Shocking Turkish Football Crisis Unfolds as Major Bans Announced While Harambee Stars Are in Turkey

Harambee Stars are in the midst of their two-match international friendly tour in Turkey, a trip that has been completely overshadowed by a colossal betting scandal that imploded the host nation's football structure just a day before the team's arrival. 

Four days into their visit, and having already faced Equatorial Guinea in a narrow 1-0 loss, the Kenyan side is now preparing for their final match against Senegal as the Turkish football world reels.

The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) made the shocking decision to ban 102 players from its top two divisions for "betting-related activities," sending the country's professional leagues into chaos. The disciplinary punishments are severe, ranging from three months to a full year.

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The scandal cuts deep into the elite game, with 25 players from the top-tier Super Lig among those sanctioned. This includes two players from the reigning champions, Galatasaray: Eren Elmali, who was handed a 45-day ban, and Metehan Baltaci, who received a nine-month suspension. The rulings by the Professional Football Disciplinary Board (PFDK) are set to become final after the seven-day appeal period expires.

Elmali quickly took to social media to defend himself, attempting to distance his name from the controversy. 

"I want to make it clear that the reason my name appears in this file is because, about five years ago, a bet was placed on a match involving my former team, without my knowledge or involvement," Elmali wrote in an Instagram story post.

 "Since that day, I have had no connection whatsoever to betting or this issue."

Galatasaray issued a brief statement acknowledging the situation, noting the club would "meticulously" follow the "sensitive process."

The scandal erupted when the TFF initially suspended a jaw-dropping 1,024 players from its professional leagues as part of the sweeping investigation into betting. The fallout was immediate, forcing the postponement of all matches in the third and fourth divisions of Turkish football for two weeks.

The crisis, however, goes far beyond the players. The scandal first hit the headlines on 27 October, when TFF president Ibrahim Haciosmanoglu made the explosive claim that hundreds of referees were also linked to betting accounts.

Haciosmanoglu revealed that out of 571 referees working in Turkey's professional leagues, a shocking 371 had betting accounts, with 152 actively placing wagers. This group included seven referees and 15 assistant referees from Turkey's top two divisions, as well as 36 "classified" referees and 94 assistants from the level below.

The TFF president detailed the extent of the activity, stating that 10 referees had each placed more than 10,000 bets. In one extreme case, a single referee placed 18,227 bets, while 142 referees had wagered on over 1,000 matches. Like players, match officials are strictly forbidden from all betting activities by TFF, Fifa, and Uefa regulations.

The scandal has now escalated into a major criminal investigation. Turkish prosecutors recently issued detention orders for 21 people, including 17 referees and, significantly, two football club presidents, as part of a major investigation into betting and match-fixing.

BBC News Turkish has also confirmed that Murat Ozkaya, the chairman of Super Lig side Eyupspor, has been arrested. He was reportedly detained along with six referees and one other individual.