By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
With Anadolu Efes winning the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague trophy, Fenerbahce’s president Ali Koc addressed the media and while speaking about the club, he explained the current situation in the basketball section and also revealed some interesting numbers.
As Koc pointed: “While talking about basketball, let’s congratulate our team and Anadolu Efes club that won the championship in the EuroLeague. When we look at how many Final Fours and the two titles the Turkish teams have won in the last few years, Turkey is an important point in European men’s basketball”.
On the current Fenerahce situation, Koc stretched the role of Sertac Komsuoglu, the Fenerbahce Board Member responsible for basketball operations: “I didn’t even know that Sertac used to play basketball. After Sertac came on board, life came to the team. Since we had to set up our team at the last minute, we followed a different transfer policy than we desired. At the start of the season, we beat Efes, but we lost to CSKA and then to Bayern Munich blowing a 20-point lead. We could start with 4-0, but we were at 2-2. We started badly and a series of strange games followed. But thanks to Sertac, the atmosphere of the team changed. Coach Koskovic learned the league and the EuroLeague and it’s not easy to follow the work of legendary coach Zeljko Obradovic. Hats off to him, he helped Turkish basketball reach this point”.
And of course, money was also an issue: “The budget fell from 31 million to 19 million euros. It was clear that it was going to be a tough season. But with the chemistry of the coach, the GM Maurizio Gherardini, and Sertac, we started to get very good results. We also believed that we would make it to the Final Four. But luck has never been in our favor. We’ve been hit hard by COVID. Then Vesely got injured, you know the rest”.
And that’s why for the next season, things are looking already good: “Our roster is ready, we will make an addition or two, and next year you are going to see a very different Fenerbahce basketball team”.
Meanwhile, Fenerbahce also managed to cut its deficit. Speaking strictly about the basketball section, Koc said: “In the past, our deficit in basketball was around 18-19 million euros. It is currently at the level of 11-12 million euros. When we add other sports such as volleyball and rowing, the deficit which is non-related to football reaches 25 million euros.”