Kocaelispor community would experience the happiness and enthusiasm of being one step closer to the main goal of the Super League, to be promoted to the TFF 1st League, after an interval of 11 years, this evening. For some reason, the administration canceled this celebration program announced at the beginning of the week at the last minute. I hope that on a suitable day we will have the opportunity to celebrate this great achievement together.
Undoubtedly, to be promoted to the 1st League by beating Sakarya 4-0 in the 2nd League Play-Off, moreover in the final, and to be promoted to the 1st league from the 3rd League in two years is a very, very big success.
As a Kocaelispor member, I would like to congratulate everyone, especially the Mayor of the Metropolitan Municipality, Tahir Büyükakın, who contributed to this great success, to the club’s equipment and cook.
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Now, we have to know the value of this championship, not be spoiled with the enthusiasm of this championship, congratulate the whole community sincerely and keep our feet firmly on the ground. In fact, with the money that Kocaelispor Club has spent this season, with the great potential this club has, it should have been the champion by far, defeating all its rivals in the regular season in the League, in place of Manisa FK.
We failed to do so. Because huge and grave administrative mistakes were made. Today, none of us has enough information about the financial situation of Kocaelispor Club.
Dear fans. Think about the play-off semi-final game. If referee Özgür Yankaya hadn’t taken that penalty in our favor at the last minute of the return match we played with Hekimoğlu in Trabzon (and none of us could have objected in that position), Hekimoğlu would have made it to the final, not us, and a whole season would have been wasted.
That penalty goal, which came in the last minute of the match in Trabzon, was perhaps the most important turning point in the history of Kocaelispor. God also helped us.
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We cannot fit Kocaelispor’s championship this year to the ground. Nothing can overshadow or diminish this great achievement. But the city of Kocaeli, which was once a “Sports City” besides its many adjectives, is now a sports-poor city.
Look, this season, Gölcükspor, who has represented our city in the 3rd League for years, has been relegated. Gölcükspor was relegated to the Amateur League due to the use of politics in sports and huge administrative errors.
Our other representatives in the 3rd League, Derince Belediye and Darıca GB, played at least the Play-Offs almost every season, forcing them to go to the next league. Both of them could not even make it to the Play-Offs this season due to administrative mistakes made due to politics.
Until recently, our city did not have a magnificent stadium like today, or a magnificent sports hall like today. There were no proper 5-star hotels in this city. But this city had a football team in the Super League, women’s and men’s basketball teams in the Super Leagues, and women’s and men’s volleyball teams in the Volleyball Super League in this city.
The only value we have today is that Kocaelispor has been promoted to the 1st League.
Unfortunately, those who run this city today do not have a sports vision. Izmit Municipality Women’s Basketball team, which had great success last season and played the champions league match in Europe, could not even make it to the Play-Offs this season.
The Metropolitan Municipality Kağıtspor Men’s Basketball team, which has invested heavily and also has US players, entered the Play-Off from the bottom row in the 1st League, but was eliminated in the first round and lost its Super League dream.
Although there is a great infrastructure potential in this city, we do not have a volleyball team. Today, even the provinces and districts of this country such as Kastamonu, Uşak, Afyon, Bandırma and Fethiye have teams in various branches in the super leagues.
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The picture after the transfer of Kağıtspor club to the Metropolitan Municipality is a disaster. Kagitspor had a very strong women’s basketball team playing for the championship. AKP heads closed the women’s basketball team.
I had a lot of discussions with Fahrettin Kandemir, who was the president of Kağıtspor Club 5-6 years ago (who was also the president of Birlikspor for a while). In those years, they spent millions on a female figure skater living in Canada, holding a Turkish passport and having no international success. If Kocaelispor was given 1-2 million support, maybe we would not fall into amateur clusters. But Kagitspor and Municipality executives, who traveled from country to country after the unsuccessful Canadian female skater, withheld five cents of aid to Kocaelispor. During those discussions, Fahrettin Kandemir said to me:
“The Tokyo Olympics will be held in 2020. We train athletes for the Olympics. You will see, there will be at least 10 Kağıtspor licensed athletes in our National Team in these Olympics.”
The Olympics could not be held in 2020. It will now be done this year. Let’s see if there will be a Kağıtspor player in the Turkish national Olympic Team.
Kağıtspor had a boxing team. There were wrestling team, weightlifting team, national athletes in athletics. They brought politics into sports, it’s all over.
The administrators of our city could not evaluate that our city is in a very important position and that it has all kinds of sports facilities. They could not bring a single big national or international organization to this city.
Our current stadium was built for the European Championship, which Turkey aspires to, and it is the most modern football sanctuary in this country. They could not win another national match in this stadium.
Because they don’t mind these things. They only aim for daily achievements that they think will bring political premiums.
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Let’s celebrate our championship with great enthusiasm. But let’s get our feet on the ground. In the 1st League, which we will fight next season, there will be a few very weak, economically bankrupt clubs that cannot form a team. According to the rumors, we will enter debt-free and strong. But let’s not get caught up in the dreams of being a champion from the first season in the 1st League. Let’s show our strength this season. Let’s place ourselves in the 1st Division. Let’s make plans for the next two or three seasons. While promoting Kocaelispor in football, let’s also care about raising national athletes in the basketball and volleyball first leagues that this city deserves, and in branches such as boxing, wrestling and weightlifting, which are suitable for the potential of this city.
One big success covers up a lot of failures and frustrations for this season.
But the life goes on. This business has a continuation, it has a future. Those who manage Kocaelispor today need to change their minds working only on politics, embrace the whole community and manage to satisfy all the sporting aspirations in this city.
