Turkish football got into a mess, and the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) reacted by banning 102 players from the first and second leagues of Turkey football, as they were suspected of betting.
The duo of Galatasaray players Eren Elmali and Metehan Baltaci were handed by the disciplinary committee 45 days and nine months suspension, respectively. 25 players from the Super Lig and 77 from the second division were banned for periods varying from 45 days to 12 months; those sanctions were made public by the TFF’s Professional Football Disciplinary Council (PFDK).
The draconian punishments are the result of only a few weeks since the time when the TFF decided to suspend for betting 149 referees and assistant referees for betting. The intrigue has been escalating further after the detention of eight people, among them a flaming club CEO, and the hefty number of players that have been suspended, with the ongoing investigations that are holding up the pace of their work.
According to the TFF President Ibrahim Haciosmanoglu, the situation was a “moral collapse” of Turkish football. He disclosed that out of 571 active referees, 371 had betting accounts, and some of them were placing thousands of bets on football games.
The revelations have been a major blow to the trust in Turkish football and have made people demand reform and stricter control to bring back the trust in the game at every level that is affected by the scandal.
