{"id":307273,"date":"2025-11-26T03:20:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T03:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/307273\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T03:20:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T03:20:14","slug":"turkish-betting-bans-leave-soccer-team-with-no-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/307273\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkish Betting Bans Leave Soccer Team with No Players"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Posted on: November 25, 2025, 06:02h.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n Last updated on: November 25, 2025, 06:02h.\n <\/p>\n

\"Avatar <\/p>\n

Sweeping gambling bans leaves A\u011fr\u0131 Spor unable to compete.
\nOver 1,000 Turkish players and referees suspended for betting.
\nCritics say retroactive gambling bans punish smaller, resource-poor teams.<\/p>\n

The betting scandal currently engulfing Turkish soccer<\/a> has resulted in so many suspensions that one team has been left without enough players.<\/p>\n

\"TurkishA\u011fr\u0131 Spor, playing in black and yellow, has lost 17 players through suspensions related to an ongoing gambling scandal, leaving it unable to field a team for its next match. (Image: A\u011fr\u0131 Spor)<\/p>\n

A\u011fr\u0131 Spor in the country\u2019s fourth tier has been eviscerated by the sanctions, losing 17 footballers, which has left it unable to field a team.<\/p>\n

The club complained this week that it had only seven players available and would have to rebuild frantically from its youth team and even recruit local amateurs in order to play its next fixture on November 30, against Silifke.<\/p>\n

\u2018Purge the Filth\u2019<\/p>\n

On November 10, the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) announced it had suspended 1,024 players across the country\u2019s four professional leagues for gambling on soccer in violation of TFF, UEFA, and FIFA rules.<\/p>\n

Among them are 27 players who represent clubs in the S\u00fcper Lig, T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s top tier, including two at reigning champion Be\u015fikta\u015f.<\/p>\n

The federation also announced 149 referees<\/a> had been temporarily relieved of their duties for actively betting on matches. Three more remain under investigation, and the \u0130stanbul Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office has launched a criminal investigation into possible match-fixing.<\/p>\n

The investigation revealed that among the country\u2019s active professional referees \u2013 571 in total \u2013 371 were found to hold betting accounts, and 152 were actively placing bets on football matches.<\/p>\n

Authorities have issued detention orders for 21 people, including 17 referees and a club chairman.<\/p>\n

TFF president \u0130brahim Hac\u0131osmano\u011flu has said it\u2019s time to \u201celevate Turkish soccer to its rightful place and to purge it of all its filth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zero Tolerance<\/p>\n

But A\u011fr\u0131 Spor, based in the eastern town of A\u011fr\u0131, close to the border with Iran, said that most of its suspended players had placed bets several years ago but had not done so since.<\/p>\n

The club\u2019s vice president, Tekin Yu\u015fan, said an internal review had found no betting activity by its players since the squad was formed in August.<\/p>\n

The TFF says its zero-tolerance stance matches UEFA and FIFA integrity rules, but critics argue that punishing years-old bets hits smaller, resource-strapped teams hardest.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur club has mobilized all its legal and sporting resources throughout this process and has taken all necessary steps to ensure justice is served,\u201d A\u011fr\u0131 Spor said on its Facebook page. \u201cWe will continue to fight under all circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

T\u00fcrkiye permits sports betting only through the state-run \u0130ddaa, and using foreign sites is illegal. It\u2019s not yet clear whether the players and referees bet legally or via offshore platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Posted on: November 25, 2025, 06:02h.\u00a0 Last updated on: November 25, 2025, 06:02h. Sweeping gambling bans leaves A\u011fr\u0131…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[137497,49,48,137498,561,82,137499,137500,137501],"class_list":["post-307273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-au011fru0131-spor","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-match-fixing-investigation","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-sports-gambling-regulations","tag-tff-suspensions","tag-turkish-football-betting-scandal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}