The Beşiktaş Black Eagles, placed a distant fourth, may be out of reach of the Turkcell Super League frontrunners, but young Chairman Yıldırım Demirören refuses to be downhearted and is already planning for next season.

This week Demirören attended a panel titled “We did not fall in love to be loved” organized by the Association for Beşiktaş Lovers at Zübeyde Hanım Teachers’ Guesthouse in Ataşehir. He noted in a speech that he became chairman of Beşiktaş to serve the community, not for pleasure. In reference to the panel title, Demirören said he became chairman to the club to protect the interests of Beşiktaş, not to be loved. Noting that the Beşiktaş community should promote unity and solidarity all the time, Demirören said: “Beşiktaş will not achieve great things unless it promotes unity and solidarity. We cannot attain success if we ask for elections after every loss. Nobody could stop us if we were united.”

Stressing that they are determined to keep coach Ertuğrul Sağlam, Demirören said: “We will maintain our contract with Ertuğrul Sağlam. Until three weeks ago, this squad was the leader of the league and the No.1 candidate for championship. If we had not lost 15 points because of refereeing errors, we would have sung victory songs by now. In reality, this year Beşiktaş is the champion of hearts. Our 15 points have been stolen from us. I do not want to talk about the referee mistakes anymore because everybody sees and accepts it. Beşiktaş’s championship has been stolen this year. In this case, neither the players nor the coach should be considered unsuccessful. We will keep Ertuğrul Sağlam.”
Recalling that he did not approve of transfers made by individual members in the executive board, Demirören said they would set up a transfer committee which will include a few board members and make the transfers based on views and recommendations by the coach and the manager.
Asked whether they will take part in the Intertoto Cup if they finish the race in fourth place, Demirören said: “We have to take part in this tournament. This is actually a pre-qualification round before the UEFA Cup. Maybe the title does not sound so great, but you can move on to the UEFA Cup after eliminating two opponents.”
Noting that he had given $40 million to Beşiktaş so far, Demirören said: “I never relied on this money in the elections. Some sought to make me look like I tried to benefit from this in the elections.”
The Beşiktaş boss seems to be blaming everything and everyone except himself, he may be right, because he is battling adversity in many forms. But he should always remember that the Shakespearean line “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown” is equally right.
Recalling that anybody is entitled to run for chairmanship at Beşiktaş, Demirören said: “But these candidates should make themselves known only at the election times. Otherwise, they will inflict harm on Beşiktaş.”
Noting that Fenerbahçe represented Turaaa in Europe with success and that it is still one of the leading candidates for the championship title, Demirören said he disapproved of the reaction by some fans in the aftermath of the game between Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray. “What happened was not right. The same thing is sometimes done in Beşiktaş. These actions are inappropriate. I told the federation chairman that we all should discuss the mistakes in soccer to achieve a better soccer standard. There are some writers who instigate the fans to curse the Beşiktaş chairman. I came here via election; I will step down via election. I was asked whether I will resign considering the cursing of those like Serdar Bilgili. I won’t. Curses are now organized; these are wrong; these are harmful to Beşiktaş,” he stated.
Chairman Demirören, in response to a question on the tension with Bursaspor, said: “I sat in the section reserved for the fans at the game in Bursa because I was on a penalty. This was interpreted differently. If I had not received that penalty, I would have called the Bursa fans to come to İnönü Stadium. Unfortunately, a person made some unfortunate remarks alleging that the game between Beşiktaş and Çaykur Rizespor would be forfeited. Considering these allegations, we decided not to admit viewers to the game. We will play many more matches with Bursapor. Next season, we will be hosting the Bursa fans. But this should not be unilateral. The executives should be careful about their statements. It is not meaningful and logical to keep this tension alive because it hurts Turkish soccer.” In response to a question on a stadium project, Demirören said: “We would like to get started with the project in the second half of June. We are working on the preliminary stage of the project. We would like to play our games next season at Kasımpaşa Stadium after the start of the stadium construction. Most probably we will have our games in the European cups at the Olympic Stadium.”