Khaberni - A court in Istanbul, on Monday, issued an order for the provisional imprisonment of 6 referees suspected of involvement in a betting scandal, at a time when the Turkish Football Federation expanded the scope of its investigations to include more than a thousand players.
A judge also ordered the detention of the president of Ayoub Spor, a Turkish first division club, in the same investigation, while the judiciary, on Monday, released 11 referees on bail who had been detained since Friday as part of the investigation into match-fixing allegations.
The six detained referees had officiated matches as assistant referees in the third and fourth divisions, according to the Turkish Football Federation website.
Furthermore, the Turkish Football Federation, on Monday, summoned 1024 players from across the country to appear before its disciplinary committee on charges of betting on matches, despite being prohibited from doing so.
The Turkish Football Federation decided to suspend the leagues of the third and fourth divisions in the country, in which over 900 accused players participate, for two weeks, adding that it plans to hold an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday.
27 of the players suspected of involvement in betting play in the first division, among them the international Eren Elmali, a defender for Galatasaray club.
On October 27th, an investigation conducted by the Turkish Football Federation with 571 referees from the country's professional football leagues revealed that 152 of them, including 22 who officiate first division matches, were "actively betting" on matches.
The federation subsequently suspended 149 referees for periods ranging from 8 to 12 months, promising to "purify" Turkish football. In a joint statement, these referees confirmed that none of them ever bet on matches they officiated.
Some of them claimed that their bets date back to when they worked as amateur referees.
In 2011, the country was rocked by an unprecedented match-fixing scandal involving particularly the Istanbul giant Fenerbahce club.
