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Aziz Yildirim has been elected president of Fenerbahce, according to unofficial results, completing one of the most striking comebacks in Turkish football governance after eight years out of power.
The 73-year-old civil engineer and businessman, who led the Istanbul giant for two uninterrupted decades from 1998 to 2018, defeated challenger Hakan Safi at an extraordinary general assembly held on Sunday in Kadikoy.
The result cements Yildirim's return to one of the most consequential seats in Turkish sport, a position he once held long enough to become synonymous with the club itself.
Sunday's vote was Fenerbahce's third presidential election in as many years, a reflection of the institutional instability that has gripped the club amid mounting pressure over its inability to win the Supe Lig title since the 2013-14 season.
The election was triggered after outgoing chairman Sadettin Saran, who narrowly defeated Ali Koc by just 257 votes in September 2025, called an extraordinary general assembly following a string of poor results, including a heavy derby defeat to rival Galatasaray, and subsequently confirmed he would not seek re-election.
The club's financial picture added urgency to the race. During the two-day assembly that began on Saturday, it was disclosed that Fenerbahce's total debt stood at approximately 26.2 billion lira as of February 2026.
Both former presidents Koc and Saran, whose respective tenures covered the 2025-26 season, were voted clear by the membership on administrative and financial grounds before the election proceeded.
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Yildirim, who formally declared his candidacy in May 2026 citing duty and institutional experience, framed his return as a stabilising mission centred on the club's 120th anniversary season.
During the assembly, he told members that the situation resembled the conditions he first encountered when he arrived in 1998, warning that "we will not be able to close the gap with our rivals" unless the club returned to winning ways.
He pointedly distanced himself from the transfer promises made by his opponent, arguing that naming specific players from the congress floor was contrary to his values and damaging to the club's negotiating position.
Safi, 53, a businessman who chairs Safi Holding and previously served on the board during Ali Koc's presidency, took a markedly different approach.
He used his platform on Saturday to announce what he described as completed agreements with Marseille forward Mason Greenwood, striker Luis Suarez of Sporting CP and Türkiye international defender Merih Demiral, pledging to bring additional signings if elected. He cast the vote as a choice between "the energy and hunger" of a new generation and an attachment to the past.
Voting took place on the grounds of the former Kenan Evren High School, adjacent to the Chobani Stadium, between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, using 45 ballot boxes. Yildirim's votes were printed on yellow ballots, Safi's on white.
Of the club's 44,741 eligible congress members, around 30,000 were expected to cast votes, which would represent the highest turnout in recent club history. Previous elections drew 21,350 voters in 2018, 27,489 in 2024 and 24,732 in 2025. Turkish media reported that Yildirim came first in all ballot boxes.
Under club bylaws, the winner of Sunday's vote will serve only a one-year term, as a regular election is already scheduled for May or June 2027. The compressed mandate raises the stakes considerably, particularly on the sporting side.
Fenerbahce, founded in 1907 and one of Türkiye's so-called Big Three alongside Galatasaray and Besiktas, has not lifted the Supe Lig trophy in more than a decade, a drought that has driven the cycle of leadership upheaval. Yildirim has said his singular objective is to deliver the championship and then step aside.
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