Turkiye orders arrest of top-tier footballers, officials in gambling probe 

Prosecutors in Turkiye have ordered the detention of 46 people, including 29 footballers from top-tier clubs, club presidents, commentators and others, as part of a widening investigation into insider betting that has roiled the country’s professional football leagues.

Among the arrested players, 27 were suspected of having bet on matches involving their own teams, the public prosecutor’s office in Istanbul said in a statement on Friday.

One was Metehan Baltaci, who plays for reigning Turkish champions Galatasaray, it said. Earlier this month, he had been suspended for nine months over the betting scandal.

The investigation has rocked Turkish football, with six referees placed in pre-trial detention on November 10, along with the president of Eyupspor, a club in Turkiye’s top Super Lig division.

Prosecutors did not identify the other 26 players suspected of bets involving their own teams, but said Mert Hakan Yandas, who plays for Fenerbahce, another major Istanbul club, had placed bets through someone else’s account.

The A Haber news channel reported that the former president of Adana Demirspor, Murat Sancak, was also included in the detention list. It also listed several other players.

None of the clubs mentioned could immediately be reached for comment.

The prosecutor’s office said police had so far detained 35 of the 46 people named in the arrest order. Five were known to be currently abroad, it said.

Two club presidents were among those targeted by the order for “attempting to influence the outcome” of a match between their two third-division teams in the 2023-2024 season, the statement said.

The match had caught the attention of investigators because neither side had even made one attempt to score a goal, Turkish media reported, with several newspapers saying that was where the entire investigation began.

So far, the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) has suspended more than 1,000 Turkish players, 25 of them from the Super Lig, with the sanctions ranging from 45 days to 12 months.

Only one was a foreign national – Konyaspor’s Senegalese winger Alassane Ndao, who was suspended for 12 months.

The vast majority, more than 900, are from the third and fourth divisions.

In October, the TFF suspended nearly 150 referees for betting on matches, all of whom have since been dismissed.