Çaykur Rizespor Kulübü is a Turkish professional football club based in Rize. The club play in the Turkish Süper Lig, which is the top tier of football in the country. The club was founded on May 19, 1953 with green-yellow as club colours, but later changed to blue-green. Since 1990, the team has been sponsored by the Turkish tea company Çaykur, hence the name and the image of a tea leaf on the club's logo. The club plays its home games in Yeni Rize Şehir Stadium.
History
A committee of five people—Yakup Temizel, Atıf Taviloğlu, İsmet Bilsel, Yaşar Tümbekçioğlu and Muharrem Kürkçü—founded the club on 19 May 1953 at the 34th anniversary year of the start of Independence War. The intention was to enhance the physical and cultural talents of the youth as well as to contribute to the developments of Rize. Domestic cultivation of lemon citruses and oranges labeled the club colour to be yellow and being Rize's symbol, tea gardens, represented the colour green. One of the founding members, Yaşar Dömlekçioğlu was chosen the first president of the club. During the amateur league years through 1953 to 1968, local-born players such as Ahmet Durmuş, Kenan Tiryaki, Mustafa Erol, İrfan Akaslan, Mahmut Salih Yavuz, Salih Kazancı, Ahmet Kemal Yavuz, Hamil Kazancı, Mustafa Veziroğlu, Yılmaz Özkan, Yılmaz Balta, Ahmet Fenci, Ekif Fence, Oktay Arayıcı, Abdullah Kıtır, Mustafa Kazdal, Abdullah Şeker and Ömer Çakır played for Rizespor. With the regulation changes in 1968, the club formed a professional club structure by the association of two clubs, Rize Güneşspor and Fenergençlik.The club started from the third division with the colours blue and green. At the end of a competitive season, as a result of a fight inside the game the club got punished with a forfeit as well as a deduction of 2 points which bereaved Rizespor from promotion that season. The punishment was the first time in the Turkish football history. In the coming period, the club did not get relegated and in 1978–1979, Rizespor won the title and qualified to play in the Turkish Süper Ligfor the first time in the club history.
Firsts in the history of Rizespor
First transfers
Rizespor spent 367 thousand liras to transfer Mehdi Taremi and Ramin Rezaeian Alves in Persepolis Iran Salim, Rasim, Mustafa, Sabahattin, Ahmet, Atilla, Hakkı, Yücel, Ahmet, Salih, Mustafa, İbrahim, Tuncay, Yüksel, Şenol, Cevat, Kadir, B.Cevat, Enver, Lokman. Rizespor paid a monthly wage of 10 thousand liras.
First manager
got hired as the first manager of the club. He was in manager/player status.
Facilities
Since 2008 Mehmet Cengiz Sosyal Tesisleri are the facilities of Rizespor. The facilities function as accommodation and sports centre within European standards.
FK Pobeda