List of Turkish football champions
| Turkish football champions |
|---|
 |
| Founded |
| 1959 |
| Number of teams |
| 18 |
| Current champions |
| Beşiktaş |
| Country |
 Turkey
|
| Most successful club |
|
Galatasaray (20-time champions) |
The Turkish football champions are the winners of the primary football league in Turkey, Süper Lig. The league is contested on a round robin basis and the championship is awarded to the team that is top of the league at the end of the season. Turkish football league, first established in 1959, originally contained sixteen teams. Süper Lig is contested by 18 teams; the three lowest-placed teams are relegated to the 1. Lig and replaced by the top three teams in that division. Of the founding teams in Turkish football league, only Beşiktaş JK, Fenerbahçe SK and Galatasaray SK have not been relegated. Galatasaray is the most successful club; having won 20 title, as of 2015[update]. No other club has won the title on more than five occasions; the most recent club other than Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray to win the league is Bursaspor in the 2009–10 season. Galatasaray has won the Turkish version of The Double the most, having won the league and cup in the same year six times in its history. Galatasaray is the only Turkish team that has won a European cup, which is the UEFA Europa League, along with the league and Türkiye Kupası in the same season.
Football in Turkey stems back to the late 19th century, when Englishmen brought the game with them while living in Thessaloníki. The first league competition was the Istanbul Football League, which took place in 1904–05. The first champions were Imogene FC. The league went through several variations until the creation of the Milli Lig in 1959. Between the creation of the Istanbul Football League and Milli Lig, several other city leagues took place: Adana (1923), Ankara (1923), Eskişehir (1920), Izmir (1923), Kayseri (1936), and Trabzon (1923). The Milli Küme was the first step towards a national league competition. Started in 1937, the Milli Küme was an inter-city competition between clubs in Ankara, Istanbul, and İzmir. The competition lasted until 1950. The Federation Cup was created in 1956 and used as a cup competition to decide a champion. This champion would go on to participate in the European Cup. The cup competition was held for two years until it was replaced by the Milli Lig. Beşiktaş won both times, and represented twice Turkey in the European Cup during the two-year span.
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