Besiktas president visits Malaysia to form ties

The Black Eagles are pushing forward with their objective of expanding their brand into Asia.

Besiktas president Fikret Orman spent the earlier part of the week in Malaysia as he met with president of Football Association of Malaysia, Dato Haji Hamidin Haji Mohd Amin.

During his visit, the two officials discussed plans which included joint football ventures in the near future such as hosting training camps for Besiktas in the Southeast Asian country as well as hosting friendlies between clubs from the two nations.

Near the end of the meeting, Orman handed his Malaysian counterpart a Besiktas jersey as a departing gift.

Orman is reported to also have paid a visit to Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa to exchange ideas and discuss the prospects of bringing Turkish and Asian football closer together.

Sources close to the Besiktas president have revealed he plans to hold training camps and friendlies in Malaysia, Japan or Indonesia in the summer.

A number of plans to increase revenue are reported to be in the works, one of which is a potential deal between Air Asia and Besiktas. According to the reports, the airline will sell souvenirs such as toy planes and lanyards with the Besiktas logo.

Since the arrival of Japanese star Shinji Kagawa, Besiktas have attracted major interest from audiences in Asia which has lead to their games being broadcasted live in 9 different countries across Asia.

The channels which carry Besiktas games in Asia are;

Star Sports in Pakistan, SMG in China, beINSports in Indonesia, Phillipines, and Thailand, NHK in Japan, SpoTV in South Korea, ASTRO TV in Malaysia and Singtel TV in Singapore.