Three more charged in Turkey match-fixing probe: report

A Turkish court has charged three more people as part of a match-fixing probe, bringing to 30 the total number of suspects jailed pending trial, the Anatolia news agency reported Friday.

Among those charged was a former footballer from a second-division club, the agency said, without giving details on the remaining two.

The exact charges against the suspects will become known when prosecutors draw up their indictment.

Four other suspects were released after questioning, the agency said.

The investigation, which the Turkish Football Federation has kept a tight lid on, hit the headlines last month when police rounded up scores of suspects, including players from the country’s top league and lower divisions, managers and club administrators.

At least nine other suspects were detained Thursday in a second-wave of arrests.

The most high-profile figure to be accused so far is former international defender Fatih Akyel, who played for Istanbul giants Galatasaray in his heyday and is currently at third-division Tepecikspor. He is in jail pending trial.

The head of the football federation, Mahmut Ozgener, said Friday the investigation was based on three suspicious matches that the federation investigated upon a tip-off in December 2008 by the state-run gaming company.

“As part of our investigation, we filed a complaint with prosecutors in August last year…Our main objective is to clean Turkish football,” he told the NTV Spor channel.

The federation has said the investigation was not related to a Europe-wide match-fixing scandal involving Turkey that broke out in 2009.