About

Adana Demirspor is a sports club based in Adana, Turkey. Founded by railway workers in 1940, the club were competitive in eight sports until 1980s; since then active only with the football department, which returned to the Süper Lig on 9 May 2021 after 26 years' of absence. Football team's thriving success at the Adana League and the water polo team's unbeaten National League titles in the first three decades, built a large worker fan base in the city and attracted landowners to finance the club. Believing that the worker supported, landowner financed, TCDD governed club are alienating them, middle-class merchants and artisans founded Adanaspor in 1954 and competition among the two clubs for the citywide support and domination, created one of the fierce rivalries of Turkish football which continues to this day as Adana derby. Adana Demirspor are the first club that is based outside of İstanbul-Ankara-İzmir to join the National Football League, at a time, the league games were only hosted in the largest three cities. The club promoted to the top flight in 1960-61 season and are currently playing there their 18th season. They were the runners-up for the Turkish Cup in the 1977–78 season. Water polo team are the first champions of the Turkish Water Polo League and had dominated the first three decades of the league, winning 21 league titles in 25 years, from early 1940s to mid 1960s. Adana Demirspor are by far the most successful of the 38 Demirspor clubs that are founded by the employees of the Turkish State Railways (TCDD). Most Demirspor clubs have jersey colours identical to Adana Demirspor, and bear the TCDD symbol on their logo. Ankara Demirspor are the only other Demirspor club that compete in the Turkish professional football league system, and the only ones that are still affiliated with TCDD. ADS have one of the most passionate fan base in Turkey. The club did not have a major title in the last 40 years, the highest spot the club could gain at the Turkish top-flight was the sixth place, have been away from Süper Lig for 26 years, have never participated in European Cups, have had less success then their archrival including the derby games; though the level of support grew rapidly almost every decade. This was mainly attributed to the worker dominated solid fan base, who by seeing themselves as the true owner, sustained the club as a community club and carried further to be more than a club. A significant portion of the fan base is politically left leaning and perceiving club directors as merely financing agents.