Court ‘held Emenike for Fener,’ judge jokes

ISTANBUL

AA Photo

Emmanuel Emenike’s match-fixing case was postponed to Nov. 27 after the judge joked in a hearing that he had kept the player detained for hours at the courthouse “for Fenerbahçe” before the Nigerian’s game with Spartak Moscow.

On Sept. 27, Judge Mehmet Ekinci asked Emenike’s lawyer whether the player had gone on to score against Fenerbahçe.

“No. He spent six hours at the courthouse and was totally fatigued in the game the day after,” Rezan Epözdemir, Emenike’s lawyer said.

“Our court did everything for Fenerbahçe,” the judge then joked.

Emenike, a figure at the center of the rigging case, has spent more than six hours at the Çağlayan Courthouse last month in Istanbul, where he came as a Spartak player to meet Fenerbahçe in a Champions League playoff. Fener went on to lose the tie 3-2 to Spartak on aggregate.

He is charged with taking part in a rigging scam, with allegations that, as a Karabükspor player, he deliberately missed a game against Fenerbahçe and was transferred by the Istanbul club in return.
The Nigerian was among dozens of players and officials who were detained as part of the case. Several Fenerbahçe officials were found guilty of match-fixing when the judge gave his verdict in May. However, Emenike’s case was separated from the main case as he did not attend the original hearings.