Former Besiktas technical director Samet Aybaba has claimed the deal to take Joe Worrall to the club from Nottingham Forest in January was done without his permission.
Journalist Yağız Sabuncuoğlu provides comments from the 69-year-old today and explains something of a transfer scandal involving Nottingham Forest.
Worrall joined Besiktas on 5 February, with the Turkish club initially paying €500,000 for the loan deal and having an option to make it permanent in the summer.
That never happened as Worrall made just nine appearances totalling 587 minutes in total before heading back to Nottingham Forest and then joining Burnley on a permanent transfer in the summer.
The move to Turkey can certainly been seen as something of a waste of time for the player, who never found his feet in the Super Lig and never appeared likely to make the transfer a permanent one.
And it seems it was done without Aybaba’s permission, with the former ‘team coordinator’ accusing Besiktas of forging his signature and then withdrawing their offer and doing things different.
Aybaba is quoted a saying the “the board made a €5m transfer offer for Joe Worrall without asking me, using my signature.”
Sabuncuoğlu then explains this statement is the ‘basis of an email’ that was sent saying ‘we made an offer by mistake’, before adding that this email was sent to Nottingham Forest to cover up the ‘fake signature business’ involving Aybaba.
This €5m offer, which was seemingly done without his permission, was then withdrew and Worrall was brought on loan for €500,000 instead.
So, according to Aybaba and Sabuncuoğlu, Besiktas faked the technical director’s signature in a €5m bid to Nottingham Forest then tried to cover up that up by saying an email had been sent by mistake. The offer was withdrawn, and they then signed the defender on loan instead.
It’s a big claim from the pair, but it seems Aybaba, who was removed from his position earlier this week, has plenty to say and there may be more to come from this in the coming days and weeks.
