Hello Ms. Ayşe. First of all, can we get to know you briefly?
I was born in Izmir in 1977. I am a graduate of Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Business Administration. I have been working with my wife in our Interior Design and Architecture business since 2000. I have a daughter studying at university and a cat named Bulut.
You have been elected as the first female President of the Aegean Masters Federation, where 55 clubs are gathered under one roof, with an average of one thousand male football players aged 40 and over 50 in groups A, B, C, D and E. First of all, could you tell us a little about the purpose of establishing this federation, its vision and mission?
My wife started playing in the Ege University Health Power Masters team in 2014. In 2016, I became a member of the same association and was subsequently elected to the board of directors. While I was a manager at the Ege University Health Force Masters Association, as a team, we won 4th, 3rd place and championships in the Aegean Masters Federation in 2019 and 2024, respectively.
He was on the Supervisory Board of the Aegean Master Federation between 2018 and 2021.
I served as Treasurer on the Board of Directors between 2021-2024.
In the elections in April 2024, I took over the presidency from our President Haldun Dokel, who served as president for 2 terms.
Aegean Masters Federation is the first federation established in Türkiye in 2015 by our founding president Recep Çolak and our founding associations. In line with the HIF principle, it tries to keep people over the age of 40 involved in sports and social life through football. For this purpose, as a federation, we organize tournaments and all kinds of organizations for the teams formed by individuals over the age of 40 who have played professional or amateur football before or who have never played football until this age but have always had a passion for football. We usually start our tournaments in October and finish in April. It's a long marathon, both for us as management and for the teams. We ensure that our teams have an enjoyable season with a professional management approach. In addition, as EMF, we have been organizing tournaments in the +50 age category for the last 5 seasons, breaking new ground in Türkiye. We appeal to many more age groups. Our athletes, who start doing sports with us in the +40 age group, stay with us until they are 60 and even older. OUR VISION: In the future, Master football will be officially recognized by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and come under the umbrella of the Turkish Football Federation. Thus, we want to contribute to the spread of sports to all segments of society, from 7 to 70, in our own age group.
What was your role in the Aegean Masters Federation before being elected President, and could you tell us a little about your contributions and work with Mr. Haldun Dokel, who was the President of this federation for 6 years?
Before being elected president, I served as treasurer on the supervisory board at EMF between 2018-2021 and on the board of directors between 2021-2024. During our 6-year working period with my president Haldun Dokel, we have accomplished many works that will be beneficial for our federation. But I think our biggest success was that we enabled a woman to enter the master's community, which seemed to belong to the male world. He has always honored me as a woman and given me the greatest support in being accepted in our community. We attended countless matches, organizations and meetings with my president Haldun. Players and referees have become accustomed to seeing a female manager in the center bench during matches. When there is a woman on the sidelines, football on the field goes to another dimension, because the players pay more attention to both their conversations and their fouls during the game. We reduce the tension from the very beginning by going to matches that we believe will be very tense. Our female fans who come to watch their husbands in the stands have increased. When master's organizations included families, one of our main goals, socialization, was achieved.
As a woman, what are the fun and difficult aspects of working in this federation, and what are your demands from the authorities in this regard?
As a woman, I did not experience many difficult aspects of being alone in the federation. I was met with love and respect from the first day I joined them. It has always been a great pride for me to be on the field, to spend time with the football players, and to represent our federation as a female manager on different platforms. The issue that I find most difficult in the sports facilities where I go to watch the matches from time to time is the hygiene problem and the lack of adequate sinks etc. for female fans or players. That's why, frankly, I would like facilities from municipalities that have sufficient infrastructure in this regard and are built with women in mind.
How many Masters Federations are there in Türkiye that appeal to these age groups and how are your relations with them?
Aegean Masters Federation is the first federation established in Türkiye, but there are many master organizations established in Türkiye later. There are approximately 13 - 14 formations as federations and organizations. With five of these federations; We have a common platform under the name of Mediterranean Masters Federation, Anatolian Masters Friendship Federation, Turkish Masters Union Federation, Çukurova Masters Federation and Istanbul Veterans League, MASVEP.
What is the difference between Veteran and Master?
The word Veteran is used as a military term. In terms of meaning, they both mean experienced, master, experienced, etc. Although it is used as a military term, veteran is mostly used as a military term. In our community, both words are used with the same meaning. Players who have a professional or amateur football background or who have no background but love football and want to play and have exceeded the required age limit are called masters or veterans.
Is the Turkish Masters Association Football Federation or the National Veterans Masters Confederation currently active and what kind of events do you organize with them?
I know that there is no official confederation at the moment. There was a study on this for a while, but then some of the federations here left and created a platform under the umbrella of MASVEP.
Would you consider opening a Women's Branch in these age ranges in your federation, especially for the socialization of disadvantaged women? Do you have a team with this vision and do you have preliminary research and development plans regarding this?
My heart is always in favor of doing something for disadvantaged women, who are a social wound. First of all, as the first and only manager, we need to increase our number in our master community by increasing the number of female managers in the teams. In addition, some infrastructure works that need to be done in our federation are ongoing, we will complete them and establish a sub-commission when the day comes and we will definitely do something for our other women. We just need some time.
How have the interest and participation numbers in your Federation developed over the years?
Our Federation started its journey with 18 associations in 2015, and has reached 32 associations in 2018, 37 in 2019, 44 in 2020, 45 in 2021, 47 in 2022, 51 in 2023, and currently we have 49 associations. Each of the associations in our Federation are valuable and special associations. The interest in our federation and the number of requests to join our league are increasing every year.
Do you have plans to do joint social projects with young people? Could you elaborate on this a little?
Of course, we are considering joint projects in this sense. We especially want to bring our young people, whose fathers are still actively playing football at this age, together with their fathers on the field. In order to set an example with amateur teams in the same region, we can come together at events from time to time and raise social awareness for football from 7 to 70.
If you have plans for the federation, such as 2-year or 5-year targets, could you please elaborate on them?
For now, our first priority is to bring the football quality of our MASTER League to an even better point and ensure that CLEAN FOOTBALL, EXAMPLE FOOTBALL is played on the fields.
Our federation member associations and we, as the federation, are NGOs (non-governmental organisations). In this sense, we want to engage in more activities that will benefit society. We want to be much more visible on social media and in the national and local press. We also attach great importance to the fact that our existence is accepted by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and TFF. It is among our goals to take the necessary initiatives from local governments, which enable us to organize our tournaments by opening their facilities, to enable our athletes to do healthy sports by increasing the number of football fields or by performing the necessary maintenance of existing fields. By following our Ancestor's thoughts encouraging sports, we are trying to reach more people in this age group and keep them involved in sports.
