‘Purge all filth’: 1000 players suspended in massive football betting scandal

Two teammates of former England striker Tammy Abraham have been suspended in a betting scandal involving hundreds of players that has rocked Turkish football.

In a remarkable move, Turkish authorities announced they had suspended 1,042 players including 27 across 14 clubs in the top flight Super Lig, The Sun reports.

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The two lowest national leagues have been halted for two weeks while the FA has asked FIFA for an extension of the January transfer window to allow clubs to fill their gaping squad holes.

And it comes with the four English players in Super Lig, including former Three Lions and Chelsea striker Abraham, wondering if they have walked into a blatantly corrupt league.

Abraham is currently on loan at Besiktas, where defender Necip Uysal and goalkeeper Ersin Destanoglu were named and shamed by Turkish FA chiefs.

Both Uysal and Destanoglu have denied the allegations, with Besiktas adding in a statement: “We have full faith in the innocence of both of our footballers.”

The other three are Crystal Palace winger Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, on loan at Rizespor, where two players have been suspended, Fenerbahce defender Archie Brown and former Orient striker Dan Agyei, who is at Kocaelispor.

Another Englishman, John Lundstram, is currently at Hull but on loan from Trabzonspor.

The suspended players face bans of up to 12 months and the stunning announcement came just a week after the Turkish FA announced that around 150 referees and officials had been accused of illegal gambling.

Among the suspended stars is Galatasaray defender Eren Elmali, who was subsequently pulled from the Turkish national team’s squad to face Spain and Bulgaria in their upcoming World Cup qualifiers.

There is no suggestion that any of the English players have any involvement in or knowledge of the betting ring.

But federation president Ibrahim Haciosmanoglu, while acknowledging the seriousness of the situation and referencing it as a “moral crisis”, rallied around the suspensions as a chance to heal the Turkish game.

He vowed: “We believe we will succeed on this path to ‘clean football‘.

“We are aware that this is a long and difficult path. However, every evening has its morning. The sun will surely rise after the darkness.”

“Our duty is to elevate Turkish football to its rightful place and to purge it of all its filth.”

An Istanbul court on Monday ordered the provisional detention of six Turkish referees on suspicion of being involved in betting on football matches.

The six referees were assistant officials in the third and fourth divisions, according to the Turkish football federation.

The court also jailed the president of first division club Eyupspor as part of the probe focusing on suspicions of match fixing and abuse of power.

While 11 referees held since Friday were released Monday under judicial supervision, the federation announced that it had summoned 1,024 players before its disciplinary committee on charges of betting on matches.

Twenty-seven of the players suspected of having placed bets play in the first division, notably Galatasaray’s international defender Eren Elmali.

This article originally appeared in The Sun and was reproduced with permission.

- With AFP

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