Besiktas announces temporary withdrawal from Salah deal

The negotiations come to a halt

Besiktas sporting director Onder Ozen has confirmed the club are stepping back from their pursuit of Mohamed Salah, revealing that fresh demands surfaced the moment talks turned to money.

Speaking during a press conference, Ozen said: "For a while now, speculation about Mohamed Salah has increased. The matter has been discussed from every angle. There are things we want to clarify regarding it."

"We made contact with Salah. That also included a model for financing the deal. Salah is a global star and a respected athlete. We spoke with him three times during the phase in which we had not entered the financial side of the negotiations. Up to that point, everything was going smoothly," Ozen added.

Then came the sticking point. "When talk of the financial side began, that smoothness which had been there on the first day started to slow down as of 21 July. Requests began to arrive that would drive the flow of information and the financial side into a dead end. I can assume that a respected athlete like Salah is unaware of this," he continued.

The club, Ozen insisted, would not budge. "The club has a policy, and it cannot deviate from it. Our president defined very well the point at which he would stop, and he remained at it. Working in the field of player management is legal, and there is a legal value for the commission, and exceeding it may involve an illegal situation," he said.

He concluded: "When it comes to Besiktas, not entering into such a situation (breaking the law on commissions) is also among the requirements of belonging to the club. The president has taken an unpopular decision, and has decided to withdraw temporarily from the negotiating table in the Salah deal."