Istanbul: Five years ago it looked like the Istanbul big three — Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas — were about to become two. Besiktas were struggling with 250 million pounds (Dh1.1 billion) of debt, 142 lawsuits and a suspension from Uefa competitions.
“Nobody else wanted to run this club, we were on the verge of collapse,” Fikret Orman said after his election as Besiktas president in 2012 — and he was probably right.
Five years on, however, it is a completely different story. Besiktas not only stayed in the big three, they have overtaken the other two to win the past two league titles. They have built a new stadium to replace the old Inonu: the 41,903-capacity — 1903 being the founding year of the club — Vodafone Arena is located opposite the Dolmabahce Palace in an idyllic setting on the banks of the Bosphorus. They are also recruiting smartly with the Real Madrid defender Pepe one of the players to have joined this summer.
The Black Eagles are in the midst of a golden era but it is important to remember that so were Galatasaray just a few years back. Fenerbahce, Besiktas and Galatasaray all have had their ups and downs but usually still compete for honours at the end of the season. Orman now, however, has his eye on a bigger prize, a global brand with a 100 million strong fanbase.
Besiktas have just made history in becoming the first Turkish club to play a football match in China. On Wednesday they took on Schalke in Zhuhai and they are likely to return to the region. Manchester United, Chelsea, Barcelona and Bayern Munich regularly play pre-season games in east Asia as they feel the jet lag and sweltering heat is a small price to pay in order to push the brand internationally.
Turkish football, like in so many areas, is still playing catch-up.
“Chelsea is an area similar to Ortakoy in Besiktas, but they have 300 million fans across the world,” Orman said in April when explaining plans to transform the club into a worldwide brand. “If Chelsea can have such a global reach, why can’t we?”
Chelsea and Besiktas are still located in pretty much the same area they found themselves 100 years ago. Both are neighborhood clubs in two of the biggest cities in the Uefa zone and both have had their fair share of domestic success.
But while Besiktas claim to have 30 million fans, Chelsea boast around 10 times as many. “Ultimately, our aim is to make Besiktas a global brand, we already have 30 million fans but our target is 100 million around the world,” Orman tells the Guardian.
“The China tour is the first significant step taken towards our goal. We will step up efforts over the next few seasons. Chinese officials have visited us and we will hold further talks over the course of the tour to discuss long-term plans.
“We will continue pushing our globalisation project on all fronts and follow up our China tour with projects in other countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia as well as Europe and the United States.”
The league is financially the sixth largest in Europe — after the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Serie A — but there has been a glaring obstacle to growth. The main problem Turkish clubs have had is the league’s lack of coverage abroad. The Premier League can be viewed in 212 territories.
The Super Lig will this season be aired outside of Turkey — in France — for the first time. The league is finally beginning to look outside the country’s borders for a wider audience and, with more overseas broadcasting deals in the pipeline, there will be an unprecedented reach.
For Besiktas, meanwhile, the financial disaster that nearly brough the club to its knees ended up being a blessing in disguise.
Footballing myopia has been commonplace in the Super Lig for years. The member-based structure resulting in presidential elections once every two or three years has gone from being a democratic exercise of fan power to a vehicle for short-termism.
Building a successful global brand takes time and, so far, club presidents have been elected on unrealistic promises. The electorate are often won by delusions of grandeur rarely fulfilled — or rarely given time to be. The merry-go-round process is also one of the reasons Turkish clubs have no qualms paying over the odds for over-the-hill players. Everything is geared towards short-term success. Long-term strategic planning is rare and accountability is often an alien concept.
Orman, however, was given the rare luxury of being able to build from scratch. Much needed changes were made. The club were forced to accept mistakes, reflect and implement clear long-term plans to develop their youth infrastructure, facilities and scouting. The club are not in a healthy financial position just yet but spending has been brought under control.
Galatasaray and Fenerbahce remain in a stronger financial position than the Eagles. Besiktas’s arch-rivals are the only Turkish sides with a Top 50 brand value according to Brand Finance.
Orman is aware that Besiktas’s path to competing with and eventually overtaking their Istanbul rivals is partly down to taking the club global. “The quality of the league is rapidly developing,” he says.
“The Super Lig is attracting big names and talented players. It is time to take Besiktas outside Turkey. We are taking the first steps towards becoming a global brand.
“We have players known across the world with Pepe, [former Al Ahli player Ricardo] Quaresma and Talisca just a few examples. We have the players but have not marketed ourselves outside of Turkey, it is an unexplored avenue.
“Becoming a global club is not going to happen overnight but everything has a beginning. He who dares wins. We have a long-term vision and the steps being taking today will lay a foundation for the future.”
Turkish fans need no introduction. The league giants rarely go far in the Champions League but manage to compete with most of the big teams in terms of social media following.
Now for growing the fan base outside Turkey. Countless friendlies has been played over the past week.
The Besiktas versus Schalke match will have gone largely unnoticed but if the Black Eagles start to become a global brand of sorts over the next few years, this is where it all began.
