Besiktas publishes debt level – club boss Arat talks about player costs and projects

Besiktas President Hasan Arat made statements at the black and white club’s second regular board meeting for 2024 and about the Turkish Cup and Super Cup winner. First of all, Arat emphasized that the past nine months had been very intense for the board: The club boss’s statements are as follows: “Besiktas is going through a big change.” It is difficult to make repairs in a short time in big clubs. Nevertheless, Besiktas is mastering them. Besiktas should achieve results instead of producing excuses. The nine months we have been in office feel like nine years to us. It is so intense that I cannot explain it. We have worked 198 working days. We have embarked on a difficult and long road for big changes. 15,000 new membership applications have been submitted since the election. This is a sign that Besiktas has reached an enthusiasm worthy of its size and has become a much larger, independent community.”

Arat continued: “We went to the President of the Republic with the trophies we won. Besiktas loves its state and the state loves Besiktas. We thank Mr. President again for his invitation and his comments. We won the Turkish Cup and the Super Cup for Besiktas in the two finals we played in 71 days. 33 days after the first training session of our new coach, we played the Super Cup final and you already know the result. The number of players who left football is 42. It has been nine months since we took office. Besiktas paid a performance standard of 42 athletes. These are very high standards. The players who were transferred at midnight and cost five million euros caused great damage to the club. They said, ‘Transfer us a much-needed player, let him have the letters ‘ic’ in his name, let him be famous.’ He cost us 5,165 million euros. He played 711 minutes. His cost per game was 224,000 euros. We really wanted to send him away.”

Arat also commented on other “problem cases” in the squad: “Another player (Amartey) runs away from the facility, we tell him to sign, he doesn’t sign. We signed on the last day of the transfer window, we can’t say some things. We are ashamed. Would you do something like that in your own company? How did you sign it? How did you check it? We have 43,500 active members and almost 15,000 membership applications. We had a big problem with 5,700 members. We gave them time to complete their documents. The Besiktas members who had fully completed their documents came, applied and were accepted as members. Currently, this quote is around 22 percent. Not a single one of the 5,700 members had properly fulfilled the requirements.”

The 64-year-old also commented on the club’s facilities and real estate: “Besiktas clubs are used in elections one day and sent on trips the next day.” Yesterday, our state allocated us 123 hectares of land in Izmir for the construction of a solar power plant. The signatures have been submitted, it is now our property. The Ankara and Cankiri Besiktaslilar associations fought hard. We bought another 223 hectares of land in Cankiri, which belongs to Besiktas. We will build solar power plants in these two places. Besiktas built the 1903 Mehmet Üstünkaya facility with three million dollars. The municipality removed the tenant. It had become a nightclub and Besiktas was paid 40 thousand TL in rent. We are sending a cease and desist notice, there is no company. Look who is looting Besiktas’ property! And the company deliberately gave us a warning that we made a loss here. These are MPs! They are Besiktas supporters! Would you do this if it was your own company? This place no longer belongs to Besiktas, it is under the initiative of the mayor.”

Arat also criticized the economic activities of the former board: “Akatlar is leased from 2021 to 2039. I ask the board members who signed the contract: five tennis courts, a pool, a spa. How did you rent them for only 90,000 TL (about 2,361 euros) in 2021? According to the report, the rent that should be collected here is seven million TL (about 183,674 euros). Isn’t that a sin? 90,000 TL. Are you trying to fool us?” Arat also called for the players to be protected: “We must protect our team at all costs. Two red cards in four games and VAR. May God protect them from the evil eye. They were also attacked on television. I call on all those who have pounced on Besiktas’ property and rights: keep your hands off Besiktas. When I was elected president, I said, ‘From now on, no one will be able to point the finger at the president of Besiktas.’ Those who pointed the finger at Besiktas have disappeared. Now I say that no one will be able to occupy Besiktas’ property. Those who occupy it will find Besiktas in front of them.” Audit Committee member Özgür Sentürk also informed the members about the club’s financial issues at the council meeting held at Istanbul’s Lütfi Kirdar Congress Center. It was announced that Besiktas’ total debt as of May 31, 2024 is 10,638,827,351 TL (approximately EUR 279.15 million).