The journey to the Süper Lig

The journey really started when Bodrumspor were promoted to the TFF (Turkish Football Federation) 3^rd Lig in 2015.

 Bodrumspor players celebrating promotion in 2015

 

But back to the beginning, Bodrumspor played in the amateur leagues from its foundation in 1931 apart from one season in the TFF (Turkish Football Federation) 3^rd Lig in 1995/96. 

They merged with the Bodrum Belediye team in 2012/13 (becoming B.B.Bodrumspor).and continued in the amateur leagues until, with the increased funding from Bodrum Belediye, they were promoted to the 3^rd Lig in 2015.

After two seasons in the 3^rd Lig they won promotion by topping the league in 2016/17.  It was during this period that I started watching occasional matches, not driven by being an avid football fan, but enjoying the occasionally noisy atmosphere on otherwise quiet winter weekends.

 

Then followed 5 seasons in the TFF 2^nd Lig.  By then I was a season ticket holder and met a few fellow British ex-pats who, like me, came for the atmosphere, watching live matches rather than TV coverage with its sometimes biased commentary.

 

The Covid pandemic saw spectators banned from games, before returning with enforced seat spacing.  Perhaps the return to full stadiums was the trigger to push Bodrumspor to getting promotion to Lig 1 via the playoffs at the end of the 2021/22 season.  Another trigger was the change of ownership.  Bodrum municipality had been the sole owner since 2012 and after some efforts to sell shares in the club, Fikret Öztürk (owner of Opet and the Regnum group) acquired majority ownership in 2020.  He and/or his family and businesses also had interests in Antalyaspor, so Bodrumspor benefitted by having some academy players from Antalya transferred or loaned.

Now in Lig 1 with better funding, frequent TV coverage and a stadium full of enthusiastic local supporters, Bodrum could attract foreign players to strengthen their squad.  As a result, they reached the promotion playoffs in 2022/23, only losing in the final match.  

Then last season they again reached the playoffs and won the final match to become the latest team to join the Süper Lig.  You can imagine the party we had in Bodrum!

Also during last year, the name was changed to Bodrum FK, for reasons nobody I know understands.

Now in the Super Lig, they attracted a new sponsor who was given naming rights for the team – so now my local football team is Sipay Bodrum FK (or to give its full name Sipay Bodrum Futbol Kulübü Anonim Şirketi).

Curiously their logo has dropped the FK and is back to the original.  Doesn't matter much as  everyone I know still says Bodrumspor !!

So, as I write this summary of Bodrumspor’s journey, they are currently 9^th in the Süper Lig. Not too bad for a team who are playing in the top league for the very first time and 10 years ago were an amateur team.

I'm sure their ambition for this year is to stay up, for future years to challenge for the top spots and European football.  Who knows - in a future blog I may be talking about Bodrumsport v Chelsea.........

  ️