Gaziantep chair, board suspended

GAZİANTEP

Gaziantepspor Chairman İbrahim Kızıl is taken to the courthouse in this file photo from last month. Kızıl and seven board members are suspended from their posts. DHA photo

Eight members of the Gaziantepspor board, including chairman İbrahim Kızıl, were provisionally suspended from their posts at the football club, local media reported yesterday. 

The daily Hürriyet quoted local news website Telgraf.net that Kızıl and seven other officials had been suspended from the club board after a local court accepted the indictment regarding alleged financial fraud at the club. 

A total of 15 Gaziantepspor officials were jailed pending trial earlier this month, after being detained as part of an investigation started by the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK). 

The club will now have to vote for a new board from among the club members that are not charged with fraud. 

In early April, police in Gaziantep started an investigation regarding the financial situation of the club, detaining 46 officials. They have since released 31 officials pending charges. 

Gaziantep prosecutors had earlier said this was a financial investigation into the Super League club, and not related to the ongoing match-fixing case, which has rocked the national football agenda.

“The investigation started in October 2011 and involved the investigation of documents from Kızıl Holdings and the Gaziantepspor club from the last five years,” a press statement released by prosecutors read. “The case is not about sporting issues such as match-fixing.”

Earlier this year, European football’s governing body, UEFA, hit Gaziantepspor with a ban excluding the club from all continental competitions, due to the unpaid wages of several players.