Fenerbahçe's New President is Aziz Yıldırım

Aziz Yıldırım, the 32nd president of Fenerbahçe Sports Club, won back the seat he lost to Ali Koç in 2018 in his third attempt this year after his defeat in 2024. The ballot boxes set up at the former Kenan Evren High School area adjacent to the Chobani Stadium Fenerbahçe Şükrü Saracoğlu Sports Complex in Kadıköy opened at 10:00 on Sunday morning, and the voting process ended at 17:00. After the counting process that started in the evening hours, the results were officially announced and Yıldırım's becoming the new term president was recorded. The congress, which is of historical importance for the yellow-and-navy community, was held in the shadow of the last season's sporting results and the club's financial situation.

Yıldırım carried out his campaign with the slogan "Our Fenerbahçe" and brought forward the motto "I have a debt to Fenerbahçe" throughout the process. The experienced figure, who officially announced his candidacy on May 6, 2026, emphasised in his speeches before the election that Fenerbahçe must definitely become champion in the 2026-2027 season and promised a single-term presidency, stating that he had no intention of staying in office for many years. Yıldırım, during the presidency he held continuously from 1998 to 2018, experienced 6 Super League championships, 5 Turkish Cup championships at the club, and achieved the success of advancing to the semi-final in the UEFA Europa League in the 2012-2013 season. In the same period, the steps he took in the field of facility development and the successes achieved in other branches, especially basketball, in addition to the football team, strengthened the place of Yıldırım's name in club history.

On the new president's board of directors principal list are Barış Göktürk, Mahmut Nedim Uslu, Nihat Özbağı, Mustafa Çağlar, Ahmet Önder Fırat, Cihan Kamer, Fatih Öztürk, Batuhan Özdemir, Tanju Kaya, Ahmet Murat İman, Özgür Peker, Yusuf Buğra Tanık, Mehmet Aydın and Mehmet Selim Kosif. Barış Göktürk on the management list emphasised in his statement on election day that Fenerbahçe democracy works well, there is no fighting and no noise, and that the other candidate Hakan Safi side is "not a rival but a fellow yellow-and-navy". Aziz Yıldırım is also expected to embrace the entire Fenerbahçe community with a message of unity in his first speech to be made after the election, both thanking his rival.

The coming days will start with a busy agenda for the new term management. How the yellow-and-navy club's debt picture at the level of 26.2 billion TL will be managed on the financial plane established after the exit from the Banks Association agreement that took place on January 20, 2026, will be one of the important questions. The names announced by Hakan Safi regarding the transfer process (Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Merih Demiral, Luis Suárez, Mason Greenwood) are among the files that will come to the new management's table in the coming days; especially how the transfer of Hakan Çalhanoğlu, whose contract continues until 2027 at the Italian team Inter, will be carried out by the Yıldırım management is a matter of curiosity. On the other hand, the Yıldırım management will also make the technical director and transfer decisions before the 2026-2027 season of Fenerbahçe, which has not been able to win a championship in the Super League for 12 seasons. With the election he won on Sunday evening, Aziz Yıldırım will be on the leadership seat in the club's coming one-year period.

Image: turkiyegazetesi.com.tr