Turkish Football Federation - Definition and Overview

The Turkish Football Federation (TFF), also called Turkish Football Association, (Turkish: 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. The current president of the TFF is Dr. Levent Bıçakçı, while the General Secretary is Aydın Torunoğlu. 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

• Premier 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 consists of three groups as A, B and C. In each group 27 clubs play in two half seasons, in total 51 clubs. At the end of the season, the winners of each groups, in total three clubs run up to the Second League Category A. The bottom two clubs of each group relegate to the Third League.

• 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

Turkish Cup changed its name to Federation Cup in 1980-1981, then back to Turkish Cup in 1992-1993.

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.

External Links

• Official website (http://www.tff.org/ENGLISH/tff_indexing.htm)
• Turkish soccer (http://www.turkish-soccer.com/)