CONCERNED FOOTBALL ENTHUSIASTS’ LETTER VIA ATTORNEY dated October 5, 2011 :
To UEFA officials concerned with autonomous and fair governance of football,
We’ve seen UEFA’s sensitivity over match fixing recently with the Greek example. The investigation in Turkey is taking a judicially worrying course, however. Turkish Football Association (TFF) announced their decision to wait for indictment as it should be. Due to secrecy of the case, the lawyers of the defence are not allowed to retrieve files, and currently it is impossible to make a fair trial. Also continuously new people are called for testimony. But from the first day, there is a huge mass media manipulation to influence the decision making process of Turkish Football Association and direct threats exposed by media.
Therefore, as Turkish football enthusiasts, we want to express our concerns to UEFA over the on-going procedure as part of our legal rights. You’re in continual contact with the TFF a informed. But it’s impossible for them to inform you of the pressure going on behind the scenes. There is a serious breach of autonomy and the protection of national associations’ autonomy is one of UEFA’s highest priorities.
The Turkish state has been involved in the formation of current and previous TFF management. This last change of president was particularly surprising. There was the government’s former Youth and Sports General Manager, Mehmet Atalay, who had been preparing for the post for a year and-a-half, while the other candidate was the Vice Pres’dent of the Clubs Association, Göksel Gümüşdağ, who is the nephew of Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s wife and also the chairman of Istanbul Buyukşehir Belediyespor, a club in the Turkish Super League that is a municipality team with organic ties to of days, a new candidate came about: Mehmet Ali Aydinlar. Gümüşdağ retracted his candidacy and was placed in Aydinlar’s list of board members. Atalay quietly removed himself from candidacy. Reports later indicated that the Prime forward Aydinlar’s name to club chairmen. Hence, single handedly, political power in the coutry decided who would manage Turkish football. A short while later, arrests over match fixing started out, according to reports. A TFF vice-president for three terms, Lütfi Ariboğan, was made so only a short while after losing the Turkish Basketball Association presidential elections. He has been selected and placed by the ruling political power.
The presumption of innocence, the right to legally defend oneself and having a fair values that have been thrown out the window by the justice system and the Turkish media since the investigation began on 3 July. A confidential investigation has been manipulated diredtly by the police and disinformation carried out through conscious leaks to the media. The media made a conviction, using headlines such as “Photos of corruption” and “Six games fixed”, that could never be published in countries where human rights are fully adhered. A sense of justice and UEFA’s principles in such situations has been ignored totally.
TFF couldn’t obtain the evidence due to the “secrecy” of the case. But the public prosecution once again broke the constitution by handing over the files to Turkish Football Association. But the defence’s request was turned down. The police handpicked the files before giving them to TFF. And from what’s been leaked to the media it’s clear that the files are comprised of unbalanced, many question marks and solely negative evidence towards the figures involved. The clubs mentioned in the case and the people under judicial custody simply do not know what they’re accused of. So TFF is being forced to make a decision based on a biased case with dubious police observations, without giving the defence a chance to defend themselves.
The propaganda made through the media has its roots stretching to politics. Today, a few businessmen have a monopoly over the Turkish media. These people also run businesses outside of the media and have lucrative contractual relationships with the state, so they never broadcast or publish any critical stories regarding this investigation.
In addition, it was revealed that the investigation was held back until the Turkish general elections were over, obviously not to negatively affect the ruling AKP’s election campaign. It was explicitly revealed that the police avoided making any arrests to catch the alleged perpetrators red-handed. More over on July 5 2011 Turkish football head Mehmet Ali Aydınlar stated that the prosecutor had told him they knew the scores of the five Fenerbahce games beforehand. Prosecutor denied it, but after one month and after the decision of TFF. Also he did not deny claims which he told that he would not open an investigation if Fenerbahçe lost the championship at the last match of the season. TFF has been misdirected by the legal authorities.
In short, through the guidance of political powers, TFF thrown together in a hurry after the general elections was given a great burden to carry. This pressure is growing.
Turkish politicians have heavily intervened in the Turkish league, especially in the last two seasons. Members of parliament, ministers and bureaucrats made unacceptable and pressurizing statements at the peak of the title race in the 2009-2010 season in favour of Bursaspor and this season in favour of Trabzonspor. Former Sports Minister and current MP Mehmet Au ahin is one of them. He is someone who ignored telephone conversation recordings and files relating to match-fixing in 2004 and is therefore responsible, together with Turkish Football Association, for the matter being extinguished by negative prescription. Secretary of State Faruk Ozak is a former Trabzonspor chairman and is an MP for Trabzon. He has explicitly said that Trabzonspor has been given 27 million dollars of state money, revealing the partiality of the state. Each week this season, Trabzonspor played Fenerbahçe’s opponents two weeks later. Around each game, protocols were signed with those clubs to build stadiums using public funds — almost bribery.
Statesmen have given statements in front of TV cameras that have irresponsibly labelled the people being questioned as guilty. About an investigation surrounding another team’s 2006 games, Interior Minister Şahin said: “On the basis of my legal knowledge and experience, I’m saying that the police can’t do anything with the files that they have,” influencing the investigative process.
UEFA sees TFF as modem and autonomous, but Turkish footballs biggest problem for many years has been the politicisation of TFF. There are tens of football clubs across all leagues that are those of regional municipalities, whose names end with “Belediyespor”. This is a pure conflict of interest as public institutions are competing with private clubs in football leagues. Municipalities are totally controlled by the current government. Their budgets and funds are completely dependent on them.
Finally, we ask that you as UEFA set up a legal team to investigate the claims. The primary duty of authoritative bodies should be to take football away from the influence of national politics. Now is the time to do exactly that.
APPENDIX
TFF published all reports about the investigation sent to UEFA (27 August 2011). According to those reports, UEFA was informed that Fenerbahce is not the only Turkish Football team under judicial investigation, but Beşiktaş and Trabzonspor are also faced with serious accusations of match-fixing.
However, letter from UEFA dated 23 August 2011 addressed to TFF was solely about the Fenerbahçe. Accusations against Beşiktaş and Trabzonspor were ignored, hence those two teams are allowed to play in UEFA Europa and Champions league, respectively. The underlying cause of Fenerbahçe’s removal from the Champions League was UEFA’s zero-tolerance policy. According to your offical announcement at 24th August, Fenerbahce excluded due the fact that the club has been involved in match-fixing:
The UEFA Emergency Panel, composed of the UEFA President and four members of the UEFA Executive Committee, met today following the decision of the TFF to withdraw Fenerbahçe SK from the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League due to the fact that the club has been involved in match-fixini.’
UEFA needs to redefine its zero-tolerance policy or give a detailed legal description why Fenerbahçe was replaced by a team also under match-fixing suspicion, namely Trabzonspor.
UEFA CHIEF COUNSEL PIERRE CORNU’S REPLY on November 11, 2011:
Von: Cornu Pierre [mailto:********@uefa.ch]
Gesendet: Freitag, 11. November 2011 15:55
An: ****@******advokaten.ch
Betreff: Fenerbahçe / Turquie
This is a letter sent to Cornu and he forwarded this to someone unknown; Reply from Cornu;
Maître,
Votre courrier du 5 octobre 2011 nous est bien parvenu.
Je peux vous assurer que l’UEFA suit de près la situation en Turquie. Nous avons notamment des contacts réguliers avec la Fédération turque, qui nous tient au courant de l’évolution. Il va de soi que l’UEFA veille et veillera à l’intégrité du football, en Turquie comme ailleurs.
(Translation: I can assure you that UEFA is closely monitoring the situation in Turkey. In particular, we have regular contacts with the Turkish Federation, which keeps us informed of developments. It goes without saying that UEFA day and ensure the integrity of football in Turkey and elsewhere.)
Meilleures salutations.
Pierre Cornu
Chief Counsel, Integrity and Regulatory Affairs
UEFA
Route de Genève 46
CH-1260 Nyon 2
Direct Tel: +41 ******
Mobile : *********
Main Tel: +41 ******
Fax: +41 ******
website: www.uefa.com
