Court detains Turkey football ref chief

The head of Turkey's football refereeing body and four others were placed in pre-trial detention by a court as part of a graft investigation, state news agency Anadolu said Saturday. Ferhat Gundogdu, head of the Central Referees Committee (MHK), and six others appeared before a judge on Friday over allegations of manipulation of the referee administration process. They appeared before a judge at Istanbul's Caglayan courthouse on several charges, including "official document forgery", "breach of trust" and "illegal acquisition of personal data". The judge remanded five in custody and granted the other two conditional release, Anadolu said. It was the latest scandal to shake football in Turkey, coming exactly a year after the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) suspended 149 referees on charges of illegal betting. On Thursday night, police from the illegal betting and sports crime unit also detained Yasin Kol, a referee from Turkey's top-flight Super Lig, as well as an assistant referee, media reports said. Justice Minister Akin Gurlek has said prosecutors are examining claims about "interference in the processes of referee classification, assignments, scoring and appointments, as well as the exams on rules". During Tuesday's raids, police searched the VAR room at TFF's headquarters in Istanbul, with observers saying the investigation was likely linked to last year's betting scandal and would have implications for the federation. "It does seem to be a continuation of 2025, and it looks like it will continue further," sports journalist Ayhan Sensoy told AFP. Sensoy, who wrote a 2024 book on the issue called "The Gambling Pit", said it was unlikely federation bosses "have any chance of staying in office". So far, the TFF has not directly addressed the arrests with its top officials due to fly home on Saturday after attending Friday night's Belgium-Turkey UEFA Nations League clash in Liege, which Turkey lost 3-0.