Eighteen people are being held in Turkey in a probe into referees suspected of betting on football matches, the Istanbul prosecutor’s office said Friday.
Twenty-one people, including 17 referees and the president of a first division club, have had warrants issued for their arrests, the prosecutor’s office said, without specifying how many referees are among the 18 people being questioned.
The investigation is focusing on suspicions of match fixing and abuse of power.
The Disciplinary Council of the Turkish Football Federation had already suspended 149 referees last week accused of betting on matches in violation of a ban.
The suspensions range from eight to 12 months but the federation has not specified if any were suspected of betting on matches they refereed.
An investigation last month by the federation into 571 Turkish referees from professional football leagues revealed that 152 of them, including 22 who referee in the Turkish first division, “actively bet” on matches.
The referees denounced the “outrageous accusations” in a joint statement on Wednesday, insisting that none of them has ever bet on a match they officiated. Some of them also claim that their betting activities date back to when they were amateur referees.
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