Football in Turkey
overview of association football practiced in Turkey
Football is the most popular sport in Turkey, followed by basketball, tracing its roots to the Ottoman Empire. Approximately three-quarters of the Turkish people are interested in football.
The first matches were played in Ottoman Salonica in 1875. The sport was introduced by English residents. The Turkish football league system comprises five professional leagues, one of which is dedicated to female athletes.
History
League system
Süper Lig
The Süper Lig (Super League) is the top division in Turkey since 1959. There are 18 clubs in the league (as of 2025–26 season). The league ushered in clubs from all over Turkey to compete with each other. Currently, clubs finishing in the top four places in the league enter qualifying rounds of European competitions, and the winners of the Turkish Cup, if not one of the top four, are also given a spot. Each season, the four teams with the least points are relegated to the TFF First League.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Football in Turkey” is overview of association football practiced in Turkey. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Football, Turkey and overview, not as a finished interpretation.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1461063. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1875, 1959 and 2025.
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This entry incorporates text from “Football in Turkey” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.