Turkish football's dark side

"When I'm watching a Turkish match and a goal is scored, I'm suspicious if it is real or not," Bozdemir said, sitting in a tea garden in the low-income district of Ulus in Ankara.

An unemployed civil servant, Bozdemir was referring to the storm raging in Turkey over match-fixing.

This week an Istanbul court set the date for 93 players, coaches and football officials to stand trial for influencing games during the 2010 season.

The 400-page indictment, which the court released for publication, contained some breath-taking charges.

One of the two ringleaders, Aziz Yildirim, chairman of Fenerbahce, which won the 2010 championship, allegedly paid euros 345,000 to buy the player Gokdeniz Karadeniz.

But Karadeniz never played for Fenerbahce, which raises the question why the money was paid. The indictment says the fictitious transfer was arranged through the second ringleader, Olgun Peker, a former chairman of a second division club who is widely accused of mafia connections.

Hours after the court said the trial would begin on February 14, parliament passed the Bill on the Prevention of Violence and Irregularity in Sport, which reduces the maximum sentence for fixing a game from 12 years to three years.

Earlier this month, President Abdullah Gul, had vetoed the law, saying it seemed to have been drafted with a view to certain individuals involved in the corruption investigation.

But the two largest opposition parties spoke out in favour of the bill, and it was returned to parliament for the re-vote that took place over the weekend.

To anybody unfamiliar with Turkish football, these proceedings were confusing. Governments usually toughen the sentence for graft, not lighten them. Opposition parties usually accuse governments of being soft on corruption, rather than support the "softening" process.

To understand what is going on, one has to appreciate the "big impact" that the leading clubs has on Turkish society, said Bagis Erten, a leading columnist and host of TV sports programmes.

The top four clubs, Fenerbahce, Besiktas, Trabzonspor and Galatsaray, command legions of supporters. Three of the clubs are implicated in the trial.

And it is jokingly said that the only reason why Galatasaray officials are not among the 93 accused is that the team was playing so badly last year that corruption would not have made a difference.

As chairman of Fenerbahce, Aziz Yildirim wields enormous influence. If convicted on all counts, it is estimated he could go to jail for 156 years. After the bill was passed a second time, the mainstream newspaper Hurriyet ran the banner headline that Yildirim's sentence could fall by 81 years.

"If this scandal concerned small clubs and low-profile football people, I can assure you there would not be any change in the law," said Erten, who writes for the respected liberal paper, Radikal.

The opposition parties supported the bill because of the "danger of losing votes," Erten told dpa. "It's not easy for them to neglect Fenerbahce."

So the question becomes: why don't the voters recognise that corruption is bad for the game, that matches cannot be exciting when in fact the results are pre-determined?

The answer lies in the lack of awareness among the football fans at large and thus many fans are expecting President Gul to sign the bill into law.

Gul has hinted strongly he would do this, telling reporters that it was parliament's job to determine the punishment for corruption.

As parliament has passed the bill twice, Gul cannot veto it again.

He can only refer it to the Constitutional Court. But Gul said: "this is not a constitutional matter."

However, many Turks are uneasy about these developments. When parliament re-passed the bill on Saturday _ with 284 legislators in favour, six against and one abstaining _ the attendance was only 53 percent.

The political commentator Shahin Alpay told dpa many legislators had stayed away because "they were reluctant to vote in favour."

The Kurdish nationalist Peace and Democracy Party told its members to oppose the bill, but it is the smallest of the four parties in parliament.

Sports commentator Bagis Erten is waiting to see what UEFA decides to do: "UEFA's position will determine the future of Turkish football."

Erten said that 12 years' imprisonment for match-fixing is too heavy a sentence. "In Europe, the sentences are two to three years." UEFA will watch the trial to see if Turkey changed the law to make the sentences fairer or "to rescue" Yildirim and the other accused, Erten said.

In the tea garden, Ali Abbas Bozdemir said that if the president signs the bill, "the Europeans will never trust Turkish football again because corruption will increase."