TFF official denies hiding UEFA documents, blames ‘fatigue’ for charges

İlhan Helvacı, the TFF's chief legal counselor, has been facing calls for his resignation from last season's Turkish Super League champion, Fenerbahçe, since the statements of an UEFA inspector to the effect that he and another TFF official said Fenerbahçe was certainly involved in match-fixing were revealed to public. Helvacı is in an even tighter spot as Mehmet Ali Aydınlar resigned as chairman of the TFF earlier this week, saying in a shocking revelation that he had not been informed about the receipt of UEFA documents indicating it was the TFF's call to delay a decision regarding Fenerbahçe's participation in the UEFA's Champions League if it deemed the available evidence to be insufficient to determine if the İstanbul team is unquestionably guilty.

Responding to Aydınlar, Helvacı said in televised comments on Wednesday evening that the documents -- prepared by the UEFA in response to a Fenerbahçe appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) against both the TFF and UEFA on its exclusion from the Champions League -- were not kept from Aydınlar. “Our chairman has unfortunately made these statements at a moment of fatigue, or distraction,” Helvacı told CNNTürk. “We gave them to our chairman. Why should we hide them?”

Dismissing calls for his resignation, Helvacı said the TFF could fire him if it deems the accusations to be justified. “I am doing my job honestly. If there are complaints, then the TFF can thank me [for my services] and my relationship with the TFF will come to an end.”

Aydınlar's resignation has further deepened a crisis in Turkish football, hit by a massive match-fixing probe that got under way in July of last year. Fenerbahçe Chairman Aziz Yıldırım, jailed since then pending trial, is the highest-profile suspect in the case and is accused of being a gang leader among charges ranging from match-fixing to paying bribes.

The TFF excluded Fenerbahçe from this season's Champions League in an initial move after the investigation started and decided to instead send runners-up Trabzonspor, which is also involved in the match-fixing probe. The TFF then said it acted under pressure from the UEFA, saying the European body had warned of sanctions against all Turkish clubs if Fenerbahçe was not banned.

Fenerbahçe filed a complaint against both the TFF and UEFA following its expulsion from the Champions League. A statement to CAS by UEFA inspector Pierre Cornu, who had talks with the prosecutor of the case and TFF officials ahead of the decision, was subsequently published in the Turkish media, revealing that he had been told by TFF officials he met that there was no doubt of Fenerbahçe's involvement, while the evidence against two other teams, Trabzonspor and Beşiktaş, was not conclusive.

Helvacı is one of the two TFF officials that met with Cornu in İstanbul during his visit in August. The second TFF official to meet Cornu, Vice Chairman Lütfi Arıboğan, resigned along with Aydınlar on Tuesday.

In a development that further deepened the controversy, the UEFA later withdrew Cornu's statement to the CAS, but insisted in its defense that “it remained entirely within the discretion of the TFF, if not satisfied by the evidence before it (and only before it) of the strength of the case that the Club or its officials had been involved in match fixing, to say that it regarded as premature to withdraw the Club from the UEFA Champions League.”

In reaction to Aydınlar's surprising confession, Fenerbahçe said it was pleased that “we have been proven to be right,” but also “disappointed that it has been confirmed that our participation in the UEFA Champions League has been blocked by certain circles.”

In a statement posted to its website on Wednesday, Fenerbahçe repeated its call for the resignation of Helvacı and vowed “immediate legal action” against those involved in the affair.