Beyoğluspor Kulübü, also known as the Beyoğlu Sports Club, or by its historic Greek name of Pera Sports Club (Greek: ΑΣΠ; Αθλητικός Σύλλογος Πέραν), or simply Pera Club, is an amateur sports club based in Istanbul, Turkey. It fields teams in volleyball, basketball and football.[2]
Since the second half of the 19th century the Greek community of Constantinople founded several sports clubs and organized sports activities such as the Pan-Constantinopolitan Games.[3]
The club claims it was founded in Pera in 1877, by three local Greek intellectuals, K.D. Kostarakis, I.A. Zervoudakis and A.K. Stefopoulos, as Clio Sports Club.[4] In 1884, it was renamed to Hermès Sport Club, in which the football department was founded in 1914.[5] With the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 it was briefly renamed Pera Sports Club and, later that year, was formally registered as "Beyoğlu Spor Kulübü".[1][3]
Until 1926, the club's activities were housed in the deserted gym of Hermes SC. However, after 1926 the club moved to the building of the "Ladies Charity Fraternity of Pera", also located in the region of Beyoğlu. Initially, Beyoğluspor maintained two departments, football and gymnastics. Later, there were established departments of wrestling and boxing and in 1926 of basketball and volleyball.[3]
During its history, many of the club's departments had been awarded in a variety of competitions. The Volleyball department of Beyoğluspor was one of the most distinguished teams in Turkey during the 1940s and 1950s, while it also won the Turkish championship for some years that period.[3] The football team managed to capture the fifth place at the Istanbul Football League in 1945,[6] while in the early 1960s it competed in the First League.[3] The efforts of the club managers and presidents, such as G. Chalkousis, S. Kanakis, G. Mouzakis, A. Tripos, played a determining part in these successes. On the other hand, several athletes were distinguished both in Greek but also in international level, like the World Champion in weightlifting and latter coach of the Greek weightlifting team, Christos Iakovou.[3] Beyoğluspor didn't field senior team from late 90s to 2014 due to money shortage. Finally Beyoğluspor joined 6th Group of Istanbul 2nd Amateur League, lowest amateur level for İstanbul teams[7] in 2014–15 season. They finished this group as sixth.[8]
The majority of the fans were among the Greek community of the city. However, Beyoğluspor witnessed a dramatic decrease of its supporters for a period when Lefter Küçükandonyadis, a Turkey national football team player of Greek descent and one of the best players in Turkey in 1950s and 1960s, played for Fenerbahçe, turning most of the local Greeks to change temporarily their support to Fenerbahçe.[9]
Today, Beyoğluspor is one of the few surviving Greek foundations of the city and fields teams in volleyball, basketball and football at the amateur level.[2]
