Details of MHK President Ferhat Gündoğdu's statement were revealed in the MHK investigation. Gündoğdu argued that the decisions regarding the referees and observers were not taken with the motive of personal hostility or revenge, that the decisions were made collectively by the MHK and were approved by the TFF management.
CLASSIFICATION CHANGES ON MARCH 8, 2022
Gündoğdu was asked about the reason for the exclusion of many referees and observers from the classification while the season continued on March 8, 2022. Gündoğdu said that the decision was implemented with the will of the TFF Board of Directors, after the requests from the public and the clubs, and by taking the evaluation of the legal units. It was stated that many arbitrators applied to the Arbitration Board, a significant number of them were reinstated, and Gündoğdu resigned from his position shortly after.
Gündoğdu was also asked about some of the names that were reinstated by Arbitration in 2022 and remain off the list again in 2024. The same pattern was brought to the agenda through the statements of names such as Burak Şeker, Abdulkadir Bitigen, Alpaslan Dedeş, Hüseyin Göçek, Mert Güzenge, Murat Erdoğan, Alper Ulusoy, Bahattin Şimşek, İsmail Şencan, Koray Gençerler and Mesut Çarık. Gündoğdu stated that he did not act out of personal hostility or revenge, and that the decisions were taken collectively by the MHK and were approved by the TFF management.
SECOND REFEREE LIST IN 2024-2025 SEASON
The statement also included the publication of a second list after the first classification list in the 2024-2025 season. It was reported that some referees and observers on the first list were soon removed from the second list, and the complainants and witnesses said that they were not given concrete and personalized justification for the changes. Gündoğdu argued that the changes were made within the framework of performance, needs and MHK evaluation. It was stated that the statements that 13 referees and 6 observers were later removed from the list were repeated in the statements. In the statements of names such as Süleyman Abay, Taner Gizlenci and Emre Altun, it was stated that the referees and observers who worked in some Trabzonspor matches, especially in 2015, were excluded from the same classification changes years later. Gündoğdu did not accept this situation as a targeted liquidation and justified the performance and board decisions.
VETAS DEBATE IN REFEREE APPOINTMENTS
Gündoğdu was also asked about the statements that referee appointments were changed manually, rather than automatically, through VETAS.
In the statements of Eren Acar, Burak Taşkınsoy and Gamze Durmuş Pakkan, it was explained that VETAS apparently made systematic appointments, but the MHK management was able to change the referees with manual interventions and not assign the referees by leaving them "out of phase". Gündoğdu, on the other hand, rejected the statements that VETAS is not a mandatory system in the legislation, that they developed the system in their own time, and that a referee was arbitrarily "excluded".
I CALLED SOME REFEREES BEFORE THE MATCH
Gündoğdu admitted that he called some referees before the matches during his tenure. He said that he held these meetings to boost morale and to find out if there was an important agenda.
In the case of Ümit Öztürk, he also admitted that a club conveyed its discomfort regarding his specific assignment to the referee. Multiple witnesses said Gündoğdu said he knew who the referees were meeting with or that HTS records could be accessed. Gündoğdu stated that the context of these words was different and reminded that HTS records could be taken into the hands of the judiciary in case of a complaint to prevent internal information from being leaked to the press.
VOICE RECORDING WITH KEREM ERSOY
One of the notable topics of the file was the voice recording made with Kerem Ersoy, which was stated to be obtained from digital materials.
In the statement, it was stated that Gündoğdu used expressions such as "I am on the verge of finishing your refereeing or not", "I am giving you the last chance", "Don't talk about MHK anywhere again" and "You will be dismissed as a referee" to Ersoy.
It was reported that the words "I follow every step" and "The state is following" were also included in the same recording.
"I CANNOT THINK OF YOU SEPARATELY FROM YOUR FATHER"
In the same voice recording, it was stated that Gündoğdu brought up Ersoy's father's contact with some associations and social initiatives and said, "I cannot think of you separately from your father." Ersoy was quoted as saying that his father was not involved in these activities and that he did not act with any group. It was also recorded that Gündoğdu said to Ersoy, "I continue to give you matches despite this," after telling Ersoy that he had received negative information about him. When asked about the audio recording at the police station, Gündoğdu did not answer about the content, stating that the recording might have been obtained illegally and that an investigation could not be conducted based on illegal evidence.
'YOU WILL NOT PLAY THE MATCHES UNTIL FURTHER ORDER'
Abdullah Buğra Taşkınsoy also stated in his statement that, following a VAR intervention in the Gençlerbirliği-İstanbulspor match, Gündoğdu told him and the other VAR team, "You will not play in the competition until further notice," and that he was unable to take part for approximately 70 days. Gündoğdu admitted that Taşkınsoy made a very important mistake and argued that it was normal for referees to be left "off the stage" for a long time in serious mistakes and that this was not mobbing. Taşkınsoy also said that Gündoğdu blamed him for the leak of the seminar date at the beginning of the season to the press, said "I will not give you a match this year" and that he was unable to take part for approximately 75 days. He stated that he was reassigned after it was understood that he did not cause the leak. Gündoğdu, on the other hand, argued that he may have spoken harsh words to the referees in anger from time to time, but he did not impose arbitrary punishments.
OBSERVER REPORTS AND REFEREE NOTES
More than one witness said positive observer reports were turned negative or downgraded by MHK intervention.
Gündoğdu stated that when there is a difference between the REPU evaluation and the observer report, MHK asks the observer to re-evaluate the report, and the observer is free to change or not change the report. Witnesses also said that some referees were promoted despite objective criteria such as examination, foreign language, running test and observer score, while some successful names were demoted. Gündoğdu stated that promotions and demotions were made within the framework of MHK instructions, exams and board decisions, and that "close" referees were not privileged.
THE CLAIM THAT THE EXAM QUESTIONS WERE GIVEN IN ADVANCE
It was stated in the statements of Eren Acar, Burak Taşkınsoy and other witnesses that the exam questions were delivered to some referees in advance, the exam papers were intervened and different scores were entered into the system. Gündoğdu said that he did not personally witness these events and that the exam processes were carried out by the education unit.
Gündoğdu was also asked about the screenshots showing that the referees who will take the exam were sent messages such as "Study these questions", "They will all be free kicks", "There will be 3 cards" in the WhatsApp correspondence, which is said to belong to Ferdi Karadoruk. Gündoğdu said that TFFHGD is not authorized in the referee exams and that he has no information about the correspondence in question.
MILLION MONEY TRANSACTIONS
Based on MASAK raw data, Gündoğdu was asked that between 2007 and 2026, there was a movement of 294 million 116 thousand 419 lira in 5 thousand 773 money outflow transactions and 258 million 289 thousand 170 lira in 3 thousand 620 money inflow transactions. Gündoğdu said that these movements resulted from salaries, retirement bonuses, OYAK, TFF fees, vehicle, house and land purchases and sales and other official transactions. He also stated that the exit volume of 294 million lira was high compared to his income and that he thought there might be an error in the data.
40.14 MILLION LIRA TRANSFER
Gündoğdu was also asked about a total of 40 million 140 thousand lira sent to Fidanlar İnşaat between June 2, 2025 and May 26, 2026. Gündoğdu said that he bought two 2+1 houses for his daughters from the Ankara İncek Manzara Evleri project, and that the payments were made from his own savings with the money obtained from the sale of his wife's inherited summer house. When asked about the recurring transfers of 600 thousand lira to the company, Gündoğdu stated that "Since there are two houses, it paid 1.2 million TL per month for 12 months." It was stated that the total transfer figure of 40.14 million lira in the statement report was not disclosed alone with the stated payment scheme.
PAYMENT OF 9.67 MILLION LIRA FROM TFF
Gündoğdu was also asked about the inflow of a total of 9 million 672 thousand 158.72 lira from TFF in 192 transactions between 2017 and 2026. Gündoğdu said that all payments are attendance fee, duty fee and travel allowance, and the supporting documents are available at TFF. Gündoğdu, who was also asked about the transfers between his accounts in different banks, stated that he made transfers between banks due to deposit interest or money on precious commodities being converted into cash at payment times.
HE REJECTED THE MONEY MOVEMENTS
Gündoğdu was asked directly whether the money transfers in the MASAK data with the TFF, TFFHGD and people in the football-refereeing community were in return for referee assignment, classification promotion, exam, promotion or match results. Gündoğdu flatly denied this. He said that the payments made to TFFHGD are annual visa and membership fees.
"DECISIONS WERE COLLECTIVE"
