The International Socca Federation have announced that there will be a new member for Turkey in 2024.
ISF CEO Thanos Papadopoulos said, “Turkey is a very important country to us and it is important that we get the right member who can move forward at our fast pace into the future.
Obviously, we have had more than one application from organizations in Turkey for membership in 2024 and we have had to choose the strongest applicant.
We have looked at all applications and decided that we will move forward with a new member in Turkey who we believe is the strongest existing operator in the Turkish marketplace.
We know that our current members will be desperately disappointed at our decision but, in truth, they have failed to give us the reassurances that we need moving forward.
Obviously , we are in a position now whereby, because of the tournaments that we put on, particularly such as the amazing event in Germany in June, and our soon to be announce 2024 tournaments, that we are getting applications from multiple organizations in different countries.”
Thanos proceeded to explain the membership selection process, “It is always our policy that we will stay loyal with our existing members, particularly if they are completely loyal to us, but we also reserve the right to choose another applicant who are desperately keen to join us, and can offer us much greater possibilities in the future, as well as total exclusivity to Socca.
I would like to take this opportunity of thanking our current member, who I know is bitterly disappointed with our decision, whilst welcoming our new member Socca Turkey.”
Rafi Danon, who will head the new Socca Turkey federation, and currently leads an organisation in Turkey that has over 30,000 registered players across the three biggest cities, Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, said, “The level of ogranisation I have seen at Socca events, especially the World Cups in Greece and Germany, was amazing, and made it impossible not to want to join.”
Talking about what the future holds for Socca Turkey, Rafi commented that, “after the last World Cup, which was broadcast on one of the biggest sports channels in Turkey, all small sided football players now know about Socca, they really like the new innovations in the game, and our goal is to get them, and our 30,000 players, all playing under the Socca umbrella.”