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Istanbul prosecutors deny VAR room inspection in referees file
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said no inspection was conducted in the VAR room or VAR recordings at the Turkish Football Federation’s Riva facilities as part of the “referees file” investigation. The TFF had previously announced that an inspection had been carried out in the VAR room.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said that no inspection had been conducted in the VAR room or VAR recordings at the Turkish Football Federation’s facilities in Riva as part of the investigation into the chairman of the Central Refereeing Board and several other suspects.
The prosecutors’ statement came after the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) announced that an inspection had been conducted in the VAR room.
In an earlier statement, the TFF said the inspection had been carried out around midday by teams from the Istanbul Financial Crimes Unit in the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) room at the Hasan Doğan National Teams Camp and Training Facilities. The federation described as baseless claims that some digital materials in the Refereeing Affairs Department had been deleted before the inspection and restored by police technical personnel. It also announced that it would file criminal complaints with the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office against individuals and outlets publishing false information.
Scope of the investigation
Teams from the Istanbul Police Department’s Financial Crimes Unit conducted the investigation under the coordination of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office’s Bureau for Illegal Betting and Sports Crimes. The case included allegations against some suspects involving the offenses of torment and forgery of official documents.
Following open-source research, Financial Crimes Investigation Board and HTS analyses, complainant and witness statements, and expert assessments, authorities determined that Central Refereeing Board Chairman Ferhat Gündoğdu and some referees and observers who are members of the board could be linked to the offenses.
Operations conducted in four provinces
Following these assessments, operations were conducted at addresses identified in Istanbul, Ankara, Elazığ and Manisa. Ferhat Gündoğdu, Turkish Football Federation Active Referees Association Chairman Ferdi Karadoruk, former TFF Central Refereeing Board Deputy Chairman Ahmet Şahin and former TFF Central Refereeing Board Member Yunus Yıldırım were detained.
Those detained also included TFF Education and 4th Region Coordinator Sebahattin Şahin, Istanbul Branch Organization Coordinator of the TFF Referees and Observers Association Alican Sağlar, and Emre Kosif, chairman of the Istanbul Provincial Refereeing Board of the TFF Referees and Observers Association.
Association headquarters searched
As part of the investigation, the headquarters of the Turkish Active Football Referees and Observers Association in Üsküdar was searched. During the search, 125 folders containing examination documents, an income-and-expense statement and association records were seized.
It was also stated that Ferhat Gündoğdu, the suspect and chairman of the Central Refereeing Board, handed his phone and password to police officers.
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