Turkish Football Federation

The Turkish Football Federation (Turkish: Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu; TFF) is the governing body of association football in Turkey. It was formed on 23 April 1923, and joined FIFA the same year and UEFA in 1962. It organizes the Turkey national football team, the Turkish Football League and the Turkish Cup.

Turkish Football Federation

UEFA
Founded	23 April 1923
FIFA affiliation	1923^[1]
UEFA affiliation	1962^[1]
President	Mehmet Büyükekşi
Website	www.tff.org

Turkish Football Federation Facility at Riva, Beykoz in Istanbul.

Governed competitions

Leagues

Main article: Turkish football league system

The Turkish football league system is divided into eight tiers, ranging from the top-tier Süper Lig to local amateur divisions.

Cups

Main articles: Turkish Cup and Turkish Super Cup

The Turkish Cup changed its name to the Federation Cup (Turkish: Federasyon Kupası) in the 1980–81 season, then back to Turkish Cup in 1992–93.

Hosting bids

 

Turkish Football Federation's Hasan Doğan National Teams Camp and Training Facility at Riva, Beykoz in Istanbul.

Turkey has had several unsuccessful bids to host the UEFA European Championship.

Turkey submitted a joint bid with Greece for UEFA Euro 2008, which failed. Their bid for UEFA Euro 2012 was also unsuccessful, with the competition going to Poland and Ukraine. The federation also submitted a bid to host UEFA Euro 2016, but on May 28, 2010, UEFA announced that Euro 2016 would be hosted by France. France beat bids of Turkey (7-6 in voting in second voting round) and Italy, which had the fewest votes in the first voting round. Turkey were also bidding for UEFA Euro 2024, competing against Germany. Germany were announced the hosts on September 27, 2018 at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

Turkey had already hosted the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final and the 2009 UEFA Cup Final in Istanbul.^[2] At the youth-level, they hosted the UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship in 2008, after first hosting the event back in 1993.

Competition summary

As of May 2019

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Football
FIFA World Cup	0	0	1	1/21
FIFA U-20 World Cup	0	0	0	0/22
FIFA U-17 World Cup	0	0	0	0/18
FIFA Club World Cup	0	0	0	0/16
FIFA Confederations Cup	0	0	1	1/10
FIFA Women's World Cup	0	0	0	0/8
FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup	0	0	0	0/9
FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup	0	0	0	0/7
FIFA Women's Club World Cup	0	0	0	0/1
UEFA European Championship	0	0	1	1/15
UEFA European Under-21 Championship	0	0	0	0/21
UEFA European Under-19 Championship	1	2	2	5/65
UEFA European Under-17 Championship	2	0	1	3/37
UEFA Nations League	0	0	0	0/1
UEFA Women's Championship	0	0	0	0/12
UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship	0	0	0	0/20
UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship	0	0	0	0/12
UEFA–CAF Meridian Cup	0	0	1	1/5
Football at the Summer Olympics	0	0	0	0/34
Football at the Mediterranean Games	1	7	2	10/18
Football at the Islamic Solidarity Games	0	0	1	1/3
UEFA Champions League	0	0	1	1/64
UEFA Europa League	1	0	1	2/48
UEFA Super Cup	1	0	0	1/43
UEFA Youth League	0	0	0	0/6
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	0	0	0	0/39
UEFA Women's Champions League	0	0	0	0/18
UEFA Regions' Cup	0	0	2	2/10
UEFA Amateur Cup	0	0	0	0/4
Balkan Cup	0	1	0	1/11
Balkans Cup	3	1	3	7/27
ECO Cup	3	2	0	5/6
Futsal
FIFA Futsal World Cup	0	0	0	0/9
UEFA Futsal Championship	0	0	0	0/11
UEFA Futsal Under-21 Championship	0	0	0	0/1
UEFA Under-19 Futsal Championship	0	0	0	0/1
UEFA Women's Futsal Championship	0	0	0	0/1
UEFA Futsal Champions League	0	0	0	0/18
Beach Soccer
FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup	0	0	0	0/20
FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualification (UEFA)	0	0	0	0/7
Euro Beach Soccer League	0	0	0	0/21
Euro Beach Soccer Cup	0	0	0	0/15
Euro Winners Cup	0	0	1	1/7
Women's Euro Winners Cup	0	0	0	0/4
Beach Soccer at the European Games	0	0	0	0/2
Beach Soccer at the Mediterranean Beach Games	0	0	0	0/2
eSports
FIFA eWorld Cup	0	0	0	0/14
Total	11	14	18	43

Presidents

As of 16 June 2022^[3]

 

Former Turkish footballer, referee and the 3rd president of Galatasaray, Yusuf Ziya Öniş, was the first president of TFF between 1922 and 1926

Nat. Name Years   Yusuf Ziya Öniş 1922–1926   Muvaffak Menemencioğlu 1926–1931   Hamdi Emin Çap 1931–1937   Sedat Rıza İstek 1937–1938   Danyal Akbel 1938–1943   Ziya Ateş 1943   Sadi Karsan 1943–1948   Vildan Aşir Savaşır 1948–1949   Ulvi Ziya Yenal 1949–1952   Mehmet Arkan 1952   Mümtaz Tarhan 1952   Orhan Şeref Apak 1952–1954   Ulvi Ziya Yenal 1954   Hasan Polat 1954–1957   Orhan Şeref Apak 1957–1958   Safa Yalçuk 1958–1959

Nat. Name Years   Faik Gökay 1959–1960   Muhterem Özyurt 1960–1961   Bekir Silahçılar 1961   Orhan Şeref Apak 1961–1964   Muhterem Özyurt 1964–1965   Orhan Şeref Apak 1965–1970   Hasan Polat 1970–1976   Füruzan Tekil 1976–1977   Sabahattin Erman 1977   İbrahim İskeçe 1977–1978   Doğan Andaç 1980   Yılmaz Tokatlı 1980–1984   A. Kemal Ulusu 1984–1985   Erdoğan Ünver 1985–1986   Erdenay Oflaz 1986   Ali Uras 1986–1987

Nat. Name Years   Halim Çorbalı 1987–1989   Şenes Erzik 1989–1997   Özkan Olcay 1997   Abdullah Kiğılı 1997   Haluk Ulusoy 1997–2004   Levent Bıçakcı 2004–2006   Haluk Ulusoy 2006–2008   Hasan Doğan 15 February 2008 – 5 July 2008   Mahmut Özgener 19 August 2008–29. June 2011   Mehmet Ali Aydınlar 29 June 2011 – 31 January 2012   Yıldırım Demirören 27 February 2012 – 1 March 2019   Hüsnü Güreli (interim) 1 March 2019 – 1 June 2019   Nihat Özdemir 1 June 2019 – 4 April 2022   Servet Yardımcı (interim) 4 April 2022 – 16 June 2022   Mehmet Büyükekşi 16 June 2022 – present

Controversies

Denial of former national championships

Further information: List of Turkish football champions

The TFF organized a nationwide championship as early as 1924. That year the Turkish Football Championship (Turkish: Türkiye Futbol Şampiyonası) was held in order to bring forth a national football champion.^[4][5] The championship format was based on a knockout competition, contested between the winners of each of the country's regional leagues. Some years later, in 1937, the first national league called Millî Küme was introduced. The league was held until 1950, one year before the Turkish Football Championship was also abolished.^[6][7]

Even though both competitions were organized by the TFF and were official championships respectively,^[8][9] they are not acknowledged and counted by the very same federation which held them. Until today no official reason or motive was given for the unparalleled and irregular denial. All other football associations in Europe without exception consequently acknowledge their former national championships. The Turkish Federation is the only one with such a stance.

As a result, Ankara Demirspor became the first club to officially demand the federation to acknowledge their championship title won in 1947, but received no answer at all to date.^[10][when?] Club president Nuğman Yavuz stated that he contacted the Turkish Federation twice, but the federation did not respond in any way.^[11] Similarly, Fenerbahçe also requested proper acknowledgement of these national championship titles, and faced the same unconstructive reaction.^[12] Having won a total of nine titles in both former championships, the club demands to have those official titles rightfully acknowledged.^{[13][14][15][16]}

The lack of comprehension and awareness concerning the baseless denial of proper championship titles is growing in the general Turkish public and among Turkish sports people. For instance, Mehmet Demirkol, a renowned sports writer and commentator which is a Fenerbahçe fan,^[17] stated that Beşiktaş won their 20th championship title overall in the 2016–17 season, not their 15th.^{[18][19][Video 1]} Numerous other sports writers, persons of authority, politicians, and officials also openly expressed their opinions on this issue and reinforced the view that the Turkish federation should unambiguously acknowledge and count the former championship titles.^{[20][21][22][23][24][Video 2][Video 3]}

See also

• List of Turkish football champions
• Football in Turkey

References

1. "TFF » İş Ortakları" (in Turkish). Turkish Football Federation. Archived from the original on 2 September 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
2. "BBC: Man City stadium given Uefa final". BBC News. 4 October 2006. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
3. "TFF Başkanlarının Dönemleri ve Yönetim Kurulları" [Periods of TFF Presidents and Board of Directors] (in Turkish). Turkish Football Federation. Archived from the original on 18 August 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
4. . Erdinç Sivritepe. Archived from the original on 20 January 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
5. . tff.org (in Turkish). Turkish Football Federation. Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2017. 1936'ya kadar süren bu dönemde ilk Türkiye Şampiyonası Ankara'da yapılmış ve şampiyon Harbiye olmuştur.
6. . Erdinç Sivritepe. Archived from the original on 26 October 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
7. . tff.org (in Turkish). Turkish Football Federation. Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2017. ...ilk deplasmanlı lig kapsamındaki Milli Küme maçları da yine bu dönemde tertip edilmiştir.
8. "Turkey – List of Champions". rsssf.com. RSSSF. from the original on 26 September 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
9. . Erdinç Sivritepe. Archived from the original on 27 May 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
10. "65 yıl sonra, şampiyonluğunun peşinde" (in Turkish). Hürriyet. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
11. . haber7.com (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 14 December 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
12. . sporx.com (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 20 January 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
13. . sporyolu.com (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 27 May 2018. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
14. . ntvspor.net (in Turkish). NTV Spor. Archived from the original on 14 April 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
15. . hurriyet.com.tr (in Turkish). Hürriyet. Archived from the original on 14 December 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
16. . trthaber.com (in Turkish). TRT Haber. Archived from the original on 22 November 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
17. . spor.haber7.com (in Turkish). Tümspor. Archived from the original on 31 July 2020. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
18. . kralspor.ensonhaber.com (in Turkish). En Son Haber. Archived from the original on 14 December 2017. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
19. . fanatik.com.tr (in Turkish). Fanatik. Archived from the original on 14 December 2017. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
20. . hurriyet.com.tr (in Turkish). Ali Can Yaycılı. Archived from the original on 26 December 2017. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
21. . sporyazarlari.com (in Turkish). Metin Sipahioğlu. Archived from the original on 23 August 2017. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
22. "Futbolumuzun miladı; takımların gerçek şampiyonluk sayıları nedir?". milliyet.com.tr (in Turkish). Uzay Gökerman. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
23. "Ben, "28." diyorum…". hurriyet.com.tr (in Turkish). Ateş Bakan. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
24. "FENERBAHÇE'NİN KAÇ ŞAMPİYONLUĞU VAR ??". abcspor.com (in Turkish). Burak Belgen. Retrieved 14 December 2017.

Video references

1. Mehmet Demirkol: Beşiktaş'ın 20 şampiyonluğu vardır. 15 falan değil! (YouTube video) (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 2021-12-12. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
2. (YouTube video) (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 2020-04-07. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
3. '28 şampiyonluk' için resmi başvuru (YouTube video) (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 2021-12-12. Retrieved 25 December 2017.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Turkish Football Federation.

• Official website (in Turkish)
• Turkish soccer
• at FIFA site
• Turkey at UEFA site