Fenerbahçe Chairman Aziz Yıldırım announced Friday his bid to become the chairman of the Istanbul club for a sixth time.

Yıldırım, who is currently serving his fifth two-year term, announced his candidacy for the upcoming election on June 3 at a news conference in Istanbul.

He said that he was "more thrilled than I was 20 years ago" when he was first elected as Fenerbahçe chairman in 1998. The 65-year-old main opponent will be businessman Ali Koç. Born in 1967 in Istanbul, Ali Koç is a well-known Turkish businessman, who has held the position of vice president of the executive board of Koç Holding, a prominent Turkish conglomerate, since February 2016.

During the Yıldırım era, Fenerbahçe has expanded and modernized its stadium, the Şükrü Saraçoğlu Stadium – also known as Ülker Stadium. The renovation of the 50,530 capacity stadium was completed in April 2006. The stadium hosted the 2009 UEFA Cup Final, the last under that name before it was rebranded as UEFA Europa League.

In more than 100 years of its existence, Fenerbahçe has won 19 Turkish Super League titles, six of which came during the Yıldırım era. Fenerbahçe's men's basketball team was crowned Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champions in May 2017 to become the first ever Turkish club to lift the trophy. However, Yıldırım's stint as club chairman was marred by a match-fixing scandal which led to the club's suspension from European tournaments. European football's governing body UEFA barred Fenerbahçe from European tournaments for two seasons as a result of its investigation in 2013. Turkey's match-fixing scandal broke after the 2010-11 season of the Spor Toto Super League, which saw Fenerbahçe win the title.

Several important football figures, including chairmen, players and board members, were taken into custody over the fixing and bribery after a legal action was launched in July 2011.

That month, Yıldırım was jailed for forming an illegal organization and his involvement in match-fixing in Turkish football's top division. He was sentenced to six years and three months in prison of which he served a year. In June 2014, Aziz Yıldırım's term was suspended and a retrial was ordered. Yıldırım was acquitted of all charges by an Istanbul court on Oct. 9, 2015.