Tukish Football :

Football, hugely popular in Turkey, was brought there in the second half of the 19th century when English tobacco and cotton traders visited the main harbour towns of the Ottoman Empire. In the beginning they played football with each other, and later taught the game to their Turkish neighbours.

The first football match on Turkish grounds was played in Salonika in 1875. After that, football was played in Istanbul and Izmir. But during this time, football was only played between English and Greek people. This was also the case in the first Turkish league, named the Istanbul Football League.

But some young Turkish men, who loved this game at once, began to play football in open fields without observing any rules. These young players formed the first Turkish team, playing their first match on 26 October, 1901, against a Greek team. Then the club Besiktas, founded in 1905, became the first Turkish club to enter the Istanbul League. When the clubs Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray also entered this league, the real period of Turkish football began.

In the years after the First World War, with some military occupation of Turkey, Turkish teams began to play some matches against the occupation forces. After this, playing football became more important, because winning the matches against the teams of the occupation forces were treated like a national matter. A very strong love for football widened to the whole nation. After this period football in Turkey started to develop very fast and treating football like a "national matter" continued until now.

Competitions :

Professional football in Turkey started in 1951. Recently there are three professional leagues, which are further broken down into regional groups and regional amateur leagues including a women's league.

The Turkcell Super League (formerly National League, First Football League and First Super League respectively, Turkish: Turkcell Süper Lig) is the top-flight league in Turkish nationwide football, and the most popular sporting competition in the country. It is managed by Turkey's football federation.