体坛英语新闻：Turkish Besiktas forfeits Turkish cup

ISTANBUL, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Cup champions Besiktas on Thursday forfeited the Turkish Cup they won last year until the legal proceedings against some of their members in alleged match-fixing allegations are complete.

Besiktas has become the latest high-profile club to be implicated in the match-fixing scandal gripping Turkey.

Besiktas Chairman Yildirim Demiroren said in a statement that the club will reclaim its trophy after the legal process is complete and club officials are cleared of wrongdoing.

Earlier on Thursday an Istanbul court hearing the case ordered the arrest of the deputy chairman and manager of the club along with two players from another club.

Turkish football has been dealt a major blow after police launched an operation in more than a dozen cities and held more than 50 people on July 3 to investigate alleged match fixing during matches last season.

Police said it had evidence that 19 matches were manipulated in the Turkish 1st and 2nd divisions last season.

Aziz Yildirim, chairman of Turkish league champions Fenerbahce, who was arrested last weekend, is one of the high-profile figures to have been arrested as part of this probe.

The Turkish Football Federation earlier this week decided not to take any punitive action against any club until the judicial process is complete and alleged charges are proved.

It also said in a statement that it had requested documents regarding the case from the relevant authorities but has not received any to date.