Galatasaray Basketball Scandal

Galatasaray Vice Chairman Yiğit Şardan sent a written statement late Thursday night announcing he is resigning as vice chairman and club board member at Galatasaray beacuase of the recent basketball scandal surrounding the club’s basketball team.

His statement wrote “Since I am the board member responsible for the men’s basketball team, I cannot deny my responsibility for the recent basketball scandal, although I had no idea about what happened”.

Galatasaray Café Crown who plays in the top domestic league Beko Basketball League admitted on Wednesday that they deliberately used a suspended player in two official basketball games by putting on a team mates jersey and deceiving match officials.

The games the Galatasaray Basketball scandal occured in were against German teams Deutsche Bank Skyliner and EnBW Ludwigsburg where Cemal Nalga, put on Tufan Ersöz’s jersey. Cemal Nalga was suspended for 5 games during this period because of a fight he was involved in. Galatasaray’s technical staff then sent Nalga’s statistics for the match report to the TBF under Ersöz’s name.

The statement carried on “I had no idea about what happened during the training camp in Germany, until yesterday [Wednesday]. I want the Galatasaray community to know that I have tried to do my duties with all my knowledge and experience, and, most importantly, I have stuck to Galatasaray ethics and tradition, I am very sorry that I could not stop the recent incident. I apologize to the Galatasaray fans, board and the Turkish sports world.”

Oyak Renault, who are league rivals complained to the TBF after suspicions over the ststistics of the 2 games which the rules were violated and on Wednesday a Turkish basketball website showed videos of the 2 games which Cemal Nalga played illegally

The Turkish Basketball Federation (TBF), announced Thursday on its official Web site that an investigation had been launched against Galatasaray Café Crown.

According to TBF regulations, documentation fraud by a club can result in suspensions or “demotion from the league and a fine of 10,000 Turkish Liras.”