In the former West-Berlin’s specific social and political circumstances, in the district of Kreuzberg, then a social hot spot surrounded on three sides by the Berlin wall, a predecessor of today’s football club Türkiyemspor Berlin 1978 e.V. formed.
The club originated in 1978 from a loose association of hobbyists, „Kreuzberg Gençler Birliği“ (Kreuzberger Junge Union), consisting mainly of migrants of Turkish descent, mostly from Izmir. As there was no experience with the bureaucratic aspects of running a football club, they played within the less formalized “Freizeitliga”. This changed in 1983/84, when the club joined the “C-Klasse” of Berlin’s “Amateurliga” as “BFC Izmirspor”, where they immediately won the championship. This was repeated the year after, then in the “B-Klasse”, as in the years following. The athletic advancement won the club a growing fan base; even the games in the lower leagues oftentimes had an audience of more than a thousand people.
In January 1987, the club was renamed as “Türkiyemspor Berlin e.V.“ to account for the fact that the club was no longer limited to migrants from the Izmir region but had developed into a club for all Turkish migrants. The fans quickly adopted “Türkiyem“ (Turkish for “my Turkey”) as the new name. “Türkiyem“ further accomplished their annual ascents though the leagues, from “Kreisklasse C” to “Fußball-Oberliga”, where “Türkiyem“ played in front of an audience of several thousand people and became the third defining athletic force in Berlin next to the clubs “Hertha BSC” and “Tennis Borussia Berlin”. The game against “Hertha BSC” in the 1987/88 season even attracted an audience of more than 12.000 people. In the late 1980s, “Türkiyem“ played the West-Berlin championship with a chance to reach the Second German Football League several times.
In 1994, Türkiyemspor ascended into the newly founded “Regionalliga”, however did not manage to remain in the league and in 1995 descended to “Oberliga”, and three years later to “Berliner Verbandsliga”. In the 1999/2000 season, Türkiyemspor confidently won the leagues championship (144:31 goals, 97 points) and since then has been playing the “NOFV-Oberliga Staffel Nord”. The club was and is mainly sponsored and supported by business people of Turkish descent and first generation migrants.
- Webside: tuerkiyemspor.info