İlhan Cavcav

İlhan Cavcav
İlhan Cavcav
Chairman of Gençlerbirliği S.K.
	In office; 1978–2017
Preceded by	Hasan Şengel
Succeeded by	vacant
Personal details
Born	October 4, 1935; Ankara, Turkey
Died	January 22, 2017 (aged 81); Ankara, Turkey
Profession	Businessperson

İlhan Cavcav (October 4, 1935 – January 22, 2017) was a Turkish businessman. He served as the chairman of Gençlerbirliği, a Football club in Turkey for almost 40 years until his death. He was born in Ankara.

He was known for his hard negotiation tactics with the big clubs in Turkey and searching for abilities especially for discovering talent from Africa.

Controversies[change | change source]

In November 2014 Cavcav announced that he would be fining bearded players, claiming that they were a bad influence for the youth. Cavcav said that he would fine players that kept their beards 25,000 Turkish Liras and also attacked UEFA for not banning beards in all of its completions.^[1]

Death[change | change source]

Cavcav was taken to hospital after falling and hitting his head, which caused a brain hemorrhage. He was kept in intensive care unit. One day later, on January 22, 2017, he was pronounced dead.^[2]

Accomplishments[change | change source]

In 1978 Gençlerbirliği S.K. had no training facilities and now the team has one of the largest youth programs in Turkey and 50 acres (200,000 m²) of training facilities in Bestepe, Ankara (Beştepe İlhan Cavcav Tesisleri)
He is the longest serving professional football club chairman in Turkey (1978-2017).