ISTANBUL, Aug 3: The Turkish Football Association (TFA) on Thursday announced an investigation into claims that a federation official offered to rig a match last season to save first division side Samsunspor from relegation.

The TFA also said it had toughened sanctions against match-fixing at a time when claims of corruption have cast a pall over Turkish football just before the start of the new season this weekend.

“The Association's executive board has set up a new committee to look into allegations of match-fixing regarding the Samsunspor-Ankaragucu match,” near the end of the 2005-2006 season, a brief statement from the TFA said.

Following the football scandal in Italy, the Turkish media unleashed a flood of match-rigging claims going back several years and involving a number of clubs, including the country's top teams.

The current probe came after former Samsunspor president Adnan Olmez told the daily

Vatan in an interview last month how he received an offer in April to rig a critical match with Ankaragucu, just three weeks before the end of the season.

Olmez alleged that Mehmet Kemal Unsal, the TFA's number three and a former Ankaragucu vice-president, asked him for 715,000 Turkish lira (about US$477,000) to ensure that Samsunspor won the match.

Unsal was with Bulent Yavuz, former head of the TFA central board of referees, when he made the offer during a meeting at an Ankara hotel, Olmez claimed. He said he turned down the offer.

Samsunspor went on to defeat the Ankara team 2-1 on home turf, but failed to escape relegation when it completed the season with 36 points and second from bottom. Olmez resigned soon after.

“I resigned because I couldn't stand all this filth,” Olmez told Vatan.

This is the second such investigation launched by the TFA, which announced last month that it was looking into allegations that Denizlispor also rigged a match to avoid relegation.

Under new disciplinary rules drawn up at an executive board meeting late on Wednesday, any person involved in match-fixing will be suspended for six months to two years, while clubs will be relegated, the TFA statement said.

If a club is found to have rigged a match in previous seasons, it will only have points deducted, it added.

The Association also removed a two-year statute of limitations on investigations into match-rigging claims.

Penalties against swearing and racism were also toughened.

A club whose fans use foul language during matches will be fined 10,000 to 250,000 Turkish lira ($6,700 to 167,000) on a first violation, face a doubled fine on the second and risk point deductions for subsequent violations, the TFA said.

Any racist act will result in a three-point deduction on a first violation, a six-point deduction on the second and relegation on the third, it said.—AFP