Turkish clubs have lagged behind expectations, in terms of financial balance, said European football's governing body, UEFA, in a news conference on Monday.

Speaking at the 2nd International Football Summit, held at Istanbul's Haliç Congress Center on Monday, UEFA's Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Director, Andrea Traverso, highlighted the contrast between Turkish and other European clubs, in terms of their handling of financial budgets over the past five years."Turkey is the only country where club debts and liabilities are bigger than club assets," said Traverso. "European clubs improved substantially overall, while aggregated losses for Turkish clubs quintupled," he added.

The financial debts of Turkish clubs have increased from 40 million euro to 200 million euro in the past five years.

"The Turkish league is non-profitable, because 13 of its participating clubs are operating with deficits. The level of commercial debt to long-term assets is the highest here," he added. He attributed this high level of debt to exchange rate fluctuations of the Turkish lira. However, he pointed out that the Turkish league was "one of the seven leagues to have passed the 5 million euro revenue mark."