Turkish football has been embroiled in another major scandal, this time related to illegal betting. According to authorities, hundreds of referees are under investigation for involvement in banned sports betting activity.
The President of the Turkish Football Federation, Ibrahim Haciosmanoglu, announced that out of 571 registered referees, 371 have accounts opened with online betting companies.
Among them, 152 were found to have actively participated in betting. Haciosmanoglu stated that the federation will take immediate measures to cleanse football of any form of abuse.
He stressed that there will be no tolerance and that penalties will be applied without exception. Without making names public, it was revealed that 22 of those involved are referees and assistants at the highest level of competitions.
Investigations have revealed that one of them has a betting history of over 18,000 recorded events. Similarly, 42 others have placed over 1,000 bets each.
The federation is expected to publish disciplinary measures against those involved in the coming days.