Erdogan inagurates 213 sports facilities

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan participated in the inauguration ceremony of 213 sport facilities held at the Sinan Erdem Sports Hall. Recalling his amateur sports life of 16 years, Erdogan stated that Turkey had a much more powerful infrastructure in sports with its 4,750,000 million registered athletes and continuously increasing number of sport halls. Erdogan noted that they have constructed 789 sport halls so far, saying, "We have always sought ways on how we can deter our youth from bad habits and encourage them to do sports. We have made every effort to this end and will keep on working." Mentioning also the loss of Turkey's candidacy for hosting the Olympic Games, Erdogan noted that he didn't see this as a loss and they intended to spend the money to be used for preparations for the Olympics to open new facilities for citizens. Among the facilities opened so far, there are 103 football pitches, 3 athletics tracks, 7 swimming pools, 63 sports halls, 12 youth centers and 25 other sport centers.