Turkish Airlines Euroleague Basketball lands in Berlin in 2016

The best four European basketball teams meet each other in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Basketball Final Four in the capital of Germany. Already in 2009, the final tournament of the most important association title of Europe was hosted at the sold out Mercedes Benz arena in Berlin. After Paris, Barcelona, Istanbul, London, Milan and Madrid the competition once more finds its highlight in front of German scenery. 

The European basketball elite which could assert itself against 20 other top-level competitors in the course of the season will face each other in the Final Four of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague. During the semifinals on the 13th of May, Fenerbahçe Istanbul lines up against Laboral Kutxa Vitoria from Spain and ZSKA Moscow plays against their compatriots BC Lokomotiv-Kuban Krasnodar from Russia. The winners make it to the Turkish Airlines Euroleague final. Dirk Bauermann, the most successful German basketball coach, will also take part in this event as ambassador. In the official Euroleague Blog he honors the competition as a wonderful event for fans, players and for the general interest in basketball. He is glad that the closed league becomes bigger from year to year – a great merit, which can be traced back to the top-quality marketing done by the Euroleague and Turkish Airlines. This year, the teams are as competitive as never before.  

Euroleague Basketball was brought to life in the season 2000/2001. Since then, it is settled under the supervision of the ULEB (union of the Ligues Européennes of the basketball) every year. In 2010 Turkish Airlines, the airline that flies to more countries and international destinations than any other airline, became official title sponsor of the most important competition in European basketball as well as of the according final tournament. The successful partnership will be continued until 2020. Turkish Airlines and the German capital as this year's venue are linked in a longstanding relationship – 43 years ago their first airplane landed in Berlin. 

Ahmet Olmustur, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Turkish Airlines said: “Besides strengthening the corporate cooperation initiated in 2010 with Euroleague Basketball, Europe's top-level basketball event and one of the most popular basketball organizations in the world, we have also built a great brand appeal of Turkish Airlines across the world while we continue to move towards the goal of excellence in the international aviation industry. We are proud to be the eponym of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague and global sponsor of the eurocup for six years now. We firmly believe that playing sports has the ability to unite people from different nations and cultures and partnerships such as this offer the opportunity to develop a different kind of communication with a global audience, and maintaining the brand excellence with consumers not only in Turkey, but across the world as well.” 

Turkish Airlines, priced with the Skytrax World Airline Award for the best Airline of Europe for the fifth time last year, has endorsed sports on an international level for many years.