Not just a sports club,
but a sports culture: Eczacıbaşı

Achievements that left their mark on the history of Turkish women's volleyball...

The Eczacıbaşı Women's Volleyball Team holds an indelible place in the sport's history with its national achievements and numerous international firsts and championships.

In 1980, the club achieved its European dream by reaching the final of the European Champion Clubs Cup and finishing second. This was Türkiye's first European success in a team sport and served as an important model for other branches and women athletes. The bar was raised even higher when, in 1984, the team reached the finals again, and in 1999 Eczacıbaşı won the European Cup Winners' Cup, bringing Türkiye its first European Championship in volleyball. “Setting the goal high eliminates the notion of 'settling for less." In 2015, the team became the European Champions League champion. In both 2015 and 2016, the team won the World Championship twice in a row, marking a special milestone in Turkish women's volleyball history. In 2018 and 2022, it became the CEV Cup Champion, etching its name in golden letters in volleyball history. Continuing its tradition of success, the team won the FIVB World Club Championship Cup for the third time on the 100th anniversary of our Republic.

Now, let's take a look at the Turkish Women's National Volleyball Team. In recent years, our country’s women volleyball players have been the focus of many celebrations in Türkiye. Even in 2023, during one of the worst earthquake disasters in our Republic’s history, our women volleyball players kept all of Türkiye glued to the screen as they competed in the Nations League and European Championships, offering a beacon of hope to us all. We felt immense pride in having a “world-class” women's volleyball team. Now the goal is for Türkiye to win its first volleyball medal at the Olympics.

Of course, these achievements didn't come out of nowhere. Such success and ambition are only possible because of the principles adopted and opportunities created from the start. The Eczacıbaşı Sports Club supported women's volleyball not only by forming teams and participating in leagues but also by fostering sports culture and discipline among young people. By employing professional management, hiring the best coaches in Turkey, and building the first women’s volleyball facility operated by a private company, the club created a culture based on the belief that Turkish women could achieve anything given the opportunity. This understanding and investment underpinned our confidence that our club would be world class.

In 1966, just two years after the Eczacıbaşı Women's Volleyball Team was founded, it joined the Istanbul League and achieved many feats both in Türkiye and internationally. “Eczacıbaşı” should definitely be the title of a chapter in the story of Turkish women's volleyball's journey to the top of the world.

Eczacıbaşı has shattered preconceived notions about women's sports with the culture it created. In addition to infrastructure investments, the club’s Future Spike volleyball school project has empowered girls and showed them they can achieve anything. The club’s decision to focus on “women's volleyball” after establishing a presence in four sports branches was driven by a social mission to ensure equal opportunities for women in sports.

Eczacıbaşı Sports Club President Faruk Eczacıbaşı sums up the club's purpose as follows: "We are trying to support not only the players of the A Team but also about 5,000 girls, from junior level to teenagers. If we can empower young girls whose lives we have touched to pursue a confident life and prove themselves in society, this is a great achievement for us. When we focused the Eczacıbaşı Sports Club solely on women's volleyball, we had a single thought: to highlight the presence of women in Türkiye and their importance in society. We knew that one way to do this was through sports. We believed that the presence of women in sports would strengthen international perception of Türkiye's modern identity. We adopted this as a mission and positioned women's volleyball at the core of the Eczacıbaşı Sports Club."

In 2018, this effort earned the club the IOC Women and Sports World Trophy, a distinction given for the first time to a sports club. In its announcement, the International Olympic Committee said the Eczacıbaşı Sports Club merited the award for: “Being one of the world's leading clubs in women's volleyball, providing thousands of young girls with the opportunity to play volleyball, and working to increase the presence of women in sports.”

At the award ceremony, Faruk Eczacıbaşı talked about the importance of the award and the mindset that led to the club’s achievements. "Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı used to say: ‘A title is not the only measure of a club's success.’ Winning a championship is definitely a locomotive that is needed to move the train forward. However, I think the essence of our effort is a journey. The International Olympic Committee commended us on our journey. Our project to make women’s voices heard through sports was recognized by the committee. Indeed, it was one of the most honorable awards of our lives."

Eczacıbaşı provides high school and university scholarships to many girls through volleyball. As of 2023, the club had trained more than 12,000 licensed volleyball players. Through the Future Spike project, realized in cooperation with ES Volleyball, the club aims to make sports more accessible to girls and women and encourage young girls to participate in life through volleyball.

The project’s objective goes beyond recruiting athletes for the club’s youth teams, A team or for the National Team; it also aims to contribute to the development and empowerment of girls. The project has also created an educational curriculum for women’s volleyball, a first for any sports branch in Türkiye. When the curriculum was approved by the Ministry of National Education (MoNE), five MoNE-approved schools were opened under the leadership of Future Spike project. Already, the project has impacted the lives of nearly 25,000 girls at 24 campuses in 10 provinces across Türkiye.