Gaziantepspor

Gaziantepspor is one of the eighteen teams that constitute the Turkcell Super Lig, the Turkish Premier Super League. This is by far the most popular sporting competition in the country, and it is managed by the Turkish Football Federation, formed in 1923. Established in 1959, the Premier Super League plays its teams against each other in two half seasons. At the end of the league season, the bottom three teams are relegated to the Secondary League Category A. The champion and the runner-up represent Turkey at the UEFA Champions League the following year. Additionally, the teams of the Premier Super League participate along with the 36 teams of the Secondary League for the Fortis Turkey Cup, which yields two slots for the UEFA Cup. Turkish teams are limited to six foreign players.

Besides being the capital city of the province of the same name, Gaziantep is the home of the team. It has a population of 853,512 and it is the largest city in Turkey’s southeastern Anatolia region. In the center of the city stands the Gaziantep Fortress and the Ravanda citadel, and most modern scholars agree that the city is the site of the Hellenistic city of Antiochia ad Taurum. Gaziantep is famous for its regional specialties: the copper-ware products, the sweet pastry baklava and the delicious lahmacun.

Gaziantepspor was created in 1969, and with the relegation of Malatyaspor and Diyarbakirspor, Gaziantepspor is the only representative of the “south east” left in the Super League. Two of the team’s greatest moments were its qualifying to the third round of the UEFA Cup during the 2002-2003 season and its historic dispute of the Super League against Fenerbahçe in the 1999-2000 season. At the end of the 2005-2006 season, Gaziantepspor finished at the eleventh position in the Turkcell Super Lig, after a specially difficult season where the team had to fight to secure its place in the league until the very last game. After such disappointing results, Gaziantepspor has recruited former Italian goalkeeper Walter “Spiderman” Zenga to be the coach for the upcoming season. Gaziantepspor plays at the Antep Kamil Ocak field, which has a capacity for 17,000 fans, and sports a red and black uniform.