Football Federation to bar key figures from the sport following indictment

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

The prosecutor’s indictment for the match-fixing case has yet to be accepted by the court, but its effects could be immediately seen rocking the Turkish football scene.
Following the Dec. 3 release of a long-awaited indictment, a total of 93 suspects in the case are facing immediate bans from the football world.
A total of 31 football club officials, coaches and players were jailed pending trial since early July due to alleged match fixing, but the ones that are not under the arrest will not be serving their clubs until the case is cleared.
Prosecutor Mehmet Berk filed a request Dec. 3 to the police that suspected players and club officials not be allowed at stadiums.
The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) had previously announced it would open disciplinary cases into the suspects that are named in the indictment and said they would be proactively banned from football, the daily Hürriyet reported.
TFF Vice Chairman Göksel Gümüşdağ, who was under suspicion due to his spell at Istanbul BB football club last season, tops the list as the highest-profile name that will be barred from serving if the TFF executes the ruling. Trabzonspor Chairman Sadri Şener and board member Nevzat Şakar, Mersin İdman Yurdu’s Chairman Ali Kahramanlı and its Vice Chairman Beşir Acar are also among the clubs’ members that will not work in football.
Fenerbahçe, whose Chairman Aziz Yıldırım and Vice Chairman Şekip Mosturoğlu are jailed pending trial, will see board members Yıldırım, Murat Özaydınlı, Hasan Çetinkaya and translator Samet Güzel out of their duties.
The decision immediately hurt players as well, since they will not be allowed to the stadiums until they are cleared of charges.
Bursaspor’s Gökçek Vederson and Eskişehirspor’s Mehmet Yıldız were left out of the two teams’ Spor Toto Super League match Dec. 4.
Galatasaray’s Sercan Yıldırım, who was transferred from Bursaspor in the summer, will not be allowed to play when his team will face archrival Fenerbahçe tomorrow, either. The player was on the pitch as Galatasaray beat Gençlerbirliği 1-0 Dec. 3, however, and provided an assist to Emmanuel Eboue in scoring the only goal of the game.
Fenerbahçe’s Sezer Öztürk is also listed in the indictment, so he will not participate in the derby.
Gençlerbirliği goalkeeper Serdar Kulbilge, Sivasspor’s Mahmut Boz, Karşıyaka’s Ulaş Ortakaya and Eyüpspor goalkeeper Murat Şahin are among the players that will not be permitted to play for their clubs.
Istanbul BB player Can Arat, who was questioned as part of the match-fixing case earlier this year, was forced to be left out of the squad due to a last minute request from TFF. Arat was warming up for his team’s Kayserispor match Dec. 4 at the Kadir Has Stadium, but he was forced out of the stadium. k HDN
However, the daily Hürriyet reported yesterday that Arat was not among the suspects, so he was actually clear to face Kayserispor. Istanbul BB manager Kamil Dizar said they were wrongfully left with a 17-man match-day squad and will apply to TFF for a rematch of the game, which they lost 1-0.