# Istanbul court issues arrest warrants in Turkish football betting probe

An Istanbul court has issued arrest warrants for eight suspects in a widening investigation into alleged illegal sports betting and match-fixing in Turkish football. The event date is November 11, 2025, and the case has already forced disciplinary action across the sport.

According to the evidence, the suspects include a club president and several referees. Murat Ozkaya, the president of Eyupsport in Turkey's Super Lig, is among those named by the state-owned Anadolu agency. Eleven other suspects who had previously been detained were released on bail, while the new warrants keep the investigation moving forward at a higher judicial level.

The allegations are broad. The suspects stand accused of abuse of office and match-fixing, among other things. The Turkish Football Federation has also summoned 1,024 players before its disciplinary committee on charges of betting on matches, which shows how far the inquiry has spread beyond a small number of officials.

The scale of the response has already disrupted competitions. For the past two weeks, all matches in Turkey's third and fourth divisions have been cancelled because more than 900 of the summoned players compete there. Twenty-seven of the players are from Super Lig clubs, including Galatasaray and Besiktas. One of the most prominent names is Galatasaray left back Eren Elmali, who has been dropped from the national team for upcoming World Cup qualifiers.

Elmali said in an Instagram post that the allegation against him involved a single bet years ago and did not involve his own team. The evidence also notes that the scandal emerged after the TFF disclosed claims that 152 match officials had placed bets on football matches. The federation has suspended 149 head referees and assistant referees for periods of between eight and 12 months.

The episode is damaging because it hits at the credibility of matches, referees and governing bodies all at once. The presence of club officials, referees and players in the same scandal makes it much harder to treat the issue as an isolated disciplinary matter. Instead, it looks like a systemic test of trust in the game's institutions.

The suspects who denied wrongdoing said the allegations were outrageous and insisted none had bet on matches they officiated. That denial matters, but the practical consequences are already visible: arrests, warrants, suspensions, missing players and cancelled fixtures. For Turkish football, the immediate problem is not only possible guilt, but the uncertainty that now hangs over the sport as investigators continue their work.