Turkish Süper Lig's Göztepe has dismissed the reports of a Roman Abramovich-led takeover of the club as rumors.
Deputy chairman of the relegation-threatened club, Talat Papatya denied any such development, widely reported by the Turkish media earlier Tuesday.
"There is nothing like that. We are also reading these stories about Abramovich buying Göztepe on media. These are baseless stories. If there are such any developments, we will certainly make the necessary announcement," he said.
Several Turkish news outlets reported Tuesday that Russian oligarch Abramovich, the sanctions-hit former owner of Chelsea, has already acquired the club and an official announcement was due Friday.
The local media had previously claimed that the club's majority shareholder Mehmet Sepil and Abramovich’s representatives were officially discussing the takeover.
The reports also added that both sides had already made market assessments and Sepil was in the capital Ankara to inquire about relevant processes.
Göztepe was until recently headed by Sepil, who resigned after a spell of bad results in the Turkish top tier, the Süper Lig.
Abramovich, on the other hand, is credited with raising Premier League giant Chelsea to its current status with billions of dollars in investments into the club.
However, the Russian billionaire was removed as the owner due to British sanctions over his country’s invasion of Ukraine.
