My university email address is pretty well protected from junk, so I’m used to dealing with around sixty emails a day on average. But over the last ten days I’ve received almost two thousand emails from individual Turkish fans who are raving mad at what’s going on in their own particular, passionately loved, world of football.
After the end of last season, a huge match-fixing scandal broke out (reported in this column last August) involving most of the major Turkish clubs, with Fenerbahçe at the forefront. To sum up:
On day one of the scandal, nearly fifty people were arrested; including the boss of Fenerbahçe (Chairman Aziz Yıldırım); soon to be followed by dozens of other club Chairmen, players and officials. There are recordings of phone conversations which appear highly incriminating. Yıldırım has been in prison ever since. It clearly wasn’t about match-fixing for betting purposes. It was all about winning titles and getting into Europe. Fenerbahçe got thrown out of this season’s Champions League as a result.
There was a sense that – almost as if by accident – the civil authorities had stumbled into a sphere of Turkish life they were not supposed to enter. Deep corruption seemed apparent, amongst very powerful men with major interests across the club and national game.
In Turkey, these kind of folks just don’t get caught, and if they do they don’t go to prison. These big clubs, whose bosses interpenetrate powerful parts of the political system too, don’t expect to carry any really heavy cans of responsibility either. Yet the investigations appeared to be running out of their control. The law had been broken. Ninety three football people were indicted. Penalties would be very heavy (some press reported that Aziz Yıldırım could get up to 147 years in jail). What to do?
The answer they seem to have come up with is really neat: change the law… retrospectively! In an astounding about-face, the Turkish Parliament (appropriately meeting on a Saturday a few weeks before Xmas) – which eight months earlier had approved sentences of up to 12 years for match rigging – decided to reduce the maximum sentence to 3 years in prison. Some Turkish fans are calling it ‘Yıldırım’s Law’ – specifically designed to get the Fenerbahçe Chairman off a, prospectively, very painful hook.
There are other powerful groups involved in the whole affair of course, not least some of the media companies who own the broadcast rights. Turkish football certainly has got heavyweight political connections. The vote to reduce the 12 year prison tariff was passed by a huge majority: 284 votes for; and a mere 6 against, with one abstention. The fans who are emailing me are deeply suspicious of the old connections between Yıldırım and the Turkish Federation Chairman, Mehmet Ali Aydinlar – a former Board member of Fenerbahçe – and a current commercial sponsor of the Club.
Over the summer, it all got really weird. The Federation (TFF) – under direct pressure from UEFA – gave Fenerbahçe’s Champions League place to Trabzonspor. Fenerbahçe promptly challenged the TFF to relegate them too! They knew that without Fenerbahçe in the Turkey Super-League, the TV and commercial values for the TFF deals would plummet. Sure enough, Fenerbahçe weren’t relegated (and neither was anyone else) and the Club is currently lying 2nd in the table.
Yet the prescribed punishment for match-fixing in the TFF regulations is relegation for each offence (so Fenerbahçe could end up in the Sunday League) – consequently Turkish fans expect this rule to get changed soon too. Apparently the TFF General Council has been called to meet on 26th January. It is made up of many representatives whose interests will be significantly damaged if the nation’s most popular club goes down. They are expected to vote accordingly.
It really is a sad state of affairs. As one of my correspondents wrote:
‘This will be the final nail in the coffin for football in Turkey… there will be no one, and no law, to restrain it and make it clean.’
THIS WEEK’S ARTICLES:
GERRY COX: A NEW PRICE WAR
KEIR RADNEDGE: HOW COULD WE HAVE GOT IT SO WRONG?
Dr Rogan Taylor is the Director of the Football Industry Group at the University of Liverpool. He is also a writer and broadcaster, with five football books and numerous radio and TV contributions. He has acted as a special adviser to The FA, The Premier League and Premier League Clubs.
The views of our regular columnists are independent, and as such do not represent those of Leaders in Football.
