Turkish Football Federation

National football association

Founded = 1923
FIFA affiliation = 1923
Region = UEFA
Region affiliation = 1962
President = Mahmut Özgener
Coach = Fatih Terim (2005-)The Turkish Football Federation (TFF), also called Turkish Football Association, ( _tr. Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu) is the governing body of football in Turkey. It was formed on April 23, 1923. It organizes the Turkish national teams and the Turkish football league. By 2004, there are 4,956 football clubs organized in Turkey, and a registered 4,775 professional and 136,823 amateur players with 233 women. 796 male and 20 female football referees are licensed by the TFF.

The Federation joined FIFA in 1923, and UEFA in 1962.

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.

Professional league

* Turkcell Super League: 18 clubs play against each other in two half seasons. At the end of the league season, the bottom three teams relegate to the Secondary League Category A. The champion and the runner-up represent Turkey at the UEFA Champions League next year. The Turkish Cup champion and the next best club from the league play for Turkey at the UEFA Cup.

* Second League is divided in two categories as A and B.
** Second League Category A: 18 clubs play in two half seasons. At the end of the season, the leading three clubs of the Category A run up to the Premier Super League and the last three clubs relegate down to the Category B.
** Second League Category B : There are 5 groups each consists of 10 clubs.
* Third League consists of four groups as 1, 2, 3 and 4 of each 16 clubs, in total 64 clubs. The winners of each group, in total four clubs run up to the Second League Category B at the end of the season. Additionally, the first two clubs of the play-off matches between the second ranked four clubs run up to the Second League Category B. The last two clubs of each group, in total eight clubs relegate to the Amateur League at the end of the season.

Turkish Cup

The Turkish Cup changed its name to "Federation Cup" (Federasyon Kupasi in Turkish) in 1980-1981, then back to "Turkish Cup" in 1992-1993. It is now known as the "Fortis Turkish Cup".

Amateur league

* Seniors’ First Amateur League: 2145 clubs
* Seniors’ Second Amateur League: 1743 clubs
* Seniors’ Third Amateur League: 1 club
* Women’s League: 9 clubs
* Juniors’ First Amateur League: 27 clubs
* Juniors’ Second Amateur League: 100 clubs
* Juniors’ Super League is divided in 8 regional leagues.
** Adana: 16 clubs
** Ankara: 10 clubs
** Antalya: 10 clubs
** Bursa: 16 clubs
** İstanbul: 18 clubs
** İzmir: 12 clubs
** Diyarbakır: 7 clubs
** Trabzon: 13 clubs
** Samsun: 10 clubs

At the end of the season, the winner eight amateur clubs run up to the professional Third League. If any club entitled to run up cannot meet the requirements for professionalism, the next ranked club runs up.

Awards

The champions of the Premier Super League, the Turkish Cup, the runner-up clubs of the professional leagues 2A, 2B, 3 and of the amateur league are awarded a trophy by the TFF each season.

Hosting bids

Turkey had several unsuccessful bids to host the European Championship.

Turkey tried a joint bid with European Champions Greece for Euro 2008, which failed. Their bid for Euro 2012 was also unsuccessful. Now, they are planning to host the Euro 2016.

Turkey had already hosted a Champions League final and will host the 2009 UEFA Cup final in Istanbul [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/5407664.stm | title="BBC: Man City stadium given Uefa final"] . On youth-level, they are going to host the U-17 European Championship in 2008 as they already hosted the event back in 1993.

National stadiums

*In Istanbul;
**Atatürk Olympic Stadium (capacity: 81,283) - "last match against Germany on 8 October 2005 with 2-1 result"
**Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium (capacity: 52,509 - "last match against Belgium on 10 September 2008 with 1-1 result"
**Inönü Stadium (capacity: 32,145) - "last match against Sweden on 6 February 2008 with 0-0 result"
**Ali Sami Yen Stadium (capacity: 22,500) - "last match against Bosnia and Herzegovina on 21 December 2007 with 1-0 result"
*In Ankara;
**19 Mayıs Stadium (capacity: 21,250) - "last match against Moldova on 20 August 2003 with 2-0 result"
*In Izmir;
**Izmir Atatürk Stadium (capacity: 58,008) - "last match against Czech Republic on 1 March 2006 with 2-2 result"
*In Bursa;
**Bursa Atatürk Stadium (capacity: 19,700) - "last match against Macedonia on 6 June 2001 with 3-3 result"
*In Trabzon;
**Hüseyin Avni Aker Stadium (capacity: 29,500) - "last match against Georgia on 4 September 2004 with 1-1 result"
*In Gaziantep;
**Kamil Ocak Stadium (capacity: 14,325) - "last match against Denmark on 18 February 2004 with 0-1 result"
*In Denizli;
**Denizli Atatürk Stadium (capacity: 15,000) - "last match against Belarus on 18 August 2004 with 1-2 result"

ponsorship

Companies that Turkish Football Federation currently has sponsorship deals with include [cite web |url=http://www.tff.org/ |title=Media & PR |accessdate=2008-03-24 |year=2008 |publisher= tff.org ]

*Nike - Official sponsor
*Turkcell - Official sponsor
*Garanti Bankası - Official sponsor
*Ülker - Official sponsor
*Coca Cola - Official sponsor
*Efes Pilsen - Official sponsor
*Mercedes Benz - Official sponsor
*Turkish Airlines - Official sponsor
*Iddaa - Official sponsor
*Sarar - Official sponsor

References

External links

* [http://www.tff.org Official website]
* [http://www.turkish-soccer.com/ Turkish soccer]
* [http://www.turkishsoccer.com/ Turkishsoccer.com by Ahmet Turgut]
* [http://www.amatorfutbol.org/ Amateur Football in Turkey]