Hey, guys, could you please explain what's happening for non-Turkish football fans? What's that all about? Is it something outstanding?
There are rumours about 15 games in turkish super league. and all related to fenerbahce. And they signed with 2 players before play against them. one of them emenike did not play against fenerbahce coz he was injured. But his former club's doctors says he was not injured. etc. We dont know that all true but this happening first time in Turkey. So there must be real evidences. And according to media, there are some tape records about illegal money transfer.
According to the rumours, the DA office has been investigating this subject, tapping into certain key people's phone conversations and SMS messages, and plotting court-approved false scenes in order to trigger various actions to uncover certain well-disguised connections for about a year and it is told that they have very solid evidences in their hands, including secret video footages clearly showing money changing hands etc... It is told that up to six teams could be in deep sh!t, including the league champions Fenerbahçe, and the runners-up, Trabzonspor. Fenerbahçe CEO in particular could be jailed for up to 60 years for this, meaning a jail for lifetime sentence for a 60 year old man. We'll see how it will turn out. The soccer cake is worth billions of dollars in Turkey, and there may have been a lot of undeserved gain/loss in the bookies alone. The case may take up to three years to reach to a resolution, due to the possible exercises of legal rights to appeal etc. B.
Thanks a lot. But could you also tell me what has been happening in Turkish football in this regard recently? Is it a part of a general long-ranging policy by the official bodies aimed to eradicate corruption - or just a local activity? Were there any similar things before that or is it the first one? What's about those newly introduced "12 years in jail" for illegal football activities?
Game fixing has always been a favourite topic among the footyphiles over here, and there were probes here and there time by time but usually nothing serious would come out of them. The parliament recently passed new laws and introduced heavier accountabilities and penalties for match fixing, and it was all downhill from there. The Justice Department says the investigation started back in December 2010 after a complaint placed about a first division team, Giresunspor, and it started winding out from there like a sock being unthreaded, but it looks to me like this is another phase in Turkish state's recent process of cleaning its guts. You know, sports is one of those areas that fall into the area of interest of those whom are in need of laundering some dirty stuff on a consistent basis. You get hold of a club's management, feed some 10k fanatics, give away tickets and merchandising to them free but pay the money in on their behalf, pay the tax and there you have a nicely laundered cash every week, while also having some 10 thousand idiots whom are ready to "give their lives for their clubs", which you can use for all sorts of activities, including extortion etc. This is one of the simplest and well known ways of laundering, and it is so well known that probably it is hardly exercised these days, if any at all. You can imagine how intricate it can be to investigate the other stuff these people may have developed over time. Particularly the money that changes hands in betting. You could make tons of money with a number of match-fixings like that, not only in Turkey, but also in other countries where Turkish league is followed as well. It could lead to a worldwide connected gang work. I don't know... we'll see. I'm sure the Prosecutor has something serious in his hand, otherwise they wouldn't make the move. Oh by the way, there was an interesting photo in the papers yesterday, where the CEO of Fenerbahçe and the former prosecutor whom started the investigation (then left it to his successor) were in the same frame in some opening, looking like having a great time. He was that close to the stuff, bursting laughters on one side, and gathering information on the other. From Left to Right: Zekeriya Oz, former prosecutor of the case then totally unbeknownst to the people on his left, Emre Belozoglu, Fenerbahce captain, and Aziz Yildirim, Fenerbahce CEO. And more interestingly, the current Prosecutor on the case whom arranged and ordered the recent bust-ins, Mehmet Berk, also happens to be a long-time congress member of Fenerbahçe Football Club. Go figure. It turns out, the Justice people were planning to go in on Monday (yesterday) but they realised that there was a leak when some Fenerbahçe top executive called the CEO for an urgent meeting about a serious issue concerning the club, so they decided to go in right away without giving them time to get rid of anything. Big challenge. B.
More information showed up in the papers today. Some photographic evidences were given out to the media to ensure the public that it was not a manufactured move. The photographs clearly show assemblies of people whom should normally not be together before the matches, bags changing hands, middlemen visiting the competitors' stadia and the club headquarters etc. I wonder what else they have in the case file. Video footage, phone conversations, SMS messages, bank statements... It looks like it is over for Fenerbahçe.
Yeah it looks like Fenerbahçe is toast... along with a few other clubs: According to the news... Turkish Football Association boss Aydinlar paid a half-an-hour visit to the Prosecutor Mehmet Berk to get information, and was shocked by the replies he was given. The Prosecutor told Mr Aydinlar "we had known what the results of the last five matches of Fenerbahçe would be before even they were played. We have been chasing this up for a long time. The evidences we have got here are solid. We show them to the people we detain and none of them can deny them." Aydinlar was told to comment later that he did not expect it to be that grave, and that Fenerbahçe could face extremely heavy penalties, including relegation, and jail sentences for the executives involved. When a number of senior Fenerbahçe congresspeople visited Aydinlar and pledged that those individuals whom are involved in such wrongdoings should be punished, but the entire club should not be held responsible, Aydinlar was told to reply "the UEFA's regulations on that matter are clear, and the justice people are chuckling as they watch the video evidences." There are apparently a few people from the referee commission under investigation as well. B.
Thanks a lot, Barish. Please, keep us updated if you can. Could you also specify the source of that information about Aydinlar and Mehmet Berk discussion? Was it in the newspapers?
Hello Turkish fans. Can anyone kindly tell me what's going on with Italian defender Matteo Ferrari, please?? Is it true that he's involved in this match-fixing scandal and that he fled?? Also, was he kicked out of Besiktas' squad?? If yes, why?? I've been trying to translate some articles from Turkish papers on google but I can't really grasp what they say. They mention an incident with Diego Lugano and the fact that he's not being paid and was forced to train by himself and he consequently appealed to FIFA...is this due to disciplinary reasons?? Or just poor performance?? Thanks in advance for any help.
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/spor/futbol/18226309.asp?gid=381 http://www.htspor.com/besiktas/haber/647810-fenerin-parasina-ihtiyacim-yok http://www.sabah.com.tr/SabahSpor/Futbol/2011/07/11/kayip-ferrariye-zabit-tutuldu
This one is a phone interview with him. He basically denies any involvement in a jiggery pokery, and he mentions no excuse regarding why he was left behind by the team when they left for the camp in Austria, and he says the reason why he is in Italy is because it is too hot in Istanbul, and he is training better back in Italy. The interview gives the impression that he has a personal friendship with the journalist. In this one he says he does not need Fenerbahçe's money, so there is no reason why he would engage in a secret deal with a competitor team. He also says that the reason why he left Turkey is because Besiktas has been acting against his contract, and depriving him of his contractual requirements, including training pitch, equipment, right team to train with and the physiotherapist and doctor assistance etc. http://www.sabah.com.tr/SabahSpor/Futbol/2011/07/11/kayip-ferrariye-zabit-tutuldu This one says that the club has brought in a notary public to officially document the player's failure to attend the daily regular trainings twice in a row at at the club's training base in Istanbul. It must be a contractual requirement or something. It sounds like he is a goer anyhow. B.
There have appeared some rumors suggesting that the new Süper Lig season may be posponed. Can any of you Turkish guys confirm that - and maybe give some details on the issue?
The ambivalence comes from the fact that the Justice Department has all the details to the case, and TFF or any other body could not get hold of any part of the evidence for the security of the case -by law- until the Prosecutor finished his business with it and passed it onto a court, where everything is made public. And these things take time and the footballing schedule does not have so much free time. Everything comes one after another. So TFF is in a difficult position, between devil and the deep blue sea. As far as I followed, the UEFA gave them the backing in "innocent until proven guilty" principle, so they might go ahead with business as usual if the court can not reach to a conclusion within the free time in TFF's timetable. If they ARE proven guilty, then it can mess up with the records for a few seasons but what the hell, it was tampered with from the start in the first place. We'll see... B.
man. I know it's very important but also it's became overboring or something. i am sicked of hearing the same things on every channel every hour. Not only the sport channels but also other channels always talk about this. It's like there is no other news. There is always last minute news on tv but they are not worthy to be shown on tv as a last minute news. Aziz Yıldırım talked to police, Aziz Yıldırım talked to judge, Aziz Yıldırım was at hospital yesterday, Aziz Yıldırım is coming to the police station, Aziz Yıldırım is coming to the prison, something came for visiting Aziz Yıldırım and bla bla bla same crap any time. This must finish or I'll go crazy in a close time.
Hmm. It sounds like you blame Barish for the fact that there's too much talking about that on the local TV...
Hi there, I believe you meant "boring", for overboring means something totally irrelevant to the topic. As I said in my earlier posts, while major sports clubs are perfectly entitled to take the credit for the good deeds they do for the wellbeing of the society in general, they are also prone to some illegal affairs because of the nature of their business, ie. income sources being anonymous and in uncontrollably large numbers. While they may look to be doing good deeds as declared in their constitutions, they might also be involved in financing some illegal activities in the background, if fallen into the hands of wrong people. I am not saying or implying that the current clubs in mention are involved in such dealings, but I am just stating that there is always a possibility, which is why they need to be tightly regulated. It is very much like justice people's situation. Because there is a very fine line between them and the felonious people and activities they are required to chase and render ineffective, you'll find that it is similarly easy for them to fall foul of the legal border if they are not careful and take one step too many. In that sense, I can understand the reasons why it attracts so much media coverage. B.
