It is not by chance that Ataşehir Belediye Spor won this year´s Women’s First League, which finished on May 1. The team has experienced coaches, Murat Ünlü and Adnan Katip, and stronger sponsors than any other in the league. The sponsors are Ataşehir Municipality and construction company Ağaoğlu. Ataşehir Municipality has built around the women´s team a whole football program for children and teenagers. Ağaoğlu´s sponsorship also allowed Ataşehir Belediye Spor to buy the key players who were indispensable to improving the team’s third position in 2010.
Despite the fact that for the sixth time in six editions, the Turkish national team will not be represented in the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which will take place in Germany from June 26 to July 17, women’s football has a lot to celebrate in Turkey this year.
According to the official statistics of the Turkish Football Federation, the number of women’s teams has passed from seven in the season 2005/2006 to 72 in 2010/2011. At the same time, the number of professional and semi-professional players has increased from 130 to over 1,500. More and more girls play football, more and more girls want to play football. There are training camps being organized and schools being opened to satisfy this increasing demand.
The coaches of this year´s winner Ünlü and Katip share the same thought: "Football is football, it doesn´t have a gender. Thanks to football our girls get access to university to study physical education and they become economically independent. However, for Turkish women’s football to become really competitive, a long-term project should be developed by the Turkish Football Federation, in collaboration with the clubs."
If economic and training resources need to be invested to increase the level of women football, also the general mentality of Turkish audience should change, so to bring more spectators and more active players to the game.
In Turkey, football is still seen as a man´s sport. Women have little support from their families and from the general public. Yet the support of the fans is fundamental for the growth of the sport at a national and international level. A case in point is Lülebürgaz´ Düvenciler Lisesi Spor team. Hundreds of people cheer for their girls at every single home game, helping the team, despite the lack of a considerable financial sponsorship, to be among the best in the league.
The dedication to the game shown by Turkish women footballers is remarkable. Some players have part-time jobs during the week and devote their weekends to football. Some other players are university students who train on their own during the week and every weekend travel up to 600 kilometers to reach their teams and play at their best. As for the younger ones, all they want is to play football and some more football.
For 26-year-old veteran player Ayşe Gürbüz football is a lifestyle. "I have played for 13 years. Besides playing, I teach physical education and I try to organize coed football teams in the school where I teach. I love football and when I retire I would love to become a football coach. In the beginning, when people hear I am a footballer, they are surprised and somehow skeptical, but things have changed in the last two or three years and now we are more accepted. In Turkey, however, the level of the game needs to improve, if we want to compete in the international arena."
Rojda Doğan, 17, is among Ataşehir Belediye Spor´s youngest players. "I´m very happy for our first championship. I play football because I´m good at it. In the beginning, my family didn´t want me to play, but I continued and now they support me. Even at school, boys at first didn´t want a girl to play with them, but now it´s not a problem anymore."
Ismail Ahlatçı fully supports his 17-year-old daughter Büşra. "I follow Ataşehir Belediye Spor´s home and away games. I didn´t miss my daughter playing once this year. I´m very proud of her and of all the girls in the team. I´m their first fan, they all call me dad."
Passion and support can take these girls far. If the level of the players keeps growing and if more money and resources are invested in women’s football, then qualifying for the 2015 World Cup in Canada might become a reachable goal. In the meantime, congratulations to Ataşehir Belediye Spor on the well deserved 2011 national championship