Football: Turkish referees' chief detained

The head of football referees in Turkey and four other people have been placed in pre-trial detention in a case that is shaking the entire Turkish Football Federation (TFF), the Anadolu news agency reported on Saturday.

Ferhat Gündogdu, chairman of the Central Referees Committee (MHK) of the TFF, and six others appeared before a judge on Friday at the Caglayan court in Istanbul to answer charges of manipulating the referee management process.

They are accused in particular of "falsification of official documents", "breach of trust" and "illegal acquisition of personal data".

The judge ordered five of them to be detained and granted conditional release to the other two, Anadolu reported.

This is the latest scandal to rock Turkish football, a year after the TFF suspended 149 referees for illegal betting.

On Thursday evening, police specializing in combating illegal betting and sports-related crime also arrested Yasin Kol, a referee in the Turkish Süper Lig first division, and an assistant referee, according to media reports.

Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said prosecutors were looking into "allegations of interference in the establishment of referee classes, in the appointments (for matches), the rating and nomination processes, as well as the rules knowledge tests."

During the raids, police searched, among other places, the video assistant referee (VAR) room at the TFF headquarters in Istanbul. According to observers, the investigation is linked to last year's betting scandal and could implicate the federation.

These new legal steps "appear to be a continuation of 2025, and it is likely that this will continue," sports journalist Ayhan Sensoy told AFP.

Author in 2024 of a book on the subject (“Bahis Cukuru”, meaning “The Pit of the Game”), Mr. Sensoy doubts that the current leaders of Turkish football “have the slightest chance of remaining in office”.

At present, the TFF has not directly commented on these arrests.

Its top officials were due to return to Turkey on Saturday, after attending the national team's 3-0 defeat against Belgium in a Nations League match in Liège on Friday evening.