Corruption in football strikes again.

The president of leading Turkish football club Fenerbahce is one of about 30 people who have been arrested in an investigation into match-fixing, Turkey's state media have said.

Aziz Yildirim was held on Sunday, along with his vice-president, the vice-president of Trabzonspor and an official from Eskisehirspor.

Several footballers were also arrested, including at least two Turkish internationals.

Police are searching Fenerbahce's HQ.

The state-run Anatolia news agency named some of those arrested along with Mr Yildirim, including Fenerbahce Vice-President Sekip Mosturoglu, the technical director of Eskisehirspor, Umit Karan, and Vice-President of Trabzonspor, Nevzat Sakar.

Two of the footballers it named were Genclerbirligi striker Serkan Calik and Ankaragucu goalkeeper Serdar Kulbilge.

The agency said that raids had taken place simultaneously in 12 cities.

Istanbul-based Fenerbahce are the reigning Turkish league champions.

The NTV television station said police were investigating alleged match-fixing in last season's league competition.

Associated Press quoted the Dogan news agency as saying the final league game of the season - a 4-3 victory by Fenerbahce over Sivasspor - was one of the matches under investigation.

A number of arrests into match-fixing were made last year but these are by far the highest-profile arrests, the Agence France-Presse news agency reports.

No comment on the news has as yet been made on Fenerbahce's website.

Taken from: BBC News Click Here

Is corruption is football ever going to go away?

No,

The simple truth is the financial gains for success are is so much, that you will always get people out to exploit any situation to win.

Players Dive, feign injury, because it means they win, win bonuses, bigger wages, endorsements such and such.

The owners and club officials cant affect games like that but do the have the business acumen (for lack of a better term) to make such deals off the the pitch.

It is a sorry state of affairs but football will always be like this unless better controls are put in place to reign in the financial implications of losing.

Add to this the match fixing problems going on in Greece and everything may not be as it seems in football.

I feel for these countries and fans. It's an entertainment business and when you pay your money you expect 100% effort and a level playing field. It's sickening that that gets dragged away by greed.

I'm not so naive to believe England is totally clean either. Look at Italy -- a major league dragged into the mud. It's a sad world we live in when we can't even get a fair game of football.

The way Football is heading should leave all true Football fans worried.

Surprised you need to go overseas to talk about corruption. What about the latest legal spat between Spurs and West Ham over the Olympic legacy bid?

Davie wrote:Surprised you need to go overseas to talk about corruption. What about the latest legal spat between Spurs and West Ham over the Olympic legacy bid?

Spot on , many people do not realise these kind of things are happening in our own country.

Have you ever wondered why FIFA hate the FA? well they think as a footballing nation that we cheat. The cheating comes into play because of the amount of money our game gets from Sky, and the amount of cash we hand over to players in wages. This has the effect of us being able to poach many of the world's top players, and also their young kids, which in turn depletes other national leagues. So FIFA are in the process of ensuring the rules are changing for football finance and the next stage will be foriegn ownership, as we are the only country that allows foriegn owners. Foriegn ownership brings with it the problem of gambling, money laundering, racketeering etc, and also plenty of offshore, shell companies.

The 'fit and proper' rule hasn't really been enforced and thats why so many dodgy people have been allowed to drag down once great clubs like Leeds, Cardiff, Notts County, Portsmouth and many more. I remember reading about the dealings of Gold and Sullivan a couple of years ago, and how they got involved with the guy who bought Birmingham from them later. This guy was indicted for many alleged offences and his No2 was being chased in connection with 2 murders involving Far Eastern organised crime. Lo and behold he's now in the frame on money laundering activities again, and Gold and Sullivan involved in the latest West Ham corruption debacle.

Why would any businessman want to own a football club? no club can balance their books especially in the Prem and many in the Championship. So why would a foriegn owner want to be involved? Yes some are real fans, but most are in it for the fame or the money and we know theres not much money to make unless the club is being used to wash money for someone

I wonder sometimes why owners come in and expect the clubs to be turning huge profits for them - it never seems that way from the outside!

I personally would only own a club I loved if I had masses of cash going spare, a'la Jack Walker at Blackburn. Otherwise I'd be throwing my cash in a bottomless pit.

Corruption exists wherever money can be made.
As a cricket fan it's been sad to see what's happened in that sport over the years but it's only been possible since the explosion of betting opportunities around 15 years ago.
The fact you are now able to bet on what may happen, at what time, and how often during any match paves the way for huge manipulation and criminal activity.
In football it is quite common place for players of lower league teams to bet (through third parties) especially towards the end of the season when results don't matter - I know for a fact that the Brighton players were drunk for 4 days leading up to their final game of last season, no player had a bet but if you're armed with this info you can make money !
Further down in league 2 I know of players who bet against their own team to lose when playing dead rubbers - many of these guys would be on less than your average office worker, I'm not defending it but in their eyes they're hurting no-one and increasing their income.
You may/may not be familiar with the throw-in farce in the Man Utd v West Ham game many years ago; there used to be a market on the time of the first thrown-in, usually around 80-90 seconds, the spread betting company saw unusual amounts of new accounts being opened with these new clients selling at 80, low and behold West Ham kick off and within 3 seconds the ball is hammered to row Q !
An investigation is launched, it may not surprise too many that all of the new clients were linked directly to the West Ham manager at that time, who himself is now at the centre of transfer fixing rumours and tax evasion.
Sadly, fixing will always exist wherever money can be made, whether it's for a bit of drinking money or for serious life changing/enhancing sums of money, it will always exist