Spor Toto Super League runner-up Trabzonspor is appealing Fenerbahçe's championship on the grounds that match fixing played a part in the İstanbul team winning the league title. The exchange of text messages between Ankaragücü footballer Kağan Söylemezgiller and Fenerbahçe's Emre Belözoğlu ahead of the teams' match in the penultimate week of the league led to allegations of match fixing. Trabzonspor will take the allegations to the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) and FIFA, the global football authority, according to a statement the club released on its official website on Monday.
The claims came to public attention after Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Trabzon deputy Kemalettin Göktaş said on a Kanaltürk television show that Emre promised a number of Ankaragücü footballers that he would help them be transferred to Fenerbahçe and asked them not to play against Fenerbahçe. Speaking on the same show, Emre dismissed the accusations and said he did not respect Göktaş's statements, despite his being a deputy.
The messages were later released in the media. "Don't let my president [Fenerbahçe President Aziz Yıldırım] be angry," the messages Emre allegedly sent to the Ankaragücü footballer end. The name of the sender appears to be "Emre," while the messages were sent by Emre's manager Ahmet Bulut's business partner, Ekrem Okumuş. The deputy said he would present all the details to a public prosecutor, while Okumuş argues that the incident was a joke.
Ahead of the national team's Euro 2012 qualifier against Belgium this week, Emre says he is uncomfortable with the ongoing debates. Speaking to an Akşam daily reporter, the footballer said he did not send text messages to Söylemezgiller.
Trabzonspor is also requesting an investigation into Fenerbahçe's signing of Kardemir Karabükspor's Nigerian striker Emmanuel Emenike, who drew criticism for not playing in his team's match against Fenerbahçe in week 32. Karabükspor goalkeeper Bülent Ataman said after the match, which they lost 0-1 to Fenerbahçe, that Emenike had agreed to sign with Fenerbahçe before the game.
Article taken from World Bulletin. If any our players are involved in this I will be very unhappy.
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What a sad story, especially as Kagan is alleged to be implicated.
ReplyDeleteWho can blame Trabzonspor for demanding an official inquiry and it will be interesting to see if the TFF do a thorough job.
Look forward to hearing more as the saga unfolds.
Re-reading Jim's match report from that game, it would appear the ref needs investigating, not the players...
ReplyDeleteSpine
Never rely on Sir Eski's reports. haha
ReplyDeleteDamon and I have had our suspicions concerning that match for weeks now.
I wouldn't put it past fenerbahce to buy the Ref AND the players just to be careful. I just hope whatever investigation occurs punishes all of fenerbahce and only the Gucu players, NOT the team. I wouldn't want to be caught in an alley with any Gecekondu boys if I was under suspicion of collusion with fener.
ReplyDeleteI have seen the highlights of the game over and over, and the referee gets two of the penalties right imo. The players if you watch the performance of sencky and kagan in particular, they were way off there game sencky comes out for a ball and just trips niang up.
ReplyDeleteNadeem, we will have to agree to disagree on the Senecky 'penalty'.
ReplyDeleteI have also looked at it again and I believe Senecky missed the ball because he missed the 'nick' which slightly changed its direction, and so I believe it was a mistimed challenge on his behalf. I still don't believe he brought down Niang intentionally.
I'm not willing to discuss the first 'penalty' which was definitely NOT a penalty.
The last one is open to debate. I believe Ozden made an error of judgement in the same way Senecky did. He committed himself but the ball was swerving away from him which made it look like he brought the player down intentionally.
I think it will be very interesting to see what comes out of this investigation and whether Cunayt Cakir is also implicated.
Let's hope it's not a 'whitewash' !!
guess time will tell if anyone is punished Jim. I doubt it though. Aziz Yildrim and Fenerbahce have to many big friends to allow anything like this to go against them.
ReplyDeleteIn other news Goztepe look set to complete the double signing of Tonia Tisdell and Theo Weeks from Ankaragucu on loan. We are also close to signing Berat Cetinkaya as damon said last week. We lost out to Mersin for Besiktas goalkeeper Akran
Bearing in mind how well Ankaragucu were going at the time, and also that you guys were actually a bit hopeful of getting a result to help Trabzonspor, I was very surprised at that 6-0 result.Then you take into consideration the swing in goal difference this match brought about (unless GD wasnt the decider, it was the head to heads?) And now this turn of events raises suspicions further.But as Nadeem has said,there is no way this title will be taken from Fenerbahce and awarded to Trabzon.Maybe if it was the other way around...........
ReplyDeleteDublin Neil.
it goes head to head neil, but as you say we were going really well until that game. If i had to bet money, i would say something went on but cant put my finger on it. Seneckys stupid trip is either clumsy or he was at it. I dont know. But nothing will happen anyway
ReplyDelete"But as Nadeem has said,there is no way this title will be taken from Fenerbahce and awarded to Trabzon.Maybe if it was the other way around..........."
ReplyDeleteI am afraid both Nadeem and Neil, despite not living here, seem to have a good idea of how things work here.
"In other news Goztepe look set to complete the double signing of Tonia Tisdell and Theo Weeks from Ankaragucu on loan."
According to this report:
http://www.klasspor.com/tr/haber/18582-Weeks_ve_Tisdell_kaliyor.html
Weeks and Tisdell are not going anywhere--at least for the moment.
Let's hope Weeksie (in particular) stays here. I have a feeling we will need players like him next season, ie, players who give 100% for 90plus minutes !!
ReplyDeleteSo says Eski Kanka Jim
the problem is the foreign quota. If we have any foreign players they need to be better than the turkish players. Senecky, Cerny, Meye, Vittek can all go, Cerny has already returned home. Tisdell i would allow to go out on loan for the season. Weeks i would possibly keep.
ReplyDeleteGabric i dont know when he will return, and then we have sapara, rajnoch and sestak who we must keep.