Anthony Taylor appointed to lead elite refereeing at Turkish federation

Anthony Taylor has been appointed director of elite refereeing at the Turkish Football Federation, according to BBC. The 47-year-old Englishman will oversee the strategic and technical development of match officials working at the highest levels of Turkish football. His last game as a referee was a 2026 World Cup round-of-16 clash between Spain and Portugal, and he announced his retirement from officiating after that fixture. Taylor's new role arrives less than a month after that decision. Over two decades, he refereed hundreds of matches at home and abroad, with appearances at European Championships, World Cups and finals of major international tournaments. The federation is bringing Taylor in during a turbulent stretch. A five-year probe found that 371 of 571 referees in the country held betting accounts, pushing Turkish football leaders to make sweeping changes across the refereeing system.