 | ||||
| Full name | Kocaelispor Kulübü | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1966; 59 years ago (1966) | |||
| Ground | Kocaeli Stadium, İzmit, Turkey | |||
| Capacity | 34,829 | |||
| Chairman | Recep Durul (caretaker) | |||
| Head coach | İsmet Taşdemir | |||
| League | TFF First League | |||
| 2023-24 | TFF First League, 6th of 18 | |||
| Website | http://www.kocaelispor.com.tr/ | |||
Kocaelispor is a Turkish professionalfootball club based inİzmit,Kocaeli. They were founded in 1966 and played in thetop level between 1980 and 1988, 1992–2003 and the 2008–09 seasons. Their best finish was in 1992–93 season, where they finished fourth. They have won theTurkish Cup twice, in 1997 and 2002. On 8 January 2015, in front of 20,152 spectators, Kocaelispor set a record for the highest attendance at aTurkish Regional Amateur League encounter.[1]
Prior to establishment of Kocaelispor, the executive board representatives of Baçspor, a local football club, had demanded a new plat from İzmit Municipality to assure a place for training the sports in 1957. Osman Gencal, city mayor at the time, had been interested in finding a place for training due to his sportive background as a former sportsman and a member of Baçspor.[2] Therefore, the municipality had given a 28-acre (110,000 m2) wide plat to Baçspor, as the plat had been sold for a symbolic cost of 1Lira.
Baçspor had sold the plat for 283,000 Liras and had a new place in Baç district of İzmit; and begun to a new construction. In 1964, Baçspor club board planned to found a new team at professional level and compete in2nd Division.[2] However, federation regulation of that time was stating that it was required to compound at least 3 teams and have appropriate facilities. Then, in 1966, three teams which are Baçspor, İzmit Gençlik and Doğanspor had come together, combined and founded Kocaelispor. Three club boards had consensus on every subject and embraced the green and black as the club colours. Then, it had been held a club congress in common and the new club board had been elected. Kocaelispor had spent 175,000 Liras to gather their first squad ever to compete in 2nd Division in 1966.[2]
Kocaelispor was promoted to the1st Division for the first time in 1980. They competed 8 seasons consecutively until their relegation in 1988. However, during this phase, the club has relegated once in1986–87 season and come back after aTurkish Council of State verdict.[3]
After the relegation in 1988, they escaped from relegation to third level in 1990 and Bartınspor relegated. They were back in top-level football campaign of Turkey, 1st Division, in 1992. Following this comeback, Kocaelispor had obtained their best league position performance. The team had a sensational start for the season. BeatingKayserispor with a 7–2 final score in 1st match day, collecting 25 points in first 10 weeks, Kocaelispor ended the first half of the fixture as the league leader. However, team had consecutive defeats and finished the season as the 4th of the ladder of1992–93 season. The team represented Turkey atUEFA Cup next season.
The manager of team wasGüvenç Kurtar and the roster was including respectable players.Fahrudin Omerović was the substitute keeper ofYugoslavia squad.Stevica Kuzmanovski andMirko Mirković (latterly gained Turkish citizenship with name Mert Meriç) are otherYugoslav players indefence position.Bülent Uygun had played at forward position alongside national strikerSaffet Sancaklı. Both players then joined Istanbul clubs. Uygun achieved league top scorer honour while playing forFenerbahçe and Sancaklı first joinedGalatasaray but returned the club in 1995 and at the end of season, he joined Fenerbahçe.Bülent Baturman,Halil İbrahim Kara, Melih Erdem, Ergun Kula are some of other notable players at that squad.
Kocaelispor had achieved another successful league position in1995–96 season as the 5th best team on the table and competed atIntertoto Cup on following season.
Kocaelispor had theTurkish Cup title twice, in 1997 and 2002 againstTrabzonspor andBeşiktaş, respectively. On following season of2002–03, the team has been relegated again as finishing last. After total of 5 seasons competition atTFF First League, Kocaelispor had the championship in2007–08 season and returnedSüper Lig. However, this return lasted one season due to money shortage and relegated again to First League after lost 3–1 home match againstTrabzonspor on 9 May 2009, at Round 31 as finishing 17th. Kocaelispor relegated toTFF Second League, third tier of Turkish football once after 2–1 losing away match againstKartalspor on 4 April 2010.
Kocaelispor were managed by 3 managers during 2007–2008 season:Fuat Yaman (from 1st–10th weeks), Kayhan Çubuklu (11th–31st) andEngin İpekoğlu (32nd–34th). They returned to Turkcell Super League as the title holders of lastTFF First League season. However, this promotion was followed by successive two relegations and they playedTFF Second League once in 2010–11 season. Kocaelispor relegated to fourth level in 2011–12 after finishing last in White Group of Second League. Finally they were relegated to Regional Amateur League after losing 1–0 away match againstİstanbulspor 4 rounds before finishing the league on 6 April 2014.
Kocaelispor rivalled withTekirdağspor, Çengelköyspor and Arnavutköy Belediyespor for promoting to Third League in 2014–15 season. They were leader for some weeks but finished as 4th in 11th group and Tekirdağspor returned professional level after 11 years.[4] Kocaelispor finished 12th Group as champions and faced with Sultangazispor, champions of 11th Group at promotion play-offs.[5] They defeated them as 2–0 with Sinan Pektemek and Hamza Mutlu's goals on 24 April 2016 in Eskişehir and returned professional level after 2 years.[6]
Kocaelispor boasts a large support base throughout Turkey, particularly inMarmara Region andBlack Sea Region. The club's main fan base known asHodri Meydan.[7] The main rival isSakaryaspor.
In 2017,İzmit Stadium became the new home ground for Kocaelispor replacingİzmit İsmetpaşa Stadium.
| Competition | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UEFA Cup Winners' Cup | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | +2 |
| UEFA Cup | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 7 | –7 |
| UEFA Intertoto Cup | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 11 | 14 | –3 |
| Total | 18 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 15 | 23 | –8 |
| Season | Round | Club | Home | Away | Aggregate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 1R |  Naţional București | 2–0 | 1–0 | 3–0 |
| 2R |  Lokomotiv Moscow | 0–0 | 1–2 | 1–2 |
| Season | Round | Club | Home | Away | Aggregate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993–94 | 1R |  Sporting CP | 0–0 | 0–2 | 0–2 |
| 2002–03 | 1R |  Ferencváros | 0–1 | 0–4 | 0–5 |
| Season | Round | Club | Home | Away | Aggregate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | GS | Uralmash | — | 0–2 | 4th |
 CSKA Sofia | 1–3 | — | |||
 Strasbourg | — | 1–1 | |||
 Hibernians | 5–3 | — | |||
| 1999 | 2R |  Ventspils | 2–0 | 1–1 | 3–1 |
| 3R |  MSV Duisburg | 0–3 | 0–0 | 0–3 | |
| 2000 | 1R |  FK Atlantas | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–1, 4–5 (p) |
UEFA Ranking history:
| Season | Rank | Points | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 168 | 0.500 | [10] |
| 1995 | 177 | 0.500 | [11] |
| 1996 | 193 | 0.500 | [12] |
| 1997 | 188 | 0.500 | [13] |
| 1998 | 104 | 1.750 | [14] |
| 1999 | 142 | 15.175 | [15] |
| 2000 | 127 | 16.925 | [16] |
| 2001 | 117 | 19.987 | [17] |
| 2002 | 126 | 19.362 | [18] |
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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