İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu drops a bombshell about referees! 'There are those who bet...'

Turkish Football Federation (TFF) President İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu made statements that shook the football agenda. Appearing before members of the press at the TFF Hasan Doğan National Teams Camp and Training Facilities, Hacıosmanoğlu shared striking information about referees, one of the most controversial topics in Turkish football.

Speaking at the press conference, Hacıosmanoğlu emphasized that they have initiated a deep-rooted cleaning process in Turkish football and continued his words as follows:

"For a clean and ethical Turkish football, we started within our own house with the referee community. Out of 571 active referees in the professional leagues, 371 have betting accounts. 152 are actively betting."

Highlights from Hacıosmanoğlu's speech are as follows:

"Today will be a milestone for Turkish football here. The Great Leader Atatürk said, 'I like the athlete to be intelligent, agile, and ethical,' and there is no sentence suggesting that those outside of this could be unethical. We must be ethical along with all elements. We have been working with state institutions for months.

For years, we have received the reasons for the degeneration of Turkish football from those who manage our clubs and the doyens of the sport. There is a proverb that says, 'The gun was invented, and chivalry was ruined.' For years, we have discussed the extent of the degeneration and immorality in Turkish football after betting, which has been voiced for years.

As the TFF, we started from our own backyard. Today, I will give you some data that we have uncovered as a result of ethical studies regarding Turkish football, which is in need of change. We started with our referee friends for a clean and ethical Turkish football. It has been determined that 371 of our 571 active referees in the professional leagues have betting accounts and 152 of them are actively betting.

7 top-class referees, 15 top-class assistant referees, 36 regional referees, 94 regional assistant referees... Among these, it has been determined that 10 referees have placed over 10 thousand bets, 42 referees have individually placed over 1,000 bets, one referee has placed over 18 thousand bets alone, and some referees have placed bets on a single occasion.

We will clean up whatever filth is inside to carry Turkish football to the place it deserves. I am calling on our clubs. Just as we, as the TFF, are cleaning our own doorstep, our distinguished clubs also need to check themselves with all their elements. We have shared these studies with FIFA and UEFA.

With the philosophy that 'those who remain are ours,' we already had studies on training referees, but we will open training in 81 provinces and bring our youth into refereeing. We want them to support the young referee friends who will be trained regarding their human errors. I believe that we will carry the Turkish football we long for to the place we long for. We expect everyone's support."