HISTORY

History

Trabzonspor are one of the leading football clubs of Turkey whose fame has already passed beyond the borders of the country, reaching Europe and rest of the world.

Trabzonspor's establishment and claiming their “big club” status were not easily achieved. The club was founded in two stages. In the first part, three amateur clubs İdmangücü, Karadenizgücü and Martıspor have merged with an extensive support from İdmangücü on June 21, 1966 and formed Trabzonspor. The initial kit colours of the club were red-white.

However, the merger didn't include Trabzon city's most deep-rooted sports club İdmanocağı who didn't want to join in because of several reasons. Therefore, Trabzonspor couldn't be completely incorporated with the city.

Having competed in the second division for the first time in 1966/67 season. Trabzonspor were abolished after İdmanocağı filed a law suit to Council of State. Finally, following a lot of discussions and disputes Trabzonspor founded once again with the addition of İdmanocağı to the previous merger in August 2, 1967, this time with claret red and blue colours.

Newly-formed Trabzonspor played in Turkish Second Division until 1973/74 season when they lifted the title and clinched promotion to the first divison. After finishing the league ninth the following season, the club also won Cyprus Peace Cup the same year.

At the end of 1975/76 season, Trabzonspor recorded a historic success by winning the first divison title which was never won besides three big clubs of İstanbul, namely Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş.

Spurred by this outstanding achievement, Trabzonspor also won President's Cup and Prime Minister's Cup in that season. This unexpected success created a big reaction throughout Turkey. Everybody was surprised and columnists even regarded Trabzonspor's success as ‘just a coincidence'. Unfortunately, those comments were made without taking the ambition, determination self-confidence and faith of the people who live in Trabzon into consideration.

Trabzonspor claimed the league title for the second consecutive time and after this the point of view towards the club started to shift and became more realistic.

In 1977/78 season Trabzonspor underachieved an finished the league second but won all the three national cups. Between 1979-1981 the club sensationally won three successive league titles and this put the Black Sea club among the top teams of the country.

Trabzonspor's last title joy dates back to 1983/84 season where they also won the Turkish Cup. Since that year, Trabzonspor have a big desire to win the league title and in the meantime Turkish Cup successes became a comfort for them. Recently, the club have won this prestigious competition in 2002/03 and 2003/04 seasons.

Trabzonspor are not only proud of domestic successes but with some major achievements in European Cups.

Giant teams of Europe, likes of Liverpool, Internazionale and Barcelona were beaten at Trabzonspor's spiritual home ground Hüseyin Avni Aker stadium, without even able to score one single goal.

Knocking Olympique Lyonnais and Aston Villa out of UEFA Cup in 1991/92 and 1994/95 seasons respectively are still considered as one of the biggest successes of the club.