Fenerbache president Aziz Yildirim was re-elected to the top post at Istanbul club, even though the chairman is currently behind bars due to his involvement with the match-fixing scandal.

Istanbul / NationalTurk – Aziz Yildirim, the number one suspect and one of the most prominent and powerful names in the group of more than 90 culprits arrested and charged with match-fixing allegations in the Turkish football, is currently awaiting the verdict in his match- fixing trial.

Aziz Yildirim faces six serious charges of fraud, four charges of match-fixing and three charges of bribing the opposing team. Prosecutors have also accused Yildirim of establishing and running a criminal organisation to generate illegal profits.

Only in Turkey : Jailed chairman gets re-elected, recveiving 5269 of 5271 votes !

The jailed Aziz Yildirim will be the chairman of Fenerbahce for three more years after he won the election unopposed, receiving all but two of the 5,271 votes cast, the Istanbul – based club released the results in a written statement.

‘ I believe that I will be able to thank you in person for the infinite faith you have shown me and the rest of the management,’ Yildirim stated in an acceptance note posted to the Fenerbahce website.

Aziz Yildirim claims his trial is politically motivated on the part of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government, the AKP ( Justice and Development Party ) according to World Bulletin newspaper. Aziz Yıldırım has also repeatedly claimed the match-fixing case aimed to take over the century old sports club, but has never name checked the Gülen Community.

Fenerbahce board reshaped : Interesting names involved in politics in and out

However Fenerbahce’s jailed chairman Yıldırım made a major reshuffling at the club board, leaving some influential figures out and adding some names close to the government.

Six people, including influential figures such as vice chairman Nihat Özdemir, Ali Koç and Cihan Kamer ( businessman who has close ties to Tayyip Erdogan), were left out of the board. İlhan Ekşioğlu and Şekip Mosturoğlu, who were banned from football and deprived of club management rights for three years and one year respectively by the Turkish Football Federation for their involvement in match fixing scandal, are still on the Fenerbahce board.

Three interesting figures among the fresh faces on the Fenerbahçe board are worth to mention : Hüseyin Ersan Topbaş, Ahmet Ketenci and Talat Yılmaz.

The former two are openly close to the government, with Hüseyin Ersan Topbaş being the son of Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbaş, while Ahmet Ketenci is the brother of Sema Erdoğan, the wife of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son, Ahmet Burak Erdoğan, who hit the famous classical Turkish music singer, Sevim Tanurek in 1998. She died after 6 days of coma in the hospital. Burak Erdogan didn’t even have a driver’s license. Once police found out Burak Erdogan was Tayyip Erdogan’s son, when Erdogan was mayor of Istanbul, they had prepared for him a fake driver’s license and they cleared all the evidences and had threaten the family of the victimized woman to not to sue Erdogan and they totally took care of the situation.

Talat Yılmaz, the former head of the Turkish Red Crescent, is also on the Turkish Football Federation board. He also on Saturday controversially dismissed claims that the match-fixing case was plotted by the Fethullah Gülen Community, who is claimed to be willing to take over the club. Many Fenerbahçe fans have championed the idea since July 2011, and staged protests with banners against the Gülen Community.

Uefa decision on Turkish match fixing scandal is a hot topic in Turkey

The match-fixing scandal has hurt the Turkish soccer league and UEFA has barred Fenerbahce from the Champions League this year because of the club’s alleged involvement. Uefa’ s punishment to Fenerbbahce and other clubs involved in Turkish match fixing scandal is expected to be decided at the end of May.

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