Galatasaray elects incumbent Cengiz as chairman

The 101th ordinary general congress of Istanbul giants Galatasaray elected Sunday incumbent Chairman Mustafa Cengiz as chairman after the club won its 21st title in top tier of Turkish football last week.

For his three-year term, Cengiz received 2,525 votes, which were nearly as twice as higher than his main opponent and former Chairman Dursun Özbek's 1,361 votes. Other candidates, Ozan Korkut and Ali Fatinoğlu, received 659 and 207 votes, respectively.

Cengiz took over from Özbek four months ago and delivered his promise to convene general congress in that period.

Özbek had served for two years and eight months but was ousted in a snap congress in January, receiving lower votes this time.

Galatasaray were crowned champions in the Turkish Super League on May 19 in a tight title race with with their arch-rivals Fenerbahçe and fellow Istanbulites Medipol Başakşehir.

However, the club performed poorly in other main branches of basketball and volleyball this season, with the men's team even failing to make it to the top eight to compete in the finals of the 16-team Turkish Basketball League (TBL).

The club also has a massive 400 million Turkish lira ($85 million) debt with a budget deficit of TL 70 million projected for this year, TL 14 million less than its annual income. It recently avoided a competing ban from the UEFA due to its financial state, which helped the team to save dozens of millions of euros that would come from European competitions and Cengiz to secure a new term.