Hundreds of Turkish referees face betting allegations

Hundreds of Turkish football referees, including some officiating at national level, have bet on matches despite not being allowed to do so, the president of the country's football federation said on Monday.

Ibrahim Haciosmanoglu said that an investigation into 571 referees showed that "371 have betting accounts and 152 actively bet".

"We are determined to clean football of any trace of corruption. We will make no exception," Haciosmanoglu said, vowing that "necessary sanctions" would be taken immediately.

He said, 22 of the 371 referees (seven match referees and 15 assistants) officiate at the national level.

Neither the identities of the referees nor whether they had bet on their matches were revealed.

Each of the three Turkish footballing giants – Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas – released a statement urging the federation to name and shame the referees and the matches on which they had bet.

Issues of referee partiality are not new in Turkey. The federation has used foreign officials to operate VAR in the Super Lig.

In February, a foreign referee was handed the whistle for the high-profile Istanbul derby between Galatasaray and Fenerbahce.