Indictments made in Turkish match fixing scandal

By David Gold

December 7 – Turkish prosecutors have indicted 93 suspects in the match fixing scandal which has rocked the game in the country.

Among those charged and now facing trials is Fenerbahce chairman Aziz Yildirim (pictured), who is accused of serious fraud, involvement in match fixing and paying players when they took on rivals of his team, and prosecutors have called for him to be jailed for up to 132 years.

Yildirim’s club, Fenerbahce, who won last season’s league title on the last weekend of the campaign, were expelled from this season’s Champions League on the eve of the draw for their alleged role in the scandal.

As well as Yildirim, Goksel Gümusdag, a deputy President of the Turkish Football Federation, has also been indicted, as well as a number of players.

Fenerbahce’s Sezer Öztürk, Bursaspor’s Gökçek Vederson and Sivasspor’s Mehmet Yildiz are just three of the 44 who were unable to play for their clubs at the weekend due to the opening of prosecutions against them, with police instructed not to allow any of the suspects to enter a stadium.

As it stands, the only team in the top six of the Turkish league, currently led by Fenerbahce, which isn’t accused of involvement in the scandal is Galatasaray.

Giresunspor chairman Olgun Peker is named as suspect number one in the indictment for allegedly forming an organised criminal group.

Though the Turkish Parliament and the ruling AK Party recently voted to reduce the maximum penalty for match fixing from 12 to three years, President Abdullah Gül vetoed the legislation, meaning that the original term can be applied to guilty parties.

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