Besiktas set for major Vodafone partnership

Turkish Super Lig football club Besiktas and Vodafone have signed a memorandum of understanding for the telecommunications firm to acquire the team’s shirt sponsorship and naming rights to its new stadium.

Terms of the agreement were not released, with the two parties saying that a formal contract is set to be sealed within a month.

Besiktas, which finished third in the Super Lig last season, said that the partnership with Vodafone Turkey would play a key part in its efforts to develop a new stadium.

The Istanbul-based club played its final game at the 32,000-capacity İnönü Stadium, its home since 1947, on May 11. The stadium will be demolished and rebuilt 23 metres north of its current location in the heart of the city. Its capacity will be 40,000 seats.

The construction of the new stadium is expected to finish in October 2014, with work having commenced on the demolition of İnönü Stadium earlier this month.