| The unique success has sparked a newfound interest across the nation. Before the final four, the chance of the cup staying in İstanbul was 50-50 as two İstanbul teams, Vakıfbank and Fenerbahçe Acıbadem, which automatically qualified for the final four as the host team, made it to the top four. Indeed, if CEV -- the organizing body of the European Champions League -- regulations allowed, a third team from Turkey, Eczacıbaşı VitrA, could have been the third team to take part in the competition. But they were matched with Vakıfbank in the Playoffs 6 in an attempt to prevent three teams from the same country taking part in the final four. Thus, for a keen volleyball fan, the CEV Champions League Cup, also the first European championships title in team sports in Turkey, did not come as a surprise.
While the teams showed amazing success this year, the history of good volleyball teams goes back decades. Taking a closer look at the history of women’s volleyball in Turkey, one can see Turkish teams were runners-up in the Champions League four times before winning the title. Eczacıbaşı lost the cup to the Czechoslovakian team in 1980, while Vakıfbank was a silver medalist two years in a row in 1998 and 1999. Fenerbahçe Acıbadem, the volleyball queens of the past two years, was the runner-up last year. Dubbed the “Yellow Angels,” the team was disappointed to lose the title against Volley Bergamo in 2010; however, in the last month of the year, they managed to become the world champion at FIVB Women’s Club World Championship.
It would not be wrong to attribute the success to the teams’ sponsors. Since the women’s volleyball league was established in 1984, the teams under the name of their sponsors have always won titles, and the situation does not seem to have changed this season, either. In the 12-team league, the most serious title contenders are the aforementioned three teams, while a total of six teams have sponsors in their names.
After losing the title against Vakıfbank, a not-so-humble Fenerbahçe Deputy Chairman Ali Koç said thanks to Fenerbahçe’s investments, other teams felt the urge to invest in volleyball, leading to the current situation. Koç did not forget to congratulate their archrivals for keeping the cup in Turkey. Founded in 1954, the Fenerbahçe women’s volleyball branch had to overcome many bumps on the road to success, including closure due to acute financial problems. Fenerbahçe Acıbadem rose to fame and success after the team signed a sponsorship deal with the Acıbadem health group, whose name the team took on. It would be wrong to assume that Fenerbahçe pioneered Turkish volleyball from the very beginning, but Koç is right to mention that the Fenerbahçe-Acıbadem collaboration has raised the bar for Turkish volleyball in recent years. Two years after signing a sponsorship deal with Acıbadem, the team became the undefeated champion in the 2009-2010 season, while facing more serious challenges in the domestic league this season.
Eczacıbaşı ignites the light
A beautiful example of sports and sponsor cooperation, Eczacıbaşı is the pioneer of success in women’s volleyball in Turkey with the prominent Eczacıbaşı industrial group behind it. In 1980, when the country was under strict military rule, the team was able to become the runner-up in the top European volleyball event, the CEV Champions League. The İstanbul team also brought the first volleyball cup to Turkey in 1999, when they won the CEV Cup Winners Cup title. In the following years, Eczacıbaşı was able to stay near the top as they were among the top four for five in the CEV Champions League.
Eczacıbaşı Club Manager Cemil Ergin thinks it is fair to mention the sponsors as the key factor behind the recent success in sports and adds that sponsorship has been developing in recent years. “The success brings the sponsor along, and we can say that a sponsor supports the field where it expects success in the future,” he tells Sunday’s Zaman, recalling that the Fenerbahçe volleyball team now aims high after signing a sponsorship deal with Acıbadem Health Group.
Underlining the importance of sponsors in the development of volleyball, Ergin explains: “For many years, the league competition was among a few teams. As investments increase, this situation will change. In a league of 12 teams, at least eight teams competing for the title would make the league more enjoyable and it would pave the way for Turkish volleyball to develop.”
Ergin says many institutions provide financial support for successful organizations in the right way in order to promote themselves. But he warns that the only criterion must not be success, but sustainability as well. “Only then does the support pay back in the form of success,” he adds. The Eczacıbaşı VitrA volleyball team currently leads the domestic league ahead of Fenerbahçe and Vakıfbank. Instead of purchasing a team, Eczacıbaşı holding created a volleyball team from scratch as a social responsibility project 45 years ago in 1966, while an official federation to govern volleyball was founded only eight years ago. “Eczacıbaşı made an undeniable contribution to volleyball. We have labored so much on amateur sports branches. When you take a look at the women and men’s leagues, you see many people who worked at Eczacıbaşı. Some of them are athletes and some are from technical squads or managers. In this sense, Eczacıbaşı is an important school,” Ergin explains. |
