Besiktas club president Fikret Orman has announced the club’s debt during the club’s regular meeting of the council in Vodafone Park.
The Black Eagles have revealed their total debt as a club to the public during a meeting attended by the president, board of directors and other club management personnel. In attendance were also manager Senol Gunes and several first-team players.
The exact figure is a staggering 1,948,589,126 Turkish Lira. That is approximately €418,134,633.17 as of today. While the figure may be surprising to supporters, those within the club’s staff think otherwise.
Besiktas have been accumulating debt for several years now, especially having completed a new, state-of-the-art stadium with a capacity of 41,188 spectators back in April of 2016. The stadium alone cost an estimated €110 million.
The president announced to those in attendance the club was continuously looking at diversifying their revenue streams and are regularly consulting their financial advisers to make sure they meet UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules.
President Orman addressed several topics that were on the agenda and he brought up the fact that the club were doing good business deals in spite of the fact of the large amount of debt;
“We’ve increased our brand value. Yes, we have debts. But it’s not just us, it’s a Turkish sport problem. My friends and I didn’t come here to just solve the financial issues. We also want to win championships and be happy. We find the money necessary and we bring it. We bought a player for $500,000 and sold him for €26 million (referring to Cenk Tosun). We want to be champions. For the last two seasons, we were the champions and this year we will be again.”
