Turkey jails top-tier players pending trial in gambling probe

A Turkish court has jailed 20 suspects, including Super Lig football players, pending trial in a widening football betting investigation, state-owned Anadolu news agency said on Tuesday.

Last week, prosecutors ordered the detention of 46 people, including players, club presidents, commentators and a referee, over insider betting in Turkey’s professional leagues.

Anadolu said that among those detained in that operation, Galatasaray player Metehan Baltaci and Fenerbahce player Mert Hakan Yandas, as well as former Adana Demirspor president Murat Sancak, were now formally arrested and jailed.

Anadolu reported Baltaci as telling the court that he had placed bets on a few matches when he was a youth team player and had not done so after he joined the Galatasaray first team.

Fenerbahce’s Yandas was cited by Sabah newspaper as saying in his court testimony that he denied involvement in gambling on matches.

Sancak told the court he did not have a gambling account and had never placed a bet on matches, Cumhuriyet newspaper said.

Representatives of the two players and the former club official could not immediately be reached for comment.

Last month, Turkey’s football federation suspended 149 referees and assistants after an investigation found that officials in the professional leagues were betting on games.

The net then widened with the arrest of eight people, including the chairman of a top-tier club, and the suspension of 1,024 players from all leagues, on whom the federation (TFF) imposed bans.

A trial date has not yet been set.