A Turkish court has ordered the pretrial detention of Ferhat Gundogdu, the head of the Central Referees Committee, alongside four other officials involved in a sweeping corruption investigation. According to reports from the state-run Anadolu agency, a total of seven individuals appeared before a judge at the Caglayan courthouse in Istanbul on Friday to face serious allegations regarding the manipulation of referee administrative processes.
The suspects are facing multiple charges, including the forgery of official government documents, breach of trust, and the illegal acquisition of personal data. While the presiding judge remanded five of the individuals to custody, the remaining two were granted conditional release. Justice Minister Akin Gurlek stated that prosecutors are actively examining claims involving interference in referee scoring, rule examinations, performance classification, and official match assignments.
This development marks the latest crisis to hit Turkish football, occurring exactly one year after the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) suspended 149 referees over illegal betting allegations. The intensity of the probe was highlighted by recent police raids on the VAR facility at the TFF’s Istanbul headquarters. Furthermore, media outlets reported that law enforcement officers from the sports crime unit took Super Lig referee Yasin Kol and an assistant referee into custody late Thursday night. According to observers, The investigation was likely linked to last year’s betting scandal and would have implications for the federation.
Journalist Ayhan Sensoy, author of the 2024 book The Gambling Pit, characterized these events as an ongoing evolution of the 2025 scandals that shows no signs of abating. He suggested that, given the severity of the allegations, it is highly unlikely that current federation leaders will maintain their positions. So far, the TFF has not issued an official response to the arrests, as senior leadership is currently returning from Belgium following a 3-0 loss in the UEFA Nations League match in Liege. “It does seem to be a continuation of 2025, and it looks like it will continue further,” sports journalist Ayhan Sensoy told the AFP news agency.
