Fenerbahce fans shout slogans of support for their club chairman, Aziz Yildirim, outside the heavily guarded Silivri prison, 70km east of Istanbul, where the trial of 93 suspects accused of fixing football matches is taking place.
Fenerbahce fans shout slogans of support for their club chairman, Aziz Yildirim, outside the heavily guarded Silivri prison, 70km east of Istanbul, where the trial of 93 suspects accused of fixing fooShow more

Fenerbahce fans show support for club president as Turkey match-fixing trial begins



ISTANBUL // Hundreds of football fans gathered outside a court yesterday as the trial against more than 90 officials, managers and players suspected of involvement in Turkey's largest match-fixing scandal started under heavy security.

Dressed in the yellow-and-blue jerseys of Turkey's champions Fenerbahce SK, fans outside a judicial complex in Siliviri shouted slogans and unfolded banners in support of Aziz Yildirim, the Fenerbahce president, one of the 93 suspects on trial.

"We are right, we will win," read a banner held up by fans of the Istanbul club. A poster with the picture of Mr Yildirim carried the slogan: "We know, We are at your side."

Mr Yildirim, 59, a millionaire businessman, is accused of paying bribes officials and players of opponents, and incentives to teams playing against rivals during Fenerbahce's 2010/2011 title-winning season. Mr Yildirim denies the accusation. He is among 23 suspects being held in custody.

In a statement to reporters in the courtroom, Mr Yildirim denied that he had given €100,000 (Dh483,000) to Ibrahim Akin, a former player of rival Istanbul club, Istanbul BB. "Where are the documents?" Mr Yildirim said, according to Turkish news reports. "If they prove this, I will throw myself from the nearest bridge. It is a shame, a shame"

The match-fixing scandal has rocked this football-crazy country. It has led to the elimination of Fenerbahce from the Uefa Champions League and to the resignation of the leadership of Turkey's football federation. Another leading club embroiled in the scandal, Besiktas, was forced to hand back the Turkish Cup that it won last year. Half a dozen Fenerbahce officials as well as a former vice-president and a former manager of Besiktas are among the accused.

There have been suspicions about possible match-fixing in Turkey's football for years, but this is the first time that a top team has been the target of a criminal investigation. Fenerbahce is Turkey's most successful club with 18 Super Lig titles. It once counted Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, among its fans.

Many Fenerbahce fans say their club had been singled out as a scapegoat. In a move widely seen as an effort to curry favour with football fans, Turkey's biggest political parties teamed up last year to reduce sentences for match-fixing.

Mehmet Ekinci, the presiding judge, tried to calm supporters of the clubs accused of involvement in the scandal. "We are not trying clubs here. We are trying defendants accused of a crime," Mr Ekinci told reporters on Saturday.

The trial is being held in a high-security compound in Silivri, 50 kilometres west of Istanbul, that is also used for trials against suspected coup plotters and serves as a detention centre for Turkey's former military chief and other high-profile suspects. No cameras were allowed in the courtroom, but Turkish news reports said Mr Yildirim appeared to be in good spirits.

Olgun Peker, the former chairman of the club Giresunspor from Turkey's Black Sea coast who has been linked in the media to organised crime in the past, is another key suspect. Officials, managers and players from six other clubs are also charged with fixing matches.

Prosecutors say the accused manipulated several matches last season. One of the games investigated was Fenerbahce's 4-3 victory over Sivasspor on May 22, which secured the championship for Mr Yildirim's club.

In their 401-page indictment prosecutors ask for up to 147 years in prison for Mr Yildirim.

Records of wire-tapped telephone conversations form the core of the prosecution's case. According to the indictment quoted in news reports, suspects talked about the manipulations in code, using the phrase "drinking coffee" for fixing a match and calling football players "construction workers".

tseibert@thenational.ae

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Uefa Champions League final:

Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports

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Luxury: Enjoys window shopping for high-end bags and jewellery

Discount: She works in luxury retail, but is careful about spending, waits for sales, festivals and only buys on discount

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The specs

BMW M8 Competition Coupe

Engine 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8

Power 625hp at 6,000rpm

Torque 750Nm from 1,800-5,800rpm

Gearbox Eight-speed paddleshift auto

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Tree of Hell

Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla

Director: Raed Zeno

Rating: 4/5

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3. Hajj

4. Shahada

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Name: Almnssa
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2.30pm: Expo 2020 Dubai – Conditions (PA) Dh80,000 (Dirt) 1,600m; Winner: Barakka, Ray Dawson (jockey), Ahmad bin Harmash (trainer)

3.05pm: Now Or Never – Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Turf) 1,600m; Winner: One Idea, Andrea Atzeni, Doug Watson

3.40pm: This Is Our Time – Handicap (TB) Dh82,500 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Perfect Balance, Tadhg O’Shea, Bhupat Seemar

4.15pm: Visit Expo 2020 – Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Kaheall, Richard Mullen, Salem bin Ghadayer

4.50pm: The World In One Place – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1.900m; Winner: Castlebar, Adrie de Vries, Helal Al Alawi

5.25pm: Vision – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: Shanty Star, Richard Mullen, Rashed Bouresly

6pm: Al Wasl Plaza – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: Jadwal, Dane O’Neill, Doug Watson

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Director: Laila Abbas

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Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.

Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.

Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.

Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.

Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.

Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.

Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.

Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.

Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.

Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.

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How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE

When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.

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Artist: Coldplay

Label: Parlophone/Atlantic

Number of tracks: 10

Rating: 3/5

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Australia tour of Pakistan

March 4-8: First Test, Rawalpindi

March 12-16: Second Test, Karachi

March 21-25: Third Test, Lahore

March 29: First ODI, Rawalpindi

March 31: Second ODI, Rawalpindi

April 2: Third ODI, Rawalpindi

April 5: T20I, Rawalpindi

Cricket World Cup League 2

UAE squad

Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind

Fixtures

Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE

How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

Results:

First Test: New Zealand 30 British & Irish Lions 15

Second Test: New Zealand 21 British & Irish Lions 24

Third Test: New Zealand 15 British & Irish Lions 15

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Favourite activity: Connecting with different cultures


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