Hasan Arat

Hasan Arat — Biography

Born in Adana on 27 September 1959, Hasan Arat played professional basketball before becoming a businessman and a sports executive. His playing years started at Adana Demirspor and took in five seasons at Beşiktaş and two at Galatasaray before he finished at Yeşilyurt SK. Moving into business, he served as Beşiktaş's second vice-president under Süleyman Seba between 1998 and 2000, and twice ran for the club presidency in 2000 and 2002, losing both times to Serdar Bilgili.

Arat later led Istanbul's bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, earning a seat on the European Olympic Committees' Executive Committee and an appointment to the IOC's Marketing Commission. In 2023 he again stood for the Beşiktaş presidency, this time against Serdal Adalı, and won by a record margin on 3 December 2023 to become the club's 35th president; he oversaw club-record transfers such as Ernest Muçi and El-Musrati and led the team to the 2024 Turkish Cup and Super Cup titles, before resigning on 29 November 2024 for personal reasons.

His presidency was followed by a formal complaint over alleged interference with the club's IT systems, and by late 2025 he had been suspended from Beşiktaş membership for a year. In January 2026, he was honored with Kosovo's presidential order of merit.