Yildirim is among 93 defendants, including leading football officials and players being tried in a case which has cast a shadow over the multi-billion dollar league and brought calls from European football's ruling body UEFA for disciplinary action against the clubs involved.
"I've been Fenerbahce's chairman since February 1998, the most honorable duty of my life, which I have fulfilled with absolute honesty," Yildirim, wearing a tie in the club's blue-and-yellow colours, told the crowded courtroom in Istanbul.
"This is not a personal trial it is a trial of Fenerbahce," said an agitated-looking Yildirim. "Some circles created a fantasy in order to say 'stop' to Fenerbahce's ascent," he said, accusing an unidentified group as trying to take over Turkish football.
At the end of last month the TFF chairman and his two deputies quit over the TFF's failure to agree on how to punish clubs caught up in the scandal. The federation will hold an election at the end of the month to choose a new chairman.
The team could be stripped of their domestic title, thrown out of Turkey's top league and forced to play in a lower one, penalties that could cost the club millions.
The indictment refers to 13 matches, including Fenerbahce's 4-3 victory over Sivasspor which clinched the league championship on the final day of last season.
