NEWS

The TFF (Turkish Football Federation) recently teamed up with Ülker and the Provincial Directorate of National Education Youth Services Sports Directorate to organize and host Türkiye’s first ever TFF-Ülker Istanbul 13-Year-Old Schools League. They season wrapped up yesterday (Tuesday, May 24, 2016) with a festival held in Riva.

12,000 13-year old athletes hailing from 380 schools from 38 districts across Istanbul and joined the U13 league this past season (2015/2016).

The TFF-Ülker Istanbul 13-Year-Old Schools League was recently held for the first time ever in Türkiye. Its aim was to promote football in schools and to encourage young girls and boys to play football. The league wrapped up with various festivities. Representatives from Ülker and TFF had attended the closing ceremony. There, athletes – who had spent the entire year competing among themselves – were awarded their medals. Some 12,000 13-year old athletes hailing from 380 schools from 38 districts across Istanbul played in various tournaments throughout 2015 and 2016. The league plans to expand next year, and in doing so promote sports and train future athletes.

 ‘Grassroots – Football for Children’ Celebrates its Tenth Year

Ülker places a lot of importance on sports among its many corporate social responsibility projects. This year, it is celebrating the 10^th anniversary of “Grassroots – Football for Children,” a joint project with the TFF. This year, it decided to expand the program by launching three new sub-projects: Football Schools, Istanbul 13-Year-Old Schools League, and University School Football. In doing so, it wants to see 60,000 more kids play sports this year alone.

Ülker launched the three projects to reach out to children across Türkiye. This year, it is supporting children’s personal and social development and encouraging them to get active. Ülker wants to teach children how to sports, and teach them about team spirit and respecting their competitors.

The project has inspired a major shift in infrastructure

Grassroots unifies people and offers them multidimensional development opportunities. Beyond that, Ülker also helps brand names that support sports. Not limiting its investments in clubs only, it has been busy restructuring itself so that it can in turn play a key role in fostering sports and athletes alike in Türkiye since 2007. So far, it has provided nearly 330,000 children the opportunity to play sports thanks to various joint projects with a number of federations.

Many successful players have moved onto the Youth National Team as well as other club teams by training in these projects. In the process, they are taking firm steps towards the future. Some of them have even represented Türkiye in the European Championships and Youth Olympics; others have played for professional clubs or made their way onto national teams.