“Why is Edirnespor management far from basketball and volleyball?” Our friend Olgay Güler from the newspaper asked this question to the President of Edirnespor Club, Savaş Üner, at the season opening of Edirnespor on July 23. Here is the response he got:
“It wasn’t there last year. We don’t think about it this year either, as our financial conditions do not allow it.”
This answer is once ordinary. This is an answer to gloss over the question. When you talk about the financial situation, you would think that the sports branches that drain all the resources of football are basketball and volleyball. However, we will see below that this is not the case.
President Savaş Üner in an interview he gave to Edirne Newspaper on 19 July 2021; “I trust my team, we are trying to build a good team together with our coach and committee,” he said. I think our president loves football very much, we can understand that.
It is quite understandable that the president loves football and is always in it. Football is a team game and when success comes, management, technical staff, football players and fans are happy. Politicians are happy, in the end they are the winners anyway.
The above statement of our President continues; “…Our Ağa and our Municipality are also sponsors….” When I say this, I mean that some of the resources of Edirne Municipality, which is an institution of the people, go to football (only) as a sport, as it is every year.
The fans living in Edirne, who have devoted themselves to indoor sports all over Edirne, are asking;
“Is Edirne Municipality only for football? While millions are poured into football, which is an unsuccessful sport, why not invest in basketball and volleyball, which survive and succeed with modest budgets? Aren’t they sports? Are we not fans?”
Let’s go back to the answer given by Chairman Savaş Üner to our friend Olgay Güler;
“There is no basketball and volleyball this year because our financial situation does not allow it,” he says.
Let’s be frank now;
The budget allocated to football was 3.5 million liras last year. We heard that this budget was exceeded.
This year the whole team was rebuilt. Savaş states that the cost of a player is between 150/250 thousand. The entire staff of the last year (except for one) was sent, and a new staff was created in its place.
Let’s come to indoor sports. Volleyball first, then basketball;
With the permission of the federation, you can form a team in the 2nd League with a budget of 150/200 thousand TL, whether it is women or men in volleyball. Yes, you can raise volleyball in Edirne with such a modest budget. There are people who know volleyball in Edirne and they are waiting for a duty to serve.
Let’s go to basketball. If you form a team with modest conditions this year, if the federation finds it positive, the Edirne Municipality Edirnespor Basketball Team, which will directly start the 2nd League, will complete the year with a budget of 400 thousand liras. Adem Yetişken, Serdar Yiğitsoy, Mülkü Karadeniz and Mehmet Üstünev, who know these things well, are still in Edirne. They are waiting for duty to raise Edirnespor basketball.
On the other hand, Edirne DSI basketball branch, which tries to keep women’s basketball alive, is chasing success in the Regional League for a year as soon as it reaches a figure of 60 thousand liras.
4 million liras spent on football. An undesirable 600 thousand lira to be spent on basketball and volleyball. Actually, other questions come to my mind;
Those who are closely interested in football in Edirne;
1. Doesn’t he like basketball and volleyball? When you think of sports, do you only think of football?
2. Successes in basketball and volleyball overshadow football, but their failures turn out to be ignorant of this business?
3.If not; Are there other things in football that we don’t know?
4. Aren’t fans who love football also fans who love indoor sports?
5. Will Edirne Mayor Recep Gürkan keep his promise about indoor sports before the elections?
