TLDR
- Turkey’s football federation provisionally suspended 448 current and former club officials over betting.
- Trabzonspor president Ertuğrul Doğan and Beşiktaş vice-president Hakan Daltaban are on the list.
- Officials from Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe were also named, touching all four of Turkey’s biggest clubs.
- Mohamed Salah and Trabzonspor’s players have no link to the case.
- Turkey’s referee chief was arrested two days earlier in a separate case.
Turkey’s football federation has provisionally suspended 448 current and former club officials as part of a betting investigation. All of them have been referred to the federation’s disciplinary committee.
The list includes Trabzonspor president Ertuğrul Doğan. He is the club leader who welcomed Mohamed Salah to Trabzonspor in August.
Officials From Turkey’s Biggest Clubs Named
Beşiktaş vice-president Hakan Daltaban is also among those suspended. The list names several current and former Galatasaray officials and three former Fenerbahçe officials.
That means all four of Turkey’s biggest clubs are touched by the probe. The suspensions were announced on Wednesday.
The Turkish Football Federation said the 448 people served at Süper Lig and TFF 1. Lig clubs during the 2026-27 season. It said each of them placed bets while holding their posts at some point in the past five years.
The case focuses on club executives. It does not target the clubs themselves or their players.
Doğan has admitted to having a betting account. He says he disclosed it to authorities and denies any wrongdoing.
“These companies sponsored clubs and held launch events. Nobody thought this would cause problems,” he told broadcaster A Spor. “If we made a mistake, we apologize, but we have done nothing wrong.”
Salah Not Linked to the Investigation
Salah has no connection to the betting probe. Nothing in the case involves him or Trabzonspor’s playing squad.
The former Liverpool forward signed a two-year contract with Trabzonspor on August 6, 2026. His arrival boosted the club’s profile, with shirt sales rising from about 46,000 to 116,000 in September alone.
On the field, Salah has scored seven league goals so far. That includes a hat-trick against Galatasaray.
Two days before the 448 names were released, Turkish authorities arrested Ferhat Gündoğdu. He heads the federation’s Central Referee Committee.
Six others were arrested with him. They face claims of interference in referee classifications, match assignments, scoring and appointments.
Turkey’s justice minister has not said whether that case is tied to the betting investigation. The federation has not officially linked the two.
The latest suspensions are part of a cleanup that began in late 2025. A league-wide audit then found that 371 of 571 active professional referees held betting accounts.
One referee had placed more than 18,000 bets. Over the following year, 149 referees and 1,024 players were suspended, and several players and club officials were later jailed in a wider match-fixing crackdown.
The 448-name list is the newest and largest round in that effort so far. Disciplinary committee hearings for Doğan and the other officials are expected next.
Authorities have not yet said whether the betting probe will be formally connected to the referee chief’s arrest.
