Turkish Football Federation

Turkish Football Federation
The Turkish Football Federation (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.
Governed competitions
Leagues
The Turkish football league system is divided into eight tiers, ranging from the top-tier Süper Lig to local amateur divisions.
Cups
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
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. 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
Presidents
Controversies
Denial of former national championships
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. 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.
Even though both competitions were organized by the TFF and were official championships respectively, 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. Club president Nuğman Yavuz stated that he contacted the Turkish Federation twice, but the federation did not respond in any way. Similarly, Fenerbahçe also requested proper acknowledgement of these national championship titles, and faced the same unconstructive reaction. Having won a total of nine titles in both former championships, the club demands to have those official titles rightfully acknowledged.
In addition to requesting proper acknowledgement of the titles, Fenerbahçe's kit for the 2023-24 season includes a badge with 5 stars above which can't be worn in league matches because it is against the regulations of the federation and they didn’t give permission to play with them, likely in the hopes that the TFF will recognize their pre-1959 championships, also notably on the club's website the 28 championships are listed as if they were official likely as an act of protest against the TFF's lack of recognition of the pre-1959 titles.
For instance, Mehmet Demirkol, a renowned sports writer and commentator, stated that Beşiktaş won their 20th championship title overall in the 2016–17 season, not their 15th. 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. Among them is also historian and headmaster of the Galatasaray High School Vahdettin Engin.
See also
List of Turkish football champions
Football in Turkey
References
Video references
External links
Turkish soccer
Turkey at FIFA site
Turkey at UEFA site
1923 establishments in Turkey
Sports organizations established in 1923
Football
Football in Turkey
Futsal in Turkey
National members of UEFA
Association football governing bodies in Europe
Association football governing bodies in Asia