Turkey's Parliament approved a sharp reduction in prison terms for match-fixing and hooliganism early Saturday, a move that will lead to lighter sentences for any suspects found guilty in a recent match-fixing scandal. The Parliament voted for the new reduced term of a maximum three years in prison, overriding a veto by President Abdullah Gul who argued that the amendments were giving "the impression of a special arrangement" to save suspects including Fenerbahce President Aziz Yildirim.
Match-fixing scandals have tarnished leagues in Turkey, Italy, Israel, Finland and Greece this year despite UEFA spending millions of euros (dollars) to monitor betting and investigate cases. Chris Eaton, security chief of FIFA, said in October that there was mounting evidence that international and club matches are being targeted by gangs who attempt to bribe players and referees.
League champion Fenerbahce was barred from the Champions League this season because of its involvement in the match-fixing scandal and it could be stripped of its domestic title and face relegation. The Turkish Football Federation said it would announce sanctions against clubs implicated in the scandal at the end of this season. Nihat Ozdemir, deputy president of Fenerbahce, asked the federation President Mehmet Ali Aydinlar on Friday to end relegation altogether, Hurriyet newspaper reported on Saturday.
Fenerbahce went unbeaten through the second half of the season and beat Trabzonspor to the title on goal difference. Officials with Trabzonspor, which replaced Fenerbahce in the Champions League, have also been implicated along with officials or players from several other clubs. Yildirim, who has denied any wrongdoing, faces charges of establishing a crime-ring and match-fixing, the indictment said. He now faces a total of maximum 75 years in prison if convicted. And Fenerbahce risks having its name tarnished like Italian club Juventus, which was stripped of its 2005 and 2006 Italian league titles.
Abdullah Kaya, a lawyer for Yildirim, said the charges against his client were "unfounded," the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Parliament first voted for changes to prison terms earlier this month, only eight months after it approved sentences of up to 12 years for anyone convicted of rigging games.