Police arrest head of referees in Turkey as corruption scandal explodes

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FT Desk

Police in Turkey have arrested the head of football referees as part of an ongoing corruption investigation.

Turkish justice minister Akin Gurlek said the investigation focused on "claims regarding interference in the formation of referee classifications, assignments, scoring and appointment processes, as well as rule examinations".

Ferhat Gundogdu and six other colleagues have been arrested as part of the operation.

"We will resolutely continue our fight for clean football so that allegations damaging trust in Turkish football are brought to light, those responsible are held accountable before the law, and football is associated with the effort, competition and sportsmanship on the pitch," Gurlek said.

Police are reported to have inspected the VAR room at the Turkish Football Federation's headquarters and the governing body were forced to deny that footage of matches had been deleted before the authorities arrived.

In November of 2025, Turkish football was hit by a major betting scandal involving referees. The TFF investigated referees in the professional leagues and found that 371 of 571 active referees had betting accounts, with 152 considered to have actively on games. Some had placed an extremely large number of bets, with one referee reported to have made 18,227 bets, while 42 of the 371 had bet on more than 1,000 fixtures.

As a result, 152 referees were referred to the Professional Football Disciplinary Board. The majority were given bans of between eight and 12 months, while investigations into three others continued. The punishments were for betting activity, although the existence of a betting account did not necessarily mean that a referee had bet on matches they personally officiated.

The situation escalated further when Turkish prosecutors launched a wider investigation into alleged misconduct and match manipulation. Detention orders were issued for 17 referees and two football-club presidents, with simultaneous police operations carried out across 12 cities.

A total of 29 people were arrested in the operation, including 14 footballers, but Gurlek did not confirm any link between last year's betting scandal and the current investigation in 2026.

In yet another separate investigation, 448 people have been suspended from football in Turkey as part of an anti-corruption operation relating to betting.

Trabzonspor president Ertugrul Dogan and Besiktas vice-president Hakan Daltaban are included, but most clubs in Turkey had at least one official who has been implicated. It related to officials holding betting accounts while holding positions at clubs in the top flight.

Dogan confirmed that he did indeed have a betting account but it was subsequently closed.

"These companies sponsored clubs and held launch events. Nobody thought this would cause problems," he said.

"The TFF has taken this view. If we made a mistake, we apologise, but we have done nothing wrong."