North Cyprus football club kicked out of association

North Cyprus football club Miracle Degirmenlik, based in the Lefkosia district village of Değirmenlik, on Wednesday had their membership of the Cyprus Turkish Football Association (CTFA) suspended over concerns relating to the composition of the club’s administration.

The CTFA announced that it had been sent a letter by the Turkish Cypriot Lefkosia ‘district office’ announcing that the club would be inspected over potential lawbreaking on the part of its administration, adding that the accusations levelled against the club in the letter are “serious” and relate to “continuous violations”.

Newspaper Yeni Duzen reported that the ‘district office’ had objected to the composition of the club’s administration based as it “did not hold meetings in accordance with the law”, and because club chairman Hakan Torehan “was previously convicted of a disgraceful crime and therefore could not be chairman”.

 The “disgraceful crime” in question saw Torehan, who was born in London, sentenced to a year in prison in 2019 after a court found that he had written the code for an illegal virtual betting operation.

The newspaper also reported that the CTFA have given Miracle Degirmenlik until the end of the month to prove that its administration has been operating legally, with the club’s fixture away against Epiko-based side Cihangir on Saturday having been suspended.

Miracle Degirmenlik chairman Hakan Torehan [centre] with two players he signed from Baf Ulku Yurdu in 2023, winger Onur Konugus [left] and goalkeeper Erdogan Nay [right].

Miracle Degirmenlik have been an object of curiosity in Turkish Cypriot football since the pandemic, experiencing a meteoric rise through the divisions and signing many of the best Turkish Cypriot footballers money can buy, but frequently having their success marred by on-pitch and off-pitch controversies.

The club, then known simply as ‘Degirmenlik’ were initially promoted to the north’s second tier in 2020, before football was cancelled for a year in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

They then returned from the break bearing the name ‘Miracle’, named after Torehan’s cryptocurrency company Miracle Cash & More, and were promoted for the second season in a row in 2022 to take their place in north Cyprus’s Super League.

In the off-season, the club signed many established Super League clubs’ star players and thus immediately found themselves in a title race in their first season in the top flight.

However, when the CTFA refused to sanction their signing of Turkish forward Burak Kocar from Nicosia-based club Gocmenkoy in January 2023, they attempted to sue the CTFA, and the CTFA responded by kicking them out of the Super League.

Despite playing no competitive football for nine months thereafter, they held on to the core of their squad, and immediately won promotion back to the Super League, wrapping up the second division title with six games remaining.

They had then once again started this season well, and prior to their suspension from the CTFA on Wednesday sat second in the Super League, behind Famagusta-based defending champions Magusa Turk Gucu on only goal difference with a game in hand.

Hakan Torehan after being arrested in 2018. He was sentenced to a year in prison the following year

The club has never been far from controversy off the pitch, however, with their away fixture at Esentepe-based side Esentepe on February 1 having been postponed amid allegations of attempted match fixing.

Esentepe had reported Miracle Degirmenlik to the CTFA alleging attempts at match-fixing related to the match, with former Miracle Degirmenlik player Kasim Tagman and Turk Ocagi Limasol club chairman Ezel Kaynak also now under investigation as part of the same case.

A week later, news website Tribun Kibris reported that as part of the CTFA’s investigations into the club, it found that the cheques the club had paid to Esentepe to sign three of its players in previous years had all bounced due to insufficient funds.

Another consequence of the fallout from the allegations was related to the television rights granted by the CTFA to screen Turkish Cypriot football matches.

The rights for this season had been granted to Miracle Spor TV, owned by Torehan, but two football journalists, Songuc Kursad and Ogun Genc Kacmaz, both resigned from the channel after the allegations came to light, saying the channel had “lost its impartiality” over the matter.

Days later, the CTFA tore up its contract with Miracle Spor TV and granted them to the north’s public broadcaster BRT.

The big screen installed by Torehan at the football ground in Kythrea

The alleged incident related to Esentepe is not the first time the club has been accused of match fixing, with Vasilia-based side Karsiyaka having accused them of the same a year ago.

Miracle was Karsiyaka’s title sponsor at the time, and Karsiyaka chairman Umut Duzdaban alleged that Torehan had threatened to end the club’s sponsorship deal with immediate affect if they did not agree to lose their game with Miracle Degirmenlik. Karsiyaka responded by removing the word ‘Miracle’ from their own name.

Away from football, Torehan’s wife Ebru Torehan was the north’s ruling coalition’s largest party the UBP’s candidate to be mayor of the Kythrea and Louroujina municipality in 2022.

Miracle Degirmenlik were fined in 2022 after playing adverts for Ebru Torehan’s campaign on the big screen at their ground in Kythrea during matches, and Torehan came second in the election, which was won by Ali Karavezirler.

A Miracle Cash & More shop

Torehan’s cryptocurrency company Miracle Cash & More has also faced allegations of being a “scam” in the past, with famous New Zealand-based “ponzi scheme avenger” Danny de Hek having written at length about the company last year.

De Hek wrote that Miracle Cash & More claimed to be valued at $3.5 billion (€3.4bn) “despite only generating $10,000 (€9,610) in revenue”, and that the company “falsely claimed partnerships with reputable companies like Coinbase and Bitpanda”.

He added that the company “operates under a licence revoked by the Estonian money laundering bureau” and is not licenced to operate in the United Kingdom, saying, “these regulatory issues raise significant red flags about the company’s legitimacy and legal standing”.

Additionally, he said, “investments in Miracle Cash & More involve a multi-level marketing scheme where 30 per cent of investors’ money goes towards commissions before any funds reach the intended investment.

“This structure is often characteristic of pyramid schemes,” he said.

Torehan has always maintained his innocence and says his business dealings are legal and above board.