The Legal Framework of Turkish Sports Clubs: Naming Rights, Sports Companies and Foreclosure

Turkish sports clubs are governed by Law No. 7405, the Law on Sports Clubs and Sports Federations, in force since 26 April 2022. It lets a club run its professional sport either as a members' association or as a sports joint-stock company (spor anonim şirketi), opening the door to outside investment. For foreign sponsors, lenders and investors, the practical questions are who owns a naming right, which club assets a creditor can actually seize, and how the law's financial-discipline rules limit the way a club can be financed. This guide answers each before you sign.

The New Legal Architecture: Law No. 7405

For decades, Turkish sports clubs operated almost exclusively as non-profit associations under the Civil Code (Türk Medeni Kanunu, Law No. 4721). That changed with the Law on Sports Clubs and Sports Federations (Law No. 7405), adopted on 22 April 2022 and published in the Official Gazette on 26 April 2022, which created a modern two-track structure for how clubs may be organised.

Under Law No. 7405, a club's professional sporting activity may sit in one of two vehicles:

• A special-form sports club (spor kulübü) — the traditional members-based, non-profit entity, now subject to dedicated registration and financial-discipline rules administered by the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
• A sports joint-stock company (spor anonim şirketi, or Sports AŞ) — a capital company that lets a club's professional arm be run as a commercial business, allowing outside equity to come in.

This dual model is what makes Turkish clubs investable for foreigners. If you are looking at setting up or buying into a company in Türkiye, the sports vehicle behaves like an ordinary joint-stock company with a layer of sport-specific rules on top. It also raises questions that did not exist when clubs were purely associations: who owns the naming rights, and which assets a creditor can reach.

Sports Club vs Sports Joint-Stock Company: Which Form?

The single most important due-diligence question is which legal form your target club uses. The two forms differ on liability, investability and how exposed their assets are to a creditor.

If your goal is to take an equity stake or structure a Sports AŞ investment, only the company form gives you shares to hold. An association cannot issue equity, so foreign capital reaches it only through sponsorship, lending or a future conversion into a Sports AŞ.

Sports Joint-Stock Companies and the Control Requirement

A Sports AŞ is first incorporated as an ordinary joint-stock company under the Turkish Commercial Code (Türk Ticaret Kanunu, Law No. 6102). It then acquires its special sports-company status only when the Ministry of Youth and Sports registers it.

Three features matter most to a foreign investor:

• Capital contribution of a sports branch. A club may transfer the assets and liabilities relating to a specific sports branch — for example, its professional football operation — to a Sports AŞ as capital in kind.
• Mandatory parent-club control. Where a Sports AŞ is connected to a club, that club must hold direct or indirect control "in the sense of art. 195 of Law No. 6102". This is imposed by Madde 15 of Law No. 7405; the TTK art. 195 test only defines what counts as control.
• Registered shares and no privileges. Shares in a connected Sports AŞ must be issued as registered shares (nama yazılı), and Madde 15 bars privileged shares and any benefit flowing from company profit to founders or board members. A person cannot control more than one club in the same league.

Naming Rights: Selling the Club's Name and Stadium

Naming rights (isim hakkı) are among the most valuable commercial assets a club holds. In Türkiye they usually take two forms:

• Stadium and facility naming rights — a sponsor pays to attach its brand to a stadium or training complex for a fixed term.
• Team or competition naming rights — a sponsor's name is incorporated into the team's or a league's official designation.

There is no bespoke naming-rights statute in Türkiye. A naming-rights deal is an innominate commercial contract governed by the Turkish Code of Obligations (Türk Borçlar Kanunu, Law No. 6098), combined with trademark law for the licence of the mark itself.

Because protection comes from drafting rather than from a statute, the points to negotiate include:

• The exact scope of the name and trademark licence, and registration of the relevant marks at TÜRKPATENT.
• Duration, renewal and early-termination triggers, including relegation or loss of league status.
• What happens to the name on insolvency or restructuring of the club.
• Whether the rights survive a transfer of the sporting branch into a Sports AŞ.

Our team handles drafting a naming-rights or sponsorship contract, and works with our intellectual-property lawyers on registering and licensing the relevant trademarks. Foreign sponsors should be especially careful where a club is mid-way through converting into a Sports AŞ, because the entity that owns the naming right today may not be the entity that performs the contract tomorrow.

Which Club Assets Can a Creditor Seize? Attachment Rules

The most misunderstood issue for foreign creditors is how far a Turkish club's assets can be attached or seized (haciz) to satisfy a debt. The honest answer: a club's own commercial assets are generally attachable; only specific, narrow categories are protected. Enforcement runs on the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law (İcra ve İflas Kanunu, İİK No. 2004), the same framework that governs how creditors recover debts in Türkiye generally.

What is actually protected is narrower than many guides claim:

• Sports federation assets. Law No. 7405 deems the assets of sports federations to be State property and non-attachable; an enforcement office must reject a request to attach them. This protection is for federations, not for clubs or Sports AŞs.
• State- or municipality-owned stadiums. Many major stadiums are owned by the State or a municipality and only operated by the club under a usage right. Public property is generally not attachable under İİK No. 2004, so a creditor cannot seize the stadium itself — but that is because of who owns it, not because the club is immune.
• Restricted or assigned receivables. Broadcasting and pool revenues are often distributed through federation mechanisms and can be subject to set-off or priority rules, and Law No. 7405 limits how a club may assign its receivables. These can sit ahead of a third-party creditor.

Because of that uncertainty, the safest route for a foreign lender or supplier is to secure the debt at the outset rather than rely on later enforcement. Our lawyers advise on enforcing a debt against a Turkish club once it has crystallised, and on structuring security before it does.

How a Sponsor or Lender Secures Its Position

If attachment after the fact is unreliable, security taken up front is the answer. For a Sports AŞ, the main options are:

• Share pledge. A pledge over the registered (nama yazılı) shares of the Sports AŞ. Because the shares are registered, the pledge can be recorded and tracked — though the mandatory parent-club control rule under Madde 15 limits how far the equity can move.
• Account pledge. A pledge over the club's or company's bank accounts, used together with the banking-channel requirement that payments run through licensed banks.
• Assignment of specific receivables. An assignment of identified, non-restricted receivables (for example, a particular sponsorship stream), mindful of the Law No. 7405 limits on assigning club receivables.
• Parent-club or third-party guarantee. A guarantee from a connected club or another group entity — but note the financial-discipline ban below on a club giving security for its own controlling persons.

Each of these is a commercial-law instrument that our team structures alongside the underlying deal. Speak to us about documenting the security package that fits your transaction.

Financial Discipline and Director Liability

Law No. 7405 imposes strict financial-discipline rules, and these are the single biggest operational constraint on financing a Turkish club. They are not vague principles — they carry concrete limits and criminal exposure.

For an investor or lender, these rules cut both ways. They improve transparency and reduce the risk of hidden liabilities — but they also cap how aggressively a club can borrow and bar the intra-group lending and guarantees that financiers often rely on. Reviewing a club's audited accounts, its borrowing headroom under Madde 20, and any regulatory sanctions history is now a core part of due diligence.

Mandatory Conversion and Registration: Check the Status

When Law No. 7405 came in, existing clubs and entities were given transition periods to register and bring their structures into line. For a foreign investor doing due diligence, the key question is whether your target has actually completed its mandatory conversion and registration — an unregistered or non-compliant club is a different risk.

In practice this means two checks during due diligence: first, confirm the club is currently registered with the Ministry under the regime in force; second, confirm whether it has converted, or must still convert, the relevant sporting branch into a Sports AŞ. If a conversion is pending, the identity of your contract counterparty may be about to change — which feeds straight back into the naming-rights and security questions above.

Cross-Border Considerations for Foreign Sponsors and Investors

Foreign parties should plan for the cross-border dimension from the start.

• Governing law and enforcement. Parties may choose a foreign governing law for a sponsorship or financing contract, but enforcement in Türkiye is shaped by the International Private and Procedural Law (MÖHUK, Law No. 5718) and the recognition and enforcement rules under the Civil Procedure Law (HMK, Law No. 6100).
• Dispute resolution. Sporting disputes in football are typically routed through the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) and its Arbitration Board (Tahkim Kurulu), with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) sitting above some categories of dispute. Purely commercial disputes — a sponsorship fee, a loan — can go to the Turkish courts or to commercial arbitration depending on the contract. Knowing which forum a given dispute lands in is a drafting decision, not an afterthought; our team advises on resolving sponsorship or financing disputes.
• Currency of the fee. Türkiye restricts contracting certain payments in foreign currency, but the restriction (under Decree No. 32 on the Protection of the Value of Turkish Currency) generally binds contracts between parties who are both resident in Türkiye. A sponsor or lender based abroad is generally outside the ban, so a foreign party can usually denominate its fee in foreign currency — but the residency status of each party should be confirmed, because a Turkish-resident local entity in the chain can pull the deal back into scope.

Lexin Legal advises foreign clients on the full lifecycle of these transactions. Learn more about our Turkish sports law services, or contact our team to discuss a specific club, sponsorship or financing arrangement.

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