Turkish FA bans 147 club officials, including Trabzonspor president, over betting

The Turkish Football Federation has imposed 45-day bans on 147 club officials for breaching betting rules, including Trabzonspor president Ertugrul Dogan. BBC Sport reported that those sanctioned cannot perform their football duties during the suspension. The decisions follow a disciplinary process involving hundreds of people who had held positions in the country's leading two divisions.

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The cases had been referred to the federation's professional football disciplinary board after 448 people were provisionally suspended in September. The allegations concerned bets placed while they were in office. According to the BBC, the federation said the group covered people who had served at clubs in Turkey's top two leagues during the preceding five years.

The board did not impose penalties in the remaining 301 cases because there were insufficient grounds for disciplinary action. That distinction means the September referrals did not all result in findings of a breach. The federation's published decision lists individual outcomes, separating those given suspensions from those whose cases did not meet the requirements for a disciplinary penalty.

Dogan's sanction appears in the TFF's decisions from its meeting on 20 October. The entry cites Article 57/2 of the Football Disciplinary Regulations and the application of Article 13 in setting the 45-day penalty. The decision identifies betting as the conduct behind the sanction; it does not describe Dogan's case as a finding of match-fixing.

Erzurumspor FK president Ahmet Dal also received a 45-day ban, beIN Sports Türkiye reported. Its reproduction of the disciplinary decisions includes separate sanctions against Dogan and Dal under the same provisions. Other named recipients in the published list include Kerem Gurel and Onur Gocmez, each given the same suspension length for betting-related conduct. The rulings therefore extend beyond the Trabzonspor president's individual case.

The sanctions are part of a wider period of enforcement against betting in Turkish football. BBC Sport reported that a TFF investigation led to bans for 149 referees and 1,204 players in November 2025. The latest decisions concern club officials, adding another group of football personnel to those penalised during the federation's crackdown over the past year.