5 Reasons Why Turkey's Referees Should Have Been Caught Way Earlier

The reputational fallout from Turkey's betting scandal may take years to fix. But it could so easily have been avoided.

By the time Turkish football authorities finally audited their referees, the damage had already been done.

As revealed this week, over 150 referees were actively betting on football. More than 370 had registered betting accounts. One official bet 18,227 times. Dozens more did so over 1,000 times. Some referees were placing bets while working matches. They used real names on legal accounts, they never expected to get into trouble.

But for years, nobody thought to check referee IDs against betting company registries, despite whistleblowers sounding the alarm.

The Sports and Crime Briefing lays out five reasons the audit should have happened far sooner, and the mess Turkey now faces.