Chobani, America’s top yoghurt brand, has signed a €120mn sponsorship deal with Turkish football team Fenerbahce A.S. (FENER), the parties announced on July 30 at a signing ceremony.

Chobani Stadium

Under the agreement, Fenerbahce’s 50-000-capacity stadium in the heart of Kadikoy district on Istanbul’s Asian side, is renamed Chobani Stadium.

Chobani will replace Turkish snacks giant Ulker (ULKER), chaired by another billionaire and Fenerbahce fan, Murat Ulker, the current sponsor of Fenerbahce’s stadium.

The yoghurt colossus will annually pay €10mn to the club for the stadium deal based on a 5+5 years deal, according to a filing with Borsa Istanbul.

Chobani shirts to appear in UEFA games

Additionally, Chobani will annually pay a minimum of €4mn for a shirt sponsorship that applies to continental tournaments organised by European football's governing body, UEFA, on a 2+3 years deal.

In the 2025-26 season, Fenerbahce will compete in the UEFA Europa League (the European football tournament that is one step below the top-tier UEFA Champions League). It will in the first year of the deal receive €4mn from Chobani for shirt sponsorship linked to that contest.

In subsequent years, the sum will be revised based on whether Fenerbahce is playing in the Champions League or Europa League.

Turks frown on “Greek yoghurt”

Hamdi Ulukaya, Chobani’s self-made billionaire founder, was born in 1972 in the town of Ilic in Erzincan province, eastern Turkey to Kurdish dairy farmers. He moved to the US in 1994.

In 2024, Ulukaya bought a $45mn mansion on the Bosporus strait in Istanbul.

Yoghurt, meanwhile, can stir controversy between Turks and Greeks given their historical rivalry. Chobani sells thick strained “Greek yoghurt”, as Americans refer to it. This, generally, does not go down well in Turkey.

A Kurdish boss

Ulukaya has a record as a defender of Kurdish rights.

Lately, Turkey’s government has built a collaboration with the supposedly outlawed political-militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is essentially now part of the ruling coalition.

As a result, purveyors of conspiracies are hard at work and there are millions of Turks, harbouring their own various suspicions, who want to hear what they have to say. Chobani is derived from the Turkish word “coban”, meaning shepherd. It reminds of Kobani, a town in northern Syria that Kurdish militia there have defended against Islamic State (ISIS).

Is Turkey becoming a Kurdish land, ask some of the suspicious. There are indications that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the republic, was a Fenerbahce supporter, like Erdogan. Nowadays, fans are talking of their stadium being named “Kobani” by a Kurdish entrepreneur. It is difficult to square for some.

On July 30, prior to the signing ceremony, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received Ulukaya at his palace in Ankara. The billionaire presented him with a Fenerbahce soccer shirt emblazoned with Chobani.

Expansion into Turkey?

Chobani, launched in 2005, markets its products in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, Ireland, Singapore, Malaysia, Panama, Mexico, China and Thailand.

The company is not active in Turkey. During the press conference held on July 30, Ulukaya was asked whether the company has plans to expand into the Turkish market.

Ulukaya, also head of the US-Turkey Business Council, implied that the driving factor behind his decision to go for the sponsorship is his personal friendship with Fenerbahce president Ali Koc, another billionaire and a board member at largest Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding (KCHOL).

Chobani’s involvement in Turkey would amount to encouragement to US companies to invest in Turkey, he added.

“We've been thinking about [investments in Turkey] for a long time. There are some developments. We still have time in these matters. We won't rush. But we want to come here with important brands and significant investments,” Chobani CFO Tarkan Gurkan said in reply to consecutive questions on if there are any Chobani investment plans for Turkey.

Ulukaya could not escape such questions even after the conclusion of the press conference.

“We're looking at opportunities here. We might even launch something as Chobani or enter into a collaboration. Time will tell,” he told BloombergHT.

Friends of Ali Koc

CFO Gurkan, another Turk and an Istanbul-born Fenerbahce fan, joined Chobani in 2022 after a career in the US. He is a friend of Ali Koc stretching back to primary school.

Mehmet Lutfi Kirdar, president of Shepherd Futures, was also present at the news conference. Shepherd Futures is a New York-based family office. Gurkan worked there prior to joining Chobani.

Kirdar is a member of the Kirdar family and a family friend of Ali Koc, a member of the Koc family. Both are prominent families in Turkey.