In the summer of 2011, Turkish police began an investigation into 19
football matches suspected of being fixed, and by 10 July 61 individuals had been arrested, including club managers and
Turkish national team players. 26 of these would later have requests for release refused by the court. Around the same time,
İstanbul BB player
İbrahim Akın admitted to participating in match fixing, specifically relating to two matches: Istanbul BB's match against
Fenerbahçe, and the
Turkish Cup final against
Beşiktaş. Following his arrest Akın withdrew his confession, claiming he had been tricked and his confession given under
duress, and denied any involvement in the alleged corruption. Beşiktaş president
Yıldırım Demirören later returned the Turkish Cup following match-fixing allegations levelled at his own club.
August 2011 On 15 August, the report of the
TFF's Ethics Committee was presented to the general assembly of the TFF. The first report of the TFF's Ethics Committee (340 pages) was completely hidden from public scrutiny and FIFA and UEFA. However, the summary section of the report (38 pages) was leaked to the press.
July 2011 The TFF banned Fenerbahçe from participating in the 2011–12
Champions League. Many members of the European football community voiced their concerns about the situation, with UEFA president
Michel Platini saying how the match-fixing scandals had "badly tarnished the game" and that the developments were "not good for Turkish football".
FIFA president
Sepp Blatter also had his say, stating "We cannot intervene at the first stage; we must let the jurisdictional organization of the different states [take action], and when these people are condemned and found guilty, then we will suspend them for life... Then they will never come back to football being officials or being players, they will be banned for life".
January 2012 On 31 January 2012, the President of the Turkish Football Federation
Mehmet Ali Aydınlar, the Vice Presidents of TFF
Göksel Gümüşdağ (chairman of
İstanbul Başakşehir F.K.), and
Lütfü Arıboğan (who then became a
Galatasaray board member) resigned from all duties.
April 2012 On 30 April 2012, the Turkish Football Federation changed article 58 of the disciplinary regulations regarding the penalization of match-fixing. In response to the TFF's decision, Trabzonspor announced that they would make a meeting with the UEFA as soon as possible. Galatasaray S.K reacted against the TFF's decision and made a statement regarding the issue.
Bursaspor also reacted against the decision. On the same day, Turkish Football Federation added a new article to the disciplinary regulations that all punishments including relegation and point-deduction can be postponed, Article 105.
May 2012 On 3 May 2012, Galatasaray applied to the TFF Arbitration Board to suspend and annul the decision regarding the amendment on Article 58 and Article 105 of disciplinary regulations of TFF. On 4 May 2012, Trabzonspor and Bursaspor also applied to the TFF Arbitration Board to suspend and annul the decision regarding the amendment on Article 58 and Article 105 of disciplinary regulations of TFF. On 5 May 2012, the Turkish Football Federation Arbitration Board rejected the appeals and the objections of the clubs. On 7 May 2012, the Turkish Football Federation gave a verdict for the people involved with the case. The federation banned İbrahim Akın of İstanbul BB for three years for allegedly fixing the result of a match when his team lost to Fenerbahçe 2–0 on 1 May 2011. It also banned Serdar Kulbilge of Gençlerbirliği for two years for allegedly attempting to fix the result of a match that Fenerbahçe won 4–2.
June 2012 On 1 June 2012, specially-authorized Istanbul Public Prosecutor Ufuk Ermertcan demanded from the Istanbul 16th High Criminal Court to hand down jail sentences for the suspects as part of an investigation into the match-fixing scandal. The Istanbul 16th High Criminal Court rejected the lawyers' request to release Fenerbahçe President
Aziz Yıldırım, Olgun Peker, İlhan Ekşioğlu, and Yusuf Turanlı. The court also ruled to release Ahmet Çelebi, Ali Kıratlı, Haldun Şenman, Sami Dinç, and İbrahim Bülent İşcen, who were in custody, pending trial. The court hearings were to be resumed on 26 June. On 4 June 2012, the Arbitration Board of Turkish Football Federation reduced the penalties for three suspects in a match-fixing scandal while upholding the sentences of other suspects. The arbitration board reduced Akın's sentence from three years to two years. Kulbilge's sentence was reduced from two years to three matches. Karan was given two years deprivation of rights by the PFDK, but the Arbitration Board changed his sentence to a two-year ban from participating in future games. On 22 June 2012, the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body made a decision:
July 2012 On 2 July 2012, the specially-authorized Turkish court convicted and sentenced Aziz Yıldırım to six years and three months in prison on match-fixing charges. Fenerbahçe Vice President Şekip Mosturoğlu was sentenced to one year, ten months and then days in prison. Another official was sentenced to 1 year and 2 months in prison.
August 2012 On 10 August 2012, the Istanbul 16th High Criminal Court announced its reasoned decision regarding the match-fixing case. ==Events after the investigation==