Female referee takes legal action after getting lifetime ban for alleged sex tape

By Hong Duy October 12, 2024 | 04:32 am PT

Turkish female referee Elif Karaarslan claimed that the leaked sex tape apparently featuring her with referee observer Orhan Erdemir, who is 37 years her senior, was a product of AI and decided to take legal action.

"There is a sex video that is intended to be associated with me, but it has nothing to do with me and the quality of the image is extremely bad. I am not the person in the video and the fact that I am facing such a serious accusation is an attack on a woman's honor," Karaarslan told Marca.

Karaarslan, 24, was handed a lifetime ban by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) after she was reportedly spotted having sex with Erdermir, 61, in a video, The Sun reported.

Elif Karaarslan as a referee. Photo by Instagram/@elifkaraarslan_17

The TFF also applied the same punishment to Erdermir, a former FIFA official.

Karaarslan's lawyer claimed that the image in the video was unclear, heavily edited and created with malicious intent.

"A montaged video was published on social media, which was not the original and was created entirely through artificial intelligence from someone else's social media account and has no relation to the client in any way," said the statement published online.

"When the video is examined, it is very clear that the image is not clear and that the parties to the relationship were completely edited by computer."

Karaarslan played for the Besiktas women's team before retiring due to injury. She then switched to refereeing.

Erdemir was a FIFA referee from 1999 to 2002. He officiated matches in the 2002 World Cup qualifiers, the 2004 Euro qualifiers and the 2001 FIFA U20 World Cup.