# 1959 Turkish National League

The 1959 Turkish National League was the first season of the professional nationwide league in Turkey, known as Süper Lig today. The National League replaced the previous Turkish football league, the Turkish Federation Cup. The first season consisted of 16 clubs split into two groups: the Kırmızı Grup (Red Group) and Beyaz Grup (White Group), the colours of the Turkish flag. The first season took place in the calendar year of 1959, instead of 1958–59, as the qualifying stages took place in 1958.

## Overview

The top eight clubs from the 1958–59 Istanbul Football League and the top four clubs from the Ankara and İzmir leagues in the 1958–59 season took part in the league. These clubs were Adalet, Beşiktaş, Beykoz, Karagümrük, Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray, İstanbulspor, Vefa (from Istanbul), Ankaragücü, Ankara Demirspor, Gençlerbirliği, Hacettepe (from Ankara), Altay, Göztepe, İzmirspor, and Karşıyaka (from İzmir).
The final consisted of two legs and took place between the winners of each group. Galatasaray won the Red Group and Fenerbahçe won the White Group. Galatasaray won the first leg 1-0, but Fenerbahçe won the second leg 4-0, winning 4-1 on aggregate. The title was Fenerbahçe's first Süper Lig title and 10th Turkish championship title overall, qualifying them for the 1959–60 European Cup. Metin Oktay was top scorer with 11 goals. No clubs were relegated this season.

## Red group
### Table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Galatasaray | 14 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 18 | 7 | +11 | 20 | Qualification to Championship final |
| 2 | Vefa | 14 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 21 | 10 | +11 | 20 | |
| 3 | Ankara Demirspor | 14 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 12 | 11 | +1 | 16 | |
| 4 | Göztepe | 14 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 23 | 21 | +2 | 15 | |
| 5 | Karagümrük | 14 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 17 | 17 | 0 | 12 | |
| 6 | Karşıyaka | 14 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 13 | 21 | −8 | 10 | |
| 7 | Gençlerbirliği | 14 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 18 | −8 | 10 | |
| 8 | Adalet | 14 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 12 | 21 | −9 | 9 | |

### Results

| Home \ Away | ADA | ADS | GAL | GEN | GÖZ | KAG | KRŞ | VEF |
| Adalet | | 0–0 | 0–1 | 2–3 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 |
| Ankara Demirspor | 2–1 | | 0–2 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 |
| Galatasaray | 2–1 | 1–2 | | 0–0 | 5–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 |
| Gençlerbirliği | 1–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | | 2–2 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 0–3 |
| Göztepe | 2–3 | 4–2 | 0–0 | 2–1 | | 3–0 | 3–2 | 0–1 |
| Karagümrük | 3–0 | 1–2 | 2–3 | 1–0 | 1–1 | | 2–2 | 1–2 |
| Karşıyaka | 3–1 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–3 | | 2–0 |
| Vefa | 2–2 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 3–0 | 3–2 | 1–0 | 3–0 | |

## White group
### Table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Fenerbahçe | 14 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 29 | 7 | +22 | 26 | Qualification to Championship final |
| 2 | Beşiktaş | 14 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 22 | 16 | +6 | 18 | |
| 3 | Altay | 14 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 18 | 16 | +2 | 15 | |
| 4 | İzmirspor | 14 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 11 | 12 | −1 | 13 | |
| 5 | MKE Ankaragücü | 14 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 16 | 19 | −3 | 13 | |
| 6 | Hacettepe | 14 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 14 | 20 | −6 | 11 | |
| 7 | Beykoz | 14 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 17 | 21 | −4 | 10 | |
| 8 | İstanbulspor | 14 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 6 | 22 | −16 | 6 | |

### Results

| Home \ Away | ALT | ANK | BEY | BEŞ | FEN | HAC | İST | İZM |
| Altay | | 1–0 | 2–2 | 3–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 |
| MKE Ankaragücü | 2–1 | | 2–2 | 1–3 | 2–3 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 |
| Beykoz | 2–2 | 3–1 | | 2–3 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 0–2 |
| Beşiktaş | 2–1 | 0–0 | 0–1 | | 0–2 | 3–2 | 2–1 | 2–0 |
| Fenerbahçe | 1–1 | 3–1 | 2–1 | 1–0 | | 2–1 | 3–0 | 1–0 |
| Hacettepe | 2–0 | 1–3 | 1–0 | 0–3 | 1–4 | | 1–1 | 1–0 |
| İstanbulspor | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 0–5 | 0–2 | | 0–0 |
| İzmirspor | 2–2 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | |

## Championship final

First leg
Second leg
* 1959 Millî Lig winners
* Fenerbahçe First title