Fenerbahçe defeated Olympiacos by 80-64 at the Sinan Erdem Dome thereby becoming the Champion of the 2016-2017 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Season.
The encounter started well for Fenerbahçe with the score being 26 against 18 in the first period, however the second period Olympiacos almost caught up, reducing Fenerbahçe’s lead to 5 points.
Right before the third period, Hidayet Türkoğlu, President of the Turkish Basketball Federation handed over a symbolic basketball to the local basketball authorities of Belgrade, Serbia which will host the finals in 2018. During the rest of the match, Fenerbahçe dominated the game and became the best team of 2017 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague with a score of 80:64.
However, CSKA Moscow and Real Madrid played in the third place which ended 94:70 with the Russian side emerging victorious.
In this edition, CSKA Moscow came to Istanbul as title favourite to win the cup while disputed semi-finals between the Spanish team and the Turkish one also had great expectations.
Prior to the finals, Real Madrid and Fenerbahçe played a historic game on Friday which ended with the victory of Zeljko Obradovic’s team, Fenerbahçe. The ‘white team’ is the most successful in the history of the EuroLeague since it has won nine times.
The Turkish crowd showed strong support for the home side who didn’t disappoint afterall with the incredible performance.
This incredible show has offered to all sports lovers, both in Istanbul and around the world, a truly unique experience, in line with various enjoyable activities performed by the expert teams both from Turkish Airlines and EuroLeague Basketball. It has also been the perfect occasion to launch once again the solidarity initiatives carried out by OneTeam, Euroleague’s corporate social responsibility program, created with the airline’s support in 2012.
The Euroleague Basketball was created in the 2000/2001 season. In 2010 Turkish Airlines, flying to more countries and international destinations in the world, became the official sponsor of the most important basketball competition in Europe, as well as its final round. For this season, the flag company has celebrated the Final Four in Istanbul, which has made this collaboration even more special. More than 18.000 spectators have enjoyed the best European basketball to encourage CSKA Moscow, Olympiacos Pireus, Real Madrid and Fenerbahçe. The Turkish Airlines sponsorship to the EuroLeague Basketball will extend for three more years.
Turkish Airlines, priced with the Skytrax World Airline Award for Europe’s Best Airline for the consecutive sixth time last year, has endorsed sports on an international level for many years. In addition to sponsoring the EuroLeague Basketball and its acclaimed final round, and UEFA Euro 2016, the company had remained linked to the sports sphere and its important values of effort and improvement, through different collaborative actions with F.C. Barcelona or Manchester United and with athletes like Messi or Kobe Bryant. Beyond basketball and football, the company also supports other disciplines such as the European Professional Club Rugby Championship since November 2015, the Turkish Airlines Open Golf – included in the European Tour Final Series since 2013 – or the Chio Aachen in Germany, the most prestigious horse competition in the world.
