each. Others were found to have placed bets only once.
