Former Premier League referee Anthony Taylor has been appointed chairman of the Turkish Football Federation’s Central Referee Board.
The TFF confirmed the information on Tuesday, following the hiring of former Besiktas supervisor Sergen Yalcin as nationwide group supervisor.
Taylor retired final month after a 22-year profession spanning 831 matches. The 47-year-old’s ultimate refereeing project was the round-of-16 affair between Portugal and Spain on the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Taylor, 48, joined the TFF as Elite Referee Director in the course of the summer time, shortly after asserting his retirement from refereeing. As chairman of the Central Referee Board, the Englishman will succeed Ferhat Gundogdu, who was arrested, along with the vice-chairman and five others, for fraud in refereeing exams, intimidation, and the manipulation of referee appointments.
Turkish soccer has been embroiled in a large-scale betting and match-fixing scandal since late 2025, when 149 officers have been suspended. Since then, over 1,000 footballers have been suspended, 17 high-ranking membership officers have been arrested, and 448 membership officers have been referred to the federation’s disciplinary committee for putting bets while in workplace.
