Statement from the Beşiktaş Divan Board Presidency

The Beşiktaş Divan Board Presidency has issued a statement regarding the events that have taken place at the club in recent weeks. Emphasizing that all of the club's boards are working in cooperation, the statement said, "The management turmoil that our Beşiktaş has experienced in recent weeks naturally saddens us all. It is evident that some unfair and even intentional posts made on social media and in the press are aimed at belittling our club and our boards. As the Divan Presidential Board, we would like to inform the public about the process we have experienced recently and what we have done.

The activities of our Board of Directors, chaired by Hasan Arat, who took office after being elected with a large majority on December 3, 2023, have always been closely monitored. The draft statute, which we as the Divan Presidential Board prepared by working for nearly 2 years, was submitted to the general assembly by the Hasan Arat administration after changing some articles that we attached great importance to, and it was accepted on May 11, 2024.

With this statute amendment, some duties and powers of the Divan Board were removed from the statute, leading to potential chaos. Furthermore, our proposal to establish a High Advisory Board, which we envisioned in this statute and proposed to meet every month, consisting of 100-150 members from the Divan Board, was removed from the statute. In the days when the transfers made by the Hasan Arat administration in the last 6 months and the unsuccessful results in the last few weeks began to be discussed at our Club, a meeting was held with Hasan Arat on November 26 by our Divan President Tevfik Yamantürk and 2nd President Fethi Hinginar upon our request for a meeting as the Divan Presidency. Following this meeting, the matter was shared by our Divan Presidency with the other board presidents and the situation was evaluated. On this occasion, we would also like to state that Beşiktaş's Divan, Supervisory, Disciplinary, and Membership and Registry Boards are working in very close cooperation," the statement read.

REQUEST FOR POSTPONEMENT

The statement, which noted that they respect the extraordinary general assembly decision taken by the club, included the following expressions:

"Following this meeting, in the face of the events that developed after President Hasan Arat resigned first from Futbol A.Ş. and subsequently from the Chairmanship of the Board of Directors, the boards held continuous meetings and maintained communication to evaluate the situation. Meetings were held with both 2nd President Hüseyin Yücel and General Secretary Kaan Şakul, and suggestions were made to ensure that our Club emerges from this chaos with the least amount of damage. In this process, the process regarding the postponement of our Divan Board meeting, which we planned for December 21, 2024, developed as follows: Our first letter to the board of directors was dated October 16, 2024, and it was requested that our Divan Board Meeting be held on December 21, 2024, at the ICEC Lütfi Kırdar Congress Center.

With the agreement of the board of directors, a reservation was made at the Lütfi Kırdar Congress Center for the Divan Board meeting. Upon the development of events regarding Hasan Arat's resignation, notification was made to Hüseyin Yücel and General Secretary Kaan Şakul to move the meeting forward to invite our divan board to an urgent meeting, to be held on December 14, the earliest possible date. Just as we were about to make our announcements in this way, it was learned that the Supervisory Board had not received the financial reports and that the reports would not be ready in time for the meeting.

While these discussions were ongoing, it was learned that Hüseyin Yücel wanted to receive a vote of confidence to continue his Presidency and that an Extraordinary General Assembly Decision would be taken for this reason on December 22 and 29, 2024. We also respect this decision. On the same day, although Hüseyin Yücel had agreed to the holding of our meeting, he called our divan president and requested the postponement of our divan board meeting due to the Extraordinary General Assembly. When it was stated to them that such a postponement was not seen as appropriate, Hüseyin Yücel welcomed this view positively, but later, Board of Directors member Kadir Kılıç first called our divan president to convey the Board of Directors' decision to postpone the meeting, and then notification was made to our Divan Presidency in writing.

It is clear that holding our Divan Meeting without the Board of Directors and without the Supervisory Board report would not provide any benefit to our club. In addition, it is a matter known to everyone that the meeting organization must be provided by the club. We are following all these processes very closely and consider it our duty to inform our club and our community in the most accurate way. However, we strongly condemn the baseless and unfair criticisms made about our Divan Presidency on social media and in the press, as well as the intentional slander and rhetoric mentioning the appointment of a trustee. We would like to once again inform all our Beşiktaş brothers and the public of a very important point that we have always expressed; the Divan Presidency, the Divan Presidential Board, and all our other boards are working and will continue to work to voice Beşiktaş's issues and problems in the necessary places and at the necessary times and to produce solutions, rather than discussing them in public and giving rise to gossip."