Soccer in Turkey

Flags of the three major clubs of Istanbul

Soccer is the most popular sport in Turkey . The Turkish Football Association was founded in 1923 and the professional league games have been played in the Süper Lig since 1959. The Turkish national team celebrated their greatest success at the 2002 World Cup when they reached 3rd place. Galatasaray celebrated the greatest success of a Turkish club teamin 2000 by winning the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Super Cup .

history

The first developments

The great today in everyday life the attention of the population to be passing football was in Turkish history among the Central Asian living room Turkic peoples (as Tepük Old Turkish for: kick or kick ) very well known and was a popular game . Tepük as a game was the first to find its place in Turkish history. Tepük reached its peak when it was adapted to the rules in force in European countries and has since been played under the modern name Futbol.

In contrast to Tepük, the modern football game in Turkey achieved an exactly opposite entry into Turkish history under the Turks. Shortly before the end of the Ottoman Empire at that time , the Sultan was strictly against young people or adults meeting and participating in club-like activities. That was only allowed to foreigners living in Turkey at the time, much to the chagrin of the Turkish football fans. That is why the first football players were foreigners or Muslims from other countries. They also founded the first football clubs in Turkey.

The English families Giraud Whittal and Charnaud, who lived in Izmir in 1890 and were involved in business, had played football in their free time and were the pioneers of Turkish football. A moment later was around 1895 by in Istanbul living football fans Englishmen under the auspices of the English lawyer Henry Pears and James Lafontaine, the first football team founded under the name FCWIEN.

At that time the Turkish football fans were not allowed to show their interest and because of the bans nobody dared to even mention the word football in public. Despite the bans, the then sailor's apprentice Fuat Hüsnü (Kayacan) and Reşat Bey (Dalyan), who was then working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs , founded the Black Stocking football club in 1899 and the first Turkish football club in 1901, whose team consisted of Turks for the first time, and the Kadiköy Futbol Club was called. The players were Fuat Hüsnü, Reşat, Kemani, Fahri, Nurettin, Hafiz Mehmet, F.Mustafa, Emcet, tambourine players Osman Pehlivan and Sevki.

Black Stocking lost their first game against the Byzantine team Kadiköy Rum (Greek) 1: 5. It was not until the game was over that the palace guards realized that Black Stocking's team were Turkish. Because they were not allowed to play football, they were arrested and subsequently banished . The team no longer existed. Only Fuat Hüsnü managed to escape, he later continued to play under the code name Bobby for the English soccer team Kadiköy FC without being noticed.

In 1902, under the patronage of Mr. James Lafontaine and Mr. Horace Armitage, the first official team in Turkey was founded in Kadiköy by the English and Greeks and was called Cadikoey Football Club (Kadiköy Futbol Club). Soon afterwards the English founded the Moda FC and the Greeks founded the Elpis FC and Imogene FC, which bore the name of the British embassy yacht. Thus in 1904 there were four soccer teams in Istanbul. In the same year, the first league games took place in Izmir . In Istanbul, the four football clubs with James Lafontaine as president founded the Istanbul Futbol League and agreed to play every Sunday. That is why it was also called the Sunday League. On this occasion, Mr. Henry Pears had a valuable silver trophy imported from England to give the trophy to the best in the league after 10 years. The league games were played on the site of today's Fenerbahçe Stadium , which was then called Papazın Çayırı (English: Priest Meadow ).

The first league games

The first spectators of the Sunday league games were mostly English and Greeks. There were only a few Turks among them. Over time, however, the law and Sultan Abdülhamid II saw the football game more relaxed. Encouraged by this, new Turkish football clubs were founded in İzmir and İstanbul.

A team without a club name was founded in 1905 by the students of the Galatasaray Sultans College. Players included Ali Sami (Yen), Asım Tevfik (Sonumut), Emin Bülent (Serdaroğlu), Bekir (Sitki), Nikolof (Kaptan), Tahsin Nahit and Abidin Daver. Since they were students from Galatasaray High School, the spectators named the team in Galatasaray Istanbul .

After the establishment of Galatasaray Istanbul, the Turkish teacher Ender, Hintli Asaf (the Indian), Nurizade Ziya, Galip, Nasuhi, Şevkati, Elkatipzade Mustafa and his brother Haldun, Hakkı Saffet, Ayetullah, Hasan and Hüseyin Bey joined the Saint Joseph College in Kadıköy new football club founded. This is how the Fenerbahçe Istanbul was created in 1907 .

About a year later, with the announcement of the 2nd constitutional government period, Vefa Istanbul and Beykozspor were founded, with which Turkish football secured its existence. The Beşiktaş Gymnastics Club, founded in 1903, took Beşiktaş Istanbul into its activities in 1915 , creating a new football club. In 1912 the Friday League was founded by Fenerbahçe, Türk İdman Ocaği and other organizations. Because of the Balkan War , it was only able to start operations in 1915. The establishment of the Friday League attracted the interest of the Sunday division. With the beginning of the First World War , the Sunday League disbanded, whereupon the Turkish football clubs split into groups and the İstanbul Football Association League and the İstanbul Champions League were founded. In 1915/1916 these two leagues were combined and reorganized in the Friday League. In 1918 the Şeref Bey from Beşiktaş united the Friday League and the Turk İdman Birliği League.

During the development phase of Turkish football, it was played very hard because the rules were not known enough. For example, very high balls were hit, a group attack was launched on the goalkeeper and opposing players were brought down by obviously tripping; this was considered a success. The referees hardly knew the rules at that time. The games usually took place without a referee or a football fan was given a white cloth, who then took on the role of referee. Neither the football fields nor the playground equipment did not comply with the rules in any way. Over time, however, the technical understanding of the game became more and more important. The Turkish national team had their first foreign encounter during this time and drew 2-2 against the Romanians' national team.

A little later the Romanian national team played against Galatasaray Istanbul and lost 4: 7. In 1921 the Istanbul teams played against several Central European football clubs and it was clear that the football game in Turkey was far behind European football. These amateur encounters were very instructive for Turkish football.

Foundation of the football association and the Süper Lig

Football association logo

In the founding phase of the Turkish Republic, many important decisions were made for Turkish football. A turning point was reached in 1922 with the founding of the “Türkiye İdman Cemiyeti İttifakı” league and in 1923 the “ Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu ” (Football Federation of Turkey) was founded. She became a member of FIFA in the same year . Thus, Turkish football became widely known throughout the country and became more and more economical. The two Istanbul amateur leagues played until 1952, after which the Istanbul professional league games took place. In 1959, the first Turkish professional league, the Süper Lig , was founded. This league has since been played nationwide with 18 teams in the top division.

Manipulation scandal in the 2010/2011 season

In the 2010/2011 season there was a fraud scandal in professional football in Turkey. In the course of the investigation, club officials were also sentenced to prison terms, and a total of 93 defendants had to answer in court. In that season, Fenerbahçe secured the title against Sivasspor on the last day of the game, and this game has also been proven to have been manipulated. The UEFA responded by temporarily excluded the clubs involved from participating in the European Cup.

Professional football

Super Lig

The highest Turkish league is the Süper Lig , in which 18 teams play for the championship. Since the league was founded, only five clubs have managed to conquer the championship: the three top Istanbul clubs Galatasaray Istanbul (22 championship titles), Fenerbahçe Istanbul (19 championship titles) and Beşiktaş Istanbul (15), Trabzonspor (6), which took place between 1976 and 1984 could celebrate their most successful years, as well as Bursaspor (1).

Due to their longstanding superiority in the Turkish championship, Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş are also referred to as the "3 greats". Supplemented by Trabzonspor, which in the last few decades also almost always played in the top of the league, they are referred to as the "4 big ones". These four clubs also traditionally have the largest following of all Turkish club teams.

Turkey is currently in 10th place in the UEFA five-year ranking . As a result, the champions qualify directly for the UEFA Champions League . The runner-up plays in the play-offs for a place in the "premier class". Third and fourth in the table qualify for the UEFA Europa League qualification . The cup winner receives a place in the group stage.

Hakan Şükür is the league's record scorer with 249 goals , while Oğuz Çetin has the most games (503) . The coach who was able to win the championship title most often is Fatih Terim with seven championships.

League system of the TFF

step

League / Division (s)

1

Super Lig 18 clubs

2

TFF 1st Lig 18 clubs

3

Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu 2nd Lig Kirmizi Grup 18 clubs

Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu 2nd Lig Beyaz Grup 18 clubs

4th

Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu 3rd Lig 1st Grup 18 clubs

Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu 3rd Lig 2nd Grup 18 clubs

Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu 3rd Lig 3rd Grup 18 clubs

5

Boelgesel Amatoer Lig 1. Grup 10 clubs

Boelgesel Amatoer Lig 2nd Grup 10 clubs

Boelgesel Amatoer Lig 3rd group 12 clubs

Boelgesel Amatoer Lig 4th group 11 clubs

Boelgesel Amatoer Lig 5th group 12 clubs

Boelgesel Amatoer Lig 6. Grup 12 clubs

Boelgesel Amatoer Lig 7th Grup 12 clubs

Boelgesel Amatoer Lig 8th Grup 13 clubs

Boelgesel Amatoer Lig 9th Grup 13 clubs

Boelgesel Amatoer Lig 10th Grup 12 clubs

Boelgesel Amatoer Lig 11th Grup 14 clubs

Boelgesel Amatoer Lig 12th Grup 12 clubs

6-8

Leagues at the provincial level. Each province has at least one league of its own

The Turkish Cup competitions

Ziraat Türkiye Kupası

The Ziraat Türkiye Kupası is the national cup competition of Turkey, which has been played since 1962. The cup winner qualifies as the third representative for the UEFA Europa League and plays the Turkish Supercup final against the Turkish champions. The record cup winner is Galatasaray Istanbul with 18 titles , followed by Beşiktaş Istanbul (9), Trabzonspor (8) and Fenerbahçe Istanbul (6). The current cup winner ( 2016/17 ) is Konyaspor with a final win on penalties (4-1; 0-0) over Istanbul Başakşehir .

Türkiye Süper Kupası

The Türkiye Süper Kupası (German: Turkish Supercup) is the second official Turkish cup competition that is held once a year. The game between the champions of the previous season and the cup winners or cup finalists takes place in alternating venues before the start of the new season. For the first time it took place in 1966 under the name Cumhurbaşkanlığı Kupası . After a name change in 1980 (to Devlet Başkanlığı Kupası ), which lasted for two seasons, the original name was used. The competition is now (no competition between 1996 and 2005) held under the current name and so far three finals have taken place in Germany ( Frankfurt am Main , Cologne , Duisburg ). The record winner is Galatasaray Istanbul with 16 titles won.

European Cup

Champions League

A Turkish team has been in the Champions League without interruption since 1997 . Galatasaray ensured the strongest appearances of a Turkish team in this competition. With 20 Champions League appearances, the Istanbul team are among the most frequently represented teams in the premier class. They celebrated their first major success in the 1988/89 season, when they surprisingly reached the semi-finals. The quarter-finals were particularly noteworthy when they had to admit defeat to the then top club Neuchâtel Xamax in Switzerland 3-0 and were able to make up for the first-leg result with a sensational 5-0 in their Turkish homeland. In the semifinals they then failed to Steaua Bucharest with 1: 1 and 1: 4. In the 2000/01 season they caused a sensation as reigning UEFA Cup winners. After surviving the group stage with SK Sturm Graz , Glasgow Rangers and AS Monaco , they reached the second group stage of the Champions League. There they were able to sensationally reach the quarter-finals in front of their home crowd with strong performances against AC Milan , Deportivo La Coruña and Paris Saint-Germain . There, too, they proved their home strength and won against the big favorites Real Madrid 3-2, but were eliminated in the second leg 3-0. Before that, the team set a record in 2000: They won 11 of 15 games in the premier class. In the 2012/13 season Galatasaray was able to reach the quarterfinals again. After a second place in the group, they were able to prevail in the round of 16 against Schalke 04 with an overall result of 4: 3. In the quarter-finals they faced Real Madrid again. They lost 3-0 in the first leg, and Gala won the second leg in Istanbul 3-2.

Fenerbahçe Istanbul was also able to record a success in the Champions League in the 07/08 season. The club finished second behind Inter Milan in the group stage and qualified for the round of 16. Here they defeated Sevilla FC on penalties. The quarter-finals ended against Chelsea , the club's greatest success so far at European events.

Beşiktaş achieved the best performance of a Turkish team in the group stage in the 2017/18 season , when they won the group unbeaten, which meant two records for Turkish club football.

UEFA Cup / Europa League

As the only team from Turkey to date, Galatasaray Istanbul won the UEFA Cup (now the Europa League) in 2000 . After a moderate performance in the Champions League , the Istanbul team qualified third in the group for the third round of the UEFA Cup . There Galatasaray won sovereign victories against FC Bologna , Borussia Dortmund , RCD Mallorca and Leeds United , with which they could reach the final for the first time. There they played 0-0 against the more highly rated Arsenal London team for 120 minutes until they subsequently won the penalty shoot-out 4-1 and were able to claim the trophy for themselves.

Beşiktaş was also able to impress in the UEFA Cup in the 2002/03 season : after winning against FK Sarajevo , Deportivo Alavés , Dynamo Kiev and Sparta Prague , they reached the quarter-finals for the first time. At the time, Lazio turned out to be too big for Beşiktaş, which is why they had to retire after two defeats. In the 2016/17 season they were able to reach the quarter-finals again, but were eliminated on penalties against Olympique Lyon .

Fenerbahçe even reached the semi-finals of the Europa League in the 2012/13 season . After a 1-0 first leg win against Benfica Lisbon , they lost the second leg in Portugal, despite an equalizer, 3-1 and were eliminated 3-2 overall. Thus, another Turkish club team was barely granted a European final.

Gençlerbirliği Ankara caused the biggest surprise of an underdog in the 2003/04 season: They defeated the UEFA Cup favorites Blackburn Rovers , Sporting Lisbon and AC Parma and reached the round of 16. There they defeated FC Valencia (who won the UEFA Cup that same year) 1-0, but were unlucky enough to be eliminated after extra time in the second leg.

UEFA Supercup

Galatasaray Istanbul won the UEFA Super Cup in 2000 . They beat the then Champions League winners Real Madrid 2-1 and won their second European cup.

Others

Apart from Galatasaray Istanbul , Göztepe Izmir and Fenerbahçe Istanbul , no other Turkish team reached a semi-finals of a UEFA competition.

In 1967, Fenerbahçe Istanbul and 1994 Samsunspor won the Balkan Cup , a tournament played by representatives from Turkey, Greece , Bulgaria , Romania , Albania and the former Yugoslavia between 1960 and 1994.

Kayserispor qualified for the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup in 2006 via the UEFA Intertoto Cup .

statistics

The first column shows the position of the teams among each other and the position in the UEFA all-time table.

Rank Turkey / UEFA	society	partial measures	mirror- le	G	U	V	Goal difference	Tordiffe- Conference	punk te
1./31.	Galatasaray Istanbul	42	254	96	66	92	354: 367	−13	354
2./63.	Fenerbahçe Istanbul	40	190	67	37	86	237: 294	−57	238
3rd / 70th	Beşiktaş Istanbul	37	168	62	31	75	210: 243	−33	217
4./103.	Trabzonspor	27	105	40	29	36	131: 140	−9	149
5./323.	Goztepe Izmir	7th	30th	10	2	18th	36:49	−13	32
6./377	Bursaspor	7th	26th	6th	7th	13	27:45	−18	25th
7./383.	Gaziantepspor	4th	16	6th	6th	4th	21:13	+8	24
8./399.	Gençlerbirliği Ankara	4th	16	6th	4th	6th	18:15	+3	22nd
9./461.	Eskişehirspor	6th	18th	4th	4th	10	17:31	−14	16
10./549.	Denizlispor	1	8th	3	2	3	9:12	−3	11
11./569.	MKE Ankaragücü	5	12	3	1	8th	5:21	−16	10
12./577.	Antalyaspor	1	4th	3	0	1	9: 6	+3	9
13./597.	Altay Izmir	6th	12	2	3	7th	14:32	−18	9
14./601.	Kayserispor	2	6th	2	2	2	9: 7	+2	8th
15./613.	Kocaelispor	3	8th	2	2	4th	4: 9	−5	8th
16./691.	Kardemir Karabükspor	1	4th	1	2	1	2: 2	± 0	5
17./740.	Kayseri Erciyesspor	1	4th	1	1	2	4:11	−7	4th
18./749.	Adanaspor	3	6th	1	1	4th	6:20	−14	4th
19./759.	İstanbulspor	1	2	1	0	1	4: 4	± 0	3
20./776.	Malatyaspor	1	2	1	0	1	2: 3	−1	3
21./808.	Sakaryaspor	1	4th	1	0	3	3: 7	−4	3
22./809.	Orduspor	1	2	1	0	1	2: 6	−4	3
23/875.	Mersin İdman Yurdu	1	2	0	1	1	0: 1	−1	1
24./967.	Boluspor	1	2	0	0	2	0: 4	−4	0

As of September 8, 2014

The Turkish national soccer team

The Turkish national soccer team is the selection made by the national coach of the best Turkish soccer players. It represents the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) at the international level, for example in friendly matches against the national teams of other national associations, but also at the European Championship of the European continental federation UEFA or FIFA World Cup of FIFA .

Turkey's greatest successes so far have been 3rd place at the 2002 World Cup in Japan & South Korea and the semi -finals of the 2008 European Football Championship in Austria and Switzerland .

Participation in the soccer world championships

year	host	Result	S.	U	N	Gates
1954	Switzerland	Group stage	1	0	2	10:11
2002	Japan and South Korea	place 3	4th	1	2	10: 6

Participation in the European Football Championships

• Penalty shootouts are counted as a win or a loss, see 2008

year	host	Result	S.	U	N	Gates
1996	England	Group stage	0	0	3	0: 5
2000	Belgium and the Netherlands	Quarter finals	1	1	2	3: 4
2008	Austria and Switzerland	Semifinals	3	0	2	8: 9
2016	France	Group stage	1	0	2	2: 4

Participation in the Confederations Cup

year	host	Result	S.	U	N	Gates
2003	France	place 3	2	1	2	8: 8

Stages

See: Category: Football Stadium in Turkey

Ataturk Olympic Stadium: The largest football stadium in the country

The largest venue in Turkey is the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, which holds 76,092 spectators. The stadium was named a five-star stadium by UEFA and is the eighth largest stadium in Europe. At that time, the stadium was considered the home of the Turkish football club Galatasaray Istanbul , but the team played again in the Ali Sami Yen Stadium due to a lack of popularity with the fans . Galatasaray continued to play their Champions League games there because of the few seats in the Ali Sami Yen Stadium , and the stadium was also used for Turkey's international matches. The 2005 Champions League final between Liverpool FC and AC Milan was held in the Ataturk Olympic Stadium. In the meantime, Beşiktaş also played its games here.

The (internationally) best-known Turkish stadiums include the Türk Telekom Stadium , the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium and the Vodafone Park, as well as the Ali Sami Yen Stadium, all of which are located in Istanbul. However, numerous (first division) stadiums throughout the country have been or are being replaced by newer and more modern ones, such as in Trabzon or Kayseri .

See also

• Turkish soccer champion
• Eternal table of the Süper Lig

Web links

• The Turkish Football Association (in Turkish)
• Süper Lig Eternal Table

Individual evidence

1. ↑ hurriyet.com.tr: "Bin yıldır 'tepük'lüyoruz" (accessed on October 11, 2013)
2. ↑ radikal.com.tr: "Futbol kulübü değil tepük ocağı!" (accessed on October 11, 2013)
3. ↑ vatanbir.org: "Futbolun Atası: TEPÜK" ( Memento of the original from August 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on October 11, 2013)  
4. ↑ Türkcity.de: The Turkish Football History