Low income, not high debt hurts Turkish football

Turkish clubs need to shift their focus from spending levels to income levels in order to deal with their high debts, said an expert. The big three historic clubs could design a regional branding strategy to increase their incomes, Mete İkiz told the Daily News.

Q: Turkish Banking Association (TBB) and the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) are in talks to restructure the debts of the football clubs. How bad is their situation?

A: Clubs especially their subsidiaries running the football activities are hugely indebted creating crucial financial bottlenecks.
There is an image that Turkish football is in a state of bankruptcy. I don't agree that this is the case.

The total debt of 18 clubs competing in the first league is at around 9.5 billion Turkish Liras and 86 percent belong to the big four, according to the TFF.

So, the ones with the mounting debt are the "big four," Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe, Beşiktaş and Trabzonspor.

But these are clubs competing for years in UEFA champion leagues; in European cups. When you look to their competitors you would see that the budget of the smallest is four or five times bigger than theirs.

In order to compete in these leagues you have to set up a strong team and that means spending. This is the rule in the world.

However, our shortcoming is this: While setting up the right team we do not generate enough the income that this team should generate.

We keep concentrating on the expenses. But no one questions why the income is not high enough. Today, instead of talking on Turkish football's debt, we need to talk about how to increase the income.;

Looking at their history, at their past contributions to the Turkish football, it is...