The official story from the police and prosecutors is a simple one. Fenerbahce, Besiktas and Trabzonspor (three of the top four teams in the country) along with a group of other smaller teams all fixed dozens of football matches. Their club officials were paying off each others’ coaches, players and the referees. It was a network of deeply entrenched corruption. At the very minimum, the corruption is so bad in Turkish football that the big clubs pay ‘incentives’ to the smaller teams to make sure that they play their hardest against the big clubs’ rivals. In other words, the corruption is so widespread that the big clubs have to bribe them to play well to make sure that they do not get bribed to play poorly.
After Fenerbahce’s president and other top officials were charged, a majority of Turkish politicians deliberately reversed a law that they had just passed calling for stiff jail sentences for match-fixing. The president of Turkey refused to pass their bill. They overturned his veto. Then the Turkish Football Federation (TFF), some of whom were linked to Fenerbahce, resigned. Then a proposal was mooted by the new TFF that if the club officials were guilty, they should stay in jail, but the clubs should not be punished for the actions of their executives and should not be relegated to lower divisions.
All this, by the way, is not the other recent scandal where Sedat Peker, the mafia godfather, was found to be choosing and appointing referees for major matches in the league. Nor is it the Alaattin Cakici scandal where the former Grey Wolves thug was helped to flee the country by Besiktas football officials. Nor is it the Akcaabat Sebatspor match-fixing attempt that ended with a machine-gun attack in the parking lot and the club owner bleeding on the ground. Nor is it the dozens of Turkish matches that were alleged to have been fixed by the German Organized Crime Task Force in Bochum.
The rebuttal to this official story (put forward by people like my Twitter friend and colleague Ata ‘Iron Turk’ Dizdar and lots of Fenerbahce supporters) is that the whole thing is a giant judicial set-up. There may have been fixed matches and corruption but their particular team did not take part in them. The control of Fenerbahce football club is one of deep social and political power in Turkish society. What we are witnessing is an attempt to overturn key elements in Turkey by their rivals under the guise of an official police investigation.
Either way no international sports tournament should be played in Turkey. If the police and prosecutors are correct, there is a deep network of corruption that risks infecting anything it touches. If the Fenerbahce supporters are correct, there is a covert police state that is capable of an industrial scale manufacturing of evidence. Until Turkey sorts itself out and brings its sports governance into the modern era, it simply is not capable as a society of hosting a major sporting tournament.
I do not say this lightly. I know there are many Turkish sports fans who will be upset, but they should turn their anger on their own officials who have betrayed them. This is a moment in Turkey’s history like the car crash in Susurluk where Turks have an opportunity to see how their country is actually organized. They need to start to make sure it runs properly and lives up to Turkey’s long and storied history.
Tags: european championship, Fenerbahce, match fixing, turkey, turkish football federation
Your friend Ata Yildirim is a typical moron sikebahce supporter. To them everything is a set up, where their president talks about “planting fields” in reference to football games. The typical sikebahce supporter is pretty much the least evolved life form there is.
Dear Mr. Hill,
The common denominator in all these conspiracies is that the government is trying to control Fenerbahce which is a misconception that has to be corrected. The government already controlled it for a long time and still controls it. If you look at the likes of Cihan Kamer, Abdullah Kigili, Nihat Özdemir, as well as the son of Kadir Topbas, Istanbul’s mayor, who are the current board members, you would see the relations and connections with the government. I don’t want to get into the love Fenerbahce fans had for the same prime minister they hated right now. Suddenly he became a villian.
Also the popular scenario of a so called Fethullah Gulen community’s taking over the club is also a huge lie. When you look at Fenerbahce’s sponsorship deals, the biggest deal is with Ulker. Which sponsors club’s Football team, they co-operate the basketball team which is Fenerbahce Ulker and Ulker group built a basketball arena just for Fenerbahce. Ulker is a known company associated with the Gulen movement but no one is protesting against them.
Aziz Yildirim is building his defense on Fenerbahce and manipulating thousands of fans for the sake of his own agenda. He never distanced himself from Fenerbahce as he doesn’t want to loose the big bargaining chip he has.
Also the last 9 months showed that all these conspiracies were unfounded because all the actors in these scenario showed how far they can go to cover-up the incident. Ex-TFF president’s resignation was just an indication.
TFF and government is trying everything to save Fenerbahce and the rest. So if there is going to be a justice, it is going to come from abroad.
Kind regards,
Robert
“They all fixed dozens of football matches. Their club officials were paying off each others’ coaches, players and the referees.”
What made you to think like that? Did you read anything else than the newspapers? Trial goes on and I am sure that you did not read any word of the defence.
I am sure that you did not read the indictment either.
I am sorry but this is an article to be published in the sports pages of a tabloid paper.
Dear Mr. Hill,
Are you trying to me tell me that Qatar was awarded the world cup on footballing merit?
Turkey should, according to you, not be awarded a major tournament because it is corrupt. So is corruption in football worse than racism in football? No Mr. Hill, it is not. But of course the racism in Russian football will be ignored when the world cup comes around.
Oh and as you suggest, hypothetically, if Turkish officials wanted to bribe officials, teams and players, how would they do this on an International stage?
futbol online…
[...]Why Turkey Should Not Be Chosen to Host the European Championships or the Olympics « Declan Hill's Blog[...]…
[...] Score News Add comments Jun 112012 The following rebuttal has to do with this blog post from noted journalist Declan [...]
it also hurts to have to read that the victim of a crime is put together with the offender. of the three named clubs only fenerbahce was accused and later sentenced of manipulat more than a dozen games. trabzonspor and besiktas were only accused of fixing one game. in trabzonspors case it was only an accusation of attempting to fix a game. trabzonspor was spoken in full extent not guilty. I hope you will correct your text.
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fenerbahce chief convicted over match-fixing
fenerbahce chief convicted over match-fixing
fenerbahce chief convicted over match-fixing
fenerbahce chief convicted over match-fixing
fenerbahce chief convicted over match-fixing
fenerbahce chief convicted over match-fixing
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