Turkish female referee Elif Karaarslan has been banned from football for life after she allegedly featured in a sex tape with referee observer Orhan Erdemir, who is 37 years her senior.
Karaarslan, 24, was handed the ban by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) after she was reportedly spotted having sex with Erdermir, 61, in a video, The Sun reported.
The TFF also applied the same punishment to Erdermir, a former FIFA official.
Karaarslan, who has 404,000 followers on Instagram, denied being the person in the leaked sex tape and she intends to appeal.
|
Elif Karaarslan as a referee. Photo by Instagram/@elifkaraarslan_17 |
“I will have a long road ahead legally, but will overcome in the strongest and most robust way, she wrote. I look forward to your full support and love in this process. Crying, screaming and being sad are not things I would do. That is not me,” she wrote on Instagram.
“I will stand by my cause until the end. I am just one of many who are being harmed – I hope I am the last.”
Before becoming a referee, Karaarslan played for Besiktas. However, injuries forced her to retire.
Erdemir said that the video was circulated without his permission and admitted his career is now over.
“My honor in my family, my social circle and the refereeing community has been blown away,” The Sun quoted him as saying. “In addition to my financial losses, the emotional damage I have suffered is indescribable.”
Erdemir was a FIFA referee between 1999 and 2002. He also took charge of games in Turkey’s Super Lig before becoming an observer of his fellow referees.
