Fenerbahce could become a world-class club with Ali Koc

Newly elected club president Ali Koc just might be the right person to lead Fenerbahce into the future.

Fenerbahce fans took to the streets for hours upon hours celebrating the newly elected club president, Ali Koc. The wealthy businessman won a landslide victory by getting more than 77% of the votes.

He was elected as the new president of Turkey’s football giant Fenerbahce, taking the crown from Aziz Yildirim, who has run the club since 1998.

The 51-year-old Koc defeated the club’s longest serving figure Yildirim by receiving over 16,000 of more than 20,000 valid votes cast during the club’s general congress on Sunday at Sukru Saracoglu Stadium.

Fenerbahce fans celebrating after the elections.

Under former president Azizi Yildirim, Fenerbahce has experienced many ups and downs. The former president’s battle with the jurisdiction, politicians and fans were always a part of that journey. But what hurt Yildirim the most was the match fixing scandal in 2011 – which he claims was a malicious plot against Fenerbahce.

However, there have been other major political events in Turkey since 2011 and the fixing scandal is no longer the top agenda for the club. The case implicated Yıldırım and his fellow executives rather than Fenerbahce itself, and the verdict is still out.

Thus, Aziz Yıldırım knows that being Fenerbahce’s president allowed him to have more influence on the outcome of the fixing case – to the point he openly stated that he would leave his position as soon as the high court acquits him of all charges.

However, amid such legal and political chaos, Fenerbahce’s growth as a club stagnated and it has lost one-third of its value since 2011.

Yıldırım’s last seven years in charge have been marked with conspiracy theories, disagreements with fans and financial instability. And yet, he did not address the club’s serious financial problems or low attendance rates as important issues. In contrast, Yildirım recently criticized Ali Koc for saying Fenerbahce’s economy was “collapsing.” Yıldırım did not offer a structural plan for overcoming the financial issues but only promised to fight on for Fenerbahce.

Ali Koc, on the other hand, states that Fenerbahce needs more transparency and professionalism to cope with the financial issues. He offers to bring in top professionals to restructure the club’s financial management, which he describes as too big to be controlled by one man.

In addition, Koc offers peace in the stands, pushing zero violence and no discrimination among fans as his top priorities. But most importantly, he wants to make the club a pioneer of social change in Turkey. He affirms that football and Fenerbahce hold great importance in Turkey, and both must be used to generate social good.

Unlike Aziz Yıldırım, Ali Koc offers a precise, concrete plan to make Fenerbahce one of the best sports clubs in the world which make him the right person to lead the club.

All that being said, only time will tell what the future holds.

source: dailysabah