Fenerbahçe S.K.

Fenerbahçe
	logo
Full name	Fenerbahçe Spor Kulubu
Nickname(s)	Sarı Kanaryalar ; (Yellow canaries)
Founded	1907
Ground	Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium,; Istanbul, Turkey
Capacity	52,500
Chairman	Aziz Yıldırım
Manager	Christoph Daum
League	Türkiye Süper Ligi
2004-05	Türkiye Süper Ligi, 1st
Home colours	Away colours

Fenerbahçe Spor Kulübü (Fenerbahçe Sports Club), commonly known as Fenerbahçe [pronounced fener-bahche] is a sports club of İstanbul, Turkey. The most popular branch by far is the football team, but the club also competes in basketball, volleyball, rowing, boxing, sailing, athletics, swimming and table tennis.

Fenerbahçe Football Club currently play in the Türkiye Süper Ligi. They are nicknamed Yellow Canaries and play their home games at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadyumu in Kadıköy.

History

Nurizade Ziya Songülen, Ayetullah and Necip Okaner founded Fenerbahçe Spor Kulübü nearly a century ago in 1907.

The club had to be kept under wraps because of the strict Ottoman rule, under which Turkish youth were not allowed to set up clubs or play football, according to the Sultan Abdülhemit's ruling.

Songülen was elected the first president of the club, Ayetullah became the first General Secretary, and Okaner was given the post of the General Captain. The lighthouse situated on the Fenerbahçe cape was a big influence on the design of the club's first emblem, which sported the yellow and white colors of daffodils around the lighthouse. It wasn't until 1910 that the emblem and colors of the club changed, when Topuz Hikmet redesigned the badge and changed the colors to yellow and navy. This would stay until present time.

Fenerbahçe's activities were kept in secrecy until a legislation change in 1908, when, under a new law, all football clubs had to register to exist legally.

In 1960, the TFF founded a national league, which continues today under the name of the Türkiye Süper Ligi. Fenerbahçe were crowned as the first champions, and alongwith the other two members of ‘the big three’, Beşiktaş JK and Galatasaray SK, dominated football in Turkey until the 1970s, when Trabzonspor became the fourth team in Turkey to win the league. Fenerbahçe won three titles in the 1980s, but only one in the next decade, in 1996. The next year they participated in the UEFA Champions League for the first time. This was followed by a period of four years of domination of the Turkish league by Galatasaray. However, Fenerbahçe’s recent successes in 2003/04 and 2004/05 have once again made them the most successful football team in Turkey in terms of championships won, with 16 titles to date.

Present

Currently, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray are the two most popular teams in terms of support in Turkey. The Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium is the biggest club stadium in Turkey and regularly hosts national team games. Fenerbahçe also have the highest average attendance in the Turkish league[1]. The current club president is Aziz Yıldırım, who is currently serving his fourth two-year term since coming to power. The squad is made up of many international players, from four different countries.

Championships

During the early years of 20th century, organized football leagues existed only in Istanbul. After the Republic was founded, and with the establishment of the Turkish Football Federation in 1923, the federation started organizing leagues in different cities, although these leagues were localalised. Later on, the Federation started organizing inter-city leagues, first under the name of the National League (Milli Küme), and then Turkish League.

Since its foundation, Fenerbahçe SK has won 22 national championships (some in the previous incarnation to the official league operating today), 16 inter-city league championships and 26 official cup titles organized by the Turkish Football Federation, 1 international cup, and 19 other cups.

Honours

Turkish League Championships: 16
- 1959, 1961, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1974, 1975, 1978, 1983, 1985, 1989, 1996, 2001, 2004, 2005
Turkish Cup: 4
- 1968, 1974, 1979, 1983

Current squad

As of 1 September, 2005:

Number	Player	Position	Year Signed	Previous Club
Goalkeepers
1	Volkan Demirel	GK	2002	Kartalspor
34	Rüstü Reçber	GK	1994	On Loan From Barcelona
22	Serdar Kulbilge	GK	2005	Bursaspor
Defenders
2	Fábio Luciano	DC	2003	On Loan From Corinthians
3	Servet Çetin	DC	2003	Denizlispor
19	Önder Turaci	DC	2004	Standard Liege
5	Ümit Özat	DRLC/DM	2001	Gençlerbirligi
24	Deniz Baris	DLC	2004	Gençlerbirligi
6	Mahmut Hanefi Erdogdu	DL	2003	Sakaryaspor
17	Can Arat	DLC	2001	Youth Academy
Midfielders / Wingers
4	Stephen Appiah	DMC	2005	Juventus
7	Mehmet Yozgatli	RW	2004	Istanbulspor
15	Marco Aurélio	DMC/CM	2003	Trabzonspor
18	Gürhan Gürsoy	CM	2004	Adanaspor
20	Alex de Souza	AMLC	2004	Cruzeiro
21	Selçuk Sahin	DMC/CM	2003	Istanbulspor
27	Kemal Aslan	AMC/CM	2003	Gaziantepspor
29	Olcan Adin	DMC/LM	2003	Kartalspor
30	Serkan Balci	DR/MR	2004	Gençlerbirligi
Forwards
16	Kerim Zengin	FC	2001	Mersin Idman Yurdu
8	Zafer Biryol	FC	2005	Konyaspor
10	Tuncay Sanli	LW/FLC	2002	Sakaryaspor
23	Semih Sentürk	FC	1999	Izmir Özçamdibispor
11	Marcio Nobre	FC	2003	On Loan From Cruzeiro
39	Nicolas Anelka	FRLC	2005	Manchester City F.C.
Manager
	Christoph Daum	-	2002	Austria Wien

Famous Fenerbahçe players

External links

Template:Turkish Premier League Template:Champions League 2005/06