Veysel Bilen: “We did not close the basketball branch, we just did not participate in the league.”

SAMSUN (IHA) – Samsunspor A. Ş. Vice President Veysel Bilen stated that the Samsunspor Basketball Team has not been disbanded, but they have simply waived their rights to participate in the league this season.

Last season, the Samsunspor Basketball Team, which competed in the Basketball Super League, announced that they decided not to participate in the league this year due to not being able to secure the necessary budget. In a meeting today, Vice President Veysel Bilen said that they have not closed the basketball branch of the association, but have waived their rights to play in the league this year, and that the new management to be elected at the ordinary general assembly to be held in August 2025 will make a decision regarding the basketball branch. Bilen also expressed that the federation will inform them later whether the Samsunspor Basketball Team, which will not participate in matches in the Basketball 1st League this year, will be relegated or not.

“We have not closed basketball, we have decided not to participate in the league”

Stating that they have decided not to participate in the league, Veysel Bilen said, “One of the activities of our club’s association was basketball. The basketball branch continues. There is no question of closing the branch. We have only waived our right to participate in the league this year. The basketball branch continues, and the infrastructure studies will continue academically, but we have decided not to participate in the leagues. There are two opinions regarding relegation. We have informed the federation that we will not participate in the draw. Since we provided this information in advance, there is an opinion that it will continue. This is because we did not participate in the league with a justified reason. Another opinion is that it cannot continue in this league and will be relegated to a lower league. In fact, Samsunspor had already started from one league below. Nothing changes. Whatever the general assembly decides, we will act accordingly. The general assembly will be held in August 2025. When that time comes, there may be candidates who want to run. We will abide by the decision taken by the general assembly.”

“The victory against Gaziantep FK should not spoil us”

Providing information about the football team competing in the Super League, Bilen said, “We won against Gaziantep FK and achieved our first away victory in a long time. We said we are enough for ourselves. We saw how much character our player group has in the matches against Beşiktaş and Gaziantep FK. We are pleased that several of our players, who did not perform adequately last year, have started to contribute to the team this year as if they were new transfers. This gives hope for the future. This should not spoil us. We need to avoid getting carried away too early. The league is a very long marathon. We want to keep our focus from the start and end the season, which seems difficult, successfully without having nightmares, and embrace brighter days in the future. In the schedule where the postponed Başakşehir match is, we will play a friendly match against the 1461 Trabzon team. After that, we will prepare for the away match against Hatayspor. We are working day and night for a better and more successful future. At the end of the season, together we will have brought Samsunspor to the point that it has been missed.”