By David Gold
August 15 – The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) has confirmed that their league season, which had been postponed due to a match-fixing probe, will begin on September 9, and that no sanctions would be forthcoming for the teams involved.
The Federation protested that due to the sixth article of the European Convention on Human Rights, any sanctions meted out now would be premature and possibly a violation of the convention, which stipulates that defendants must have a fair trial.
TFF Chairman Mehmet Ali Aydınlar confirmed that they will wait for prosecutors to finish their investigation before issuing any sanctions.
“It would not be right, fair or just to deliver a verdict [against the clubs] at this stage,” he explained.
Seventeen suspects will be referred to the disciplinary board of the TFF, including the Fenerbahçe chairman Aziz Yildirim.
Fenerbahçe won the league on the last day of last season after winning 18 of their last 19 matches, and a number of their games are under suspicion.
Trabzonspor and Besiktas are also under suspicion, and the sanctions which could have been handed out included relegation.
And though severe reprimands could yet be forthcoming, the TFF Ethics Committee examining the case has apparently looked over 14,000 documents, but found no concrete evidence and therefore has not recommended punishments for clubs involved as yet.
The season was put back from the start of August as a result of the scandal, though Turkish teams were allowed to participate in European qualifying games by UEFA.
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