Once seen as a place to land for an aging star on the downside of his career, Turkey's Super Lig is emerging as a serious player in the transfer market — even rivaling Saudi Arabia, a football financial powerhouse in recent years.

The sums being offered by Istanbul's "big three" — Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas — are allowing them to attract international stars such as Victor Osimhen, Leroy Sane and Jhon Duran.

Super Lig champions Galatasaray, who had Osimhen on loan last season, have now agreed to pay Napoli €75 million ($87 million) for the Nigerian striker's permanent transfer. This is not only by far the most expensive signing in Turkish football history, but it's also the fourth-most expensive transfer of the current transfer window globally.

Galatasaray are to pay Osimhen a net annual salary of €21 million, while German international Sane, recently signed from Bayern Munich, is to earn €12 million per year.

Fenerbahce's new striker, Jhon Duran, on loan from Saudi club Al-Nassr, will reportedly earn close to €20 million net annually. His former teammate Anderson Talisca, who joined Fenerbahce from Al-Nassr in January, is said to be earning €15 million per year.

But Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas are splashing out on record-breaking signings despite a high debt burden and being located in a country that's been struggling economically.

The combined debt of the trio and Trabzonspor, widely seen as Turkey's fourth biggest club, is thought to exceed €1 billion, as their revenues have long fallen short of covering their expenditures.

'Bread and circuses'

Some believe that the government tacitly supports the increased spending, as high-profile signings in this football-crazy country serve to deflect attention away from problems like high inflation and unemployment.

"Turning a blind eye to the transfer spectacle can be interpreted as part of an effort to distract the masses during an economic crisis, to defuse public anger, and to keep clubs — and their fan bases — under control," sports columnist Onur Ozgen told DW. 

"We are living through a local version of 'panem et circenses', or bread and circuses politics," added Ozgen, who writes for Evrensel, one of the few remaining opposition dailies in print in Turkey.

Ozgen is by no means alone in this assessment.

"Football dominates the agenda of poor communities," football economist Tugrul Aksar told DW.

"People who can't even afford to bring bread home are watching transfer news all day long," explained the founder of Futbolekonomi.com, Turkey's only website dedicated to reporting on the business side of football.

As a result, most fans are focused the big-name signings, not on the financial burden associated with them.

"There's fierce competition between us and our archrival Fenerbahce in the Turkish league. We must maintain our superiority at all costs — in fact, we need to widen the gap," Mehmet, a Galatasaray fan told DW.

"Big signings also give us a psychological edge over our rivals."

Over 90% of Turkish football fans support one of the big three, giving them enormous political clout. Their vast fan bases represent a powerful "vote bank" often courted by governments, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party, the AKP.

In recent years, the three clubs have received substantial state support in efforts to boost their revenues. Backed by approval by the Capital Markets Board of Turkey, which operates under the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, they have repeatedly issued new shares to raise capital from investors.

Meanwhile, their debts have been restructured through loan agreements with public banks.

"Big clubs in Turkey have long operated with close ties to the state," Ahmet Talimciler, professor of sociology at Bakircay University in Izmir told DW.

"Because their debts are periodically written off or forgiven, they continue to make expensive signings without hesitation."

Discouraging fan involvement in anti-government protests

In 2022 the government introduced a law that it said was meant to prevent reckless borrowing by clubs. This law provides for serious sanctions, including clauses that allow prison sentences for officials who drive their clubs into debt. However, the law, which permits clubs to borrow only up to 10% of their previous year's gross revenue, has never been enforced.

Many believe the ruling party uses this law as a stick against football clubs and fan groups to control them.

In Turkey's past, fan groups frequently took to the streets during protests, particularly the 2013 Gezi demonstrations against Erdogan's government. Until recently, stadiums were among the few places where fans could openly express dissent.

However, no chants of dissent have been heard in stadiums since the March arrest of Ekrem Imamoglu, the presidential candidate of the main opposition CHP party.

Fan groups have also been notably absent from the ongoing street protests sparked by Imamoglu's arrest.

According to CHP lawmaker Mustafa Adiguzel, this is no accident. He told DW that the ruling AKP seems to have made a deal with the big three, in which they agree to keep their fans groups in line in exchange for the government looking the other way on spending on players.

"The government, which uses the auditing of clubs as a reward-and-punishment mechanism, is effectively assigning club management the task of controlling the stands," Adiguzel told DW.

According to Ozgen, the government's "stick" not only keeps club executives in line but also pushes fans into self-censorship. He pointed to the mandatory electronic ticketing system Passolig and stadium cameras as tools used to create "politics-free stands."

Economist Aksar believes that if the law were applied, many club officials would face legal action, but excessive borrowing is allowed deliberately.

"Big clubs are kept indebted to ensure their compliance with the government," he said.

The Turkish Ministry of Sports has not yet responded to a DW query on how the clubs have been able to continue borrowing despite the law meant to curb the practice.

Can the spending spree continue?

Ozgen sees the big three as chasing a fantasy of becoming "the Saudi Arabia of Europe," but argues that this is simply unsustainable in the long term.

"There's no oil revenue, only debt and bloated wage bills. The gap between income and spending is massive," he said.

"Broadcasting revenues are shrinking in real terms, matchday and merchandising income is limited. Clubs spend in dollars or euros but earn in Turkish lira, losing ground with every transfer window."

He also points to a key difference between Saudi Arabia and the big three.

"Saudi Arabia follows a state-funded strategy," he said. "Turkish clubs have close ties with political power, but they don't have the same financial resources."

Edited by: Chuck Penfold