Following tense debates between candidates, Turkey's Fenerbahçe sports club re-elected Aziz Yıldırım as a new chairman at a two-day extraordinary congress amid long-standing turmoil over allegations that the club's incumbent chairman was involved in match fixing.
The voting started at 10 a.m. on Sunday morning, the second day of the congress, and ended at 5 p.m. The voters cast their ballots in a race between current Chairman Yıldırım and former Turkish Football Federation (TFF) head Mehmet Ali Aydınlar. Yıldırım, who has led the club for the past 15 years, announced his candidacy for another term as the club's chairman a week after Aydınlar did. Aydınlar was called a "traitor" by the current Fenerbahçe administration.
In response to Yıldırım's accusation that he has close ties with rival club Galatasaray, Aydınlar said Yıldırım's administration had failed to achieve tangible successes, adding: “Galatasaray will erect your [Yıldırım's] statue. There hasn't been a Fenerbahçe chairman who has seen Galatasaray winning as many trophies during his term as you did.”
On the first day of the congress, Aydınlar promised to build teams that would at a minimum make it to the quarterfinals in the European competitions in football, basketball and volleyball. Aydınlar's speech was booed by Yıldırım supports in attendance. Yıldırım then took aim at his rival: “He [Aydınlar] promises European achievements. How is he going to make it happen? He just can't; if it were possible, I would have made those achievements.”
The Fenerbahçe chairman spent a year in jail during his trial for match-fixing, in which he was sentenced to six years in prison. His appeal before the Supreme Court of Appeals is currently pending.
In a press conference in İstanbul a day before the congress started, Yıldırım said that he was only running for the chairmanship again because he wants to see the historic club through to acquittal in the match-fixing case, which got Fenerbahçe a three-year ban from European competitions. Aydınlar, who has served as a Fenerbahçe board member for 25 years, urges radical change at the club and says that Yıldırım's leadership should end. If elected, Yıldırım earlier said the administration would include: Abdullah Kiğılı, Mithat Yenigün, Mahmut Nedim Uslu, Nihat Özbağı, Ahmet Özokur, İlhan Yüksel Ekşioğlu, Ender Alkaya, Ahmet Tahir Perek, Ömer Temelli, İsfendiyar Zülfikari, Deniz Tolga Aytöre, Mehmet Şekip Mosturoğlu, Turhan Şahin and Erhan Türkoğlu. Yıldırım also initially named powerful businessman Ali Koç, who turned down the offer.Aydınlar's management team would include Hamdi Akın, Nezih Barut, Dursun Ekşioğlu, Şaban Erdikler, Necdet Ersoy, Faik İçmeli, Engin Keçeli, Selim Koray, Metin Şen, Recep Tanrıverdi, Cem Topçuoğlu, Mehmet Torun, Nuri Tuna and Tankut Turnaoğlu.
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