Country Turkey | National team Women's national team | |
Governing body | ||
Women's football in Turkey is the women's branch of football in Turkey and is governed by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF).
Contents
History
The beginning of the women's football in Turkey goes back to 1971 when Haluk Hekimoğlu formed a women's team called Istanbul Kız Futbol Takımı (Istanbul Girls' Football Team) with 13 young women on his own personal efforts. This team pioneered the foundation of the country's first women's football club Dostluk Spor, which was established on April 19, 1973 at Moda neighborhood of Kadıköy district in Istanbul. Due to lack of opponent women's football teams, Dostluk Spor played in the beginning against men's youth or veteran teams. Dostluk Spor's success led soon to the establishment of other women's football teams Derya Spor, Atılım Spor in İstanbul, Filizspor in İzmir and Nazende Spor in Ankara. Foundation of women's teams in Kocaeli and Samsun followed later.
With the establishment of Dinarsu Women's Football Team in 1982, women's football in Turkey rose to higher levels. Finally in 1993, the Turkish Women's Football League was officially established when 16 teams convened to compete each other.
Ten years later, there were ten teams only active and the Women's League was dissolved. According to Adnan Ersan, deputy secretary general of the Turkish Football Federation, the league based on a wrong system. The clubs paid barely attention to the provision of experience and training for young players. They did not look ahead for the future, and deployed players older than twenty years of age. Moreover, the national team played no matches from Mai 2000 on. A great many of factors, which sent women's football in Turkey into offside.
In 2006, the Turkish Women's League was re-established with seven teams, and the Turkish women participated again at international competitions. In the meantime, the government supported the development. The Turkish Ministry of National Education coined a concept in coopeartion with the Football Federation that envisaged the establishment of girls' football teams in primary and secondary schools. The women's football in Turkey revived, however the national team was composed of young players of amateur-level experience only. National teams of girls' U-17 and U-15 were established in order to feed the women's national team. Young women's footballers in Germany with Turkish-background were seen as a fill-in to strengthen the national team qualitatively, and were called up.
The number of women's clubs was seven with 130 licensed footballers in the 2005–06 season. As of the 2010–11 season, there were 72 clubs with 1,500 players.
Competitions
As of the 2013–14 season, following competition categories exist for the women's football:
Women's First League
The Women's First League (Turkish: Kadınlar 1. Ligi) is the top national competition for women's football in Turkey. The league was established in 1993 starting with the 1993–94 season. The 2000–01 season was apparently the first official competition. Three consecutive seasons between 2003 and 2005 were not played. The number of clubs competing in the First League varied from season to season, and dropped from ten in the 2012–13 season to eight in the 2013–14 season. The last standing clubs are relegated to the lower Second League.
Following teams compete in the 2015–16 season:
The teams, which once played in the First League are:
League champion team represents Turkey at the UEFA Women's Champions League.
Women's Second League
The Women's Second League (Turkish: Kadınlar 2. Ligi) is the regional organization for all the clubs, which do not take part in the Women's First League. At the end of each league season, last placed teams of the First League are relegated to the Second League. The top standing teams of the Second League are promoted to the First League. Since there exist no lower level league than the Second League, no relegation takes place from this league.
In the 2013–14 season, a total of 69 teams competed in eight divisions as following:
With the 2015–16 season, the number of teams competing in the Second League was set to twelve. The teams are:
Women's Third League
The Turkish Women's Third Football League is a regional league and is composed of eight groups with ten teams each but eleven teams in the Group 8, making a total of 81 women's teams.
Player eligibility
As of the 2016–17 season, the Turkish Football Federation set following player eligibility criteria for the number of players in the teams playing in three women's leagues. Reference date for the player's age in the table is the beginning of the season.
Girls' U-17 Turkey Championship
For the girls of age group 15–16, the Girls' U-17 Turkey Championship (Turkish: Genç Kızlar Şampiyonası) is being held. It is an important organization in respect of the development of women's football in Turkey.
The first leg of the 2008–09 Women's U17 Turkey Championship (Turkish: Genç Kızlar Türkiye Şampiyonası) was held between July 9–12, 2009 with the participation of 36 clubs in six groups across Turkey each having six teams. The top first teams of the six groups were entitled to play the finals. The finals were held between July 23–25, 2009 in Bartın. Mevlana Lisesi from Ümraniye, Istanbul became champion of the 2008–09 season defeating Izmir Konak Belediyespor by 1–0 in the final match.
The 2016 championship was won by Kocaeli Harb-İş. Konya İdmanyurdu placed second and Fomget Gençlik (Ankara) third.
Girls' U-15 Turkey Championship
The Girls' U-15 Turkey Championship (Turkish: Yıldız Kızlar Şampiyonası) is organized for the girls' teams in the age category 13–14.
It was held in the 2008–09 season between July 18–20, 2009 with the participation of six teams in two groups. The leaders of the two groups, Kocaeli Gölcükspor and Bursa Sağlıkgücüspor, played the finals in Düzce. Gölcükspor became champion by winning 3–0.
Horozkentspor (Denizli) won the 2016 championship title. Kocaeli Harb-İş became runner-up and Konak Belediyespor (Izmir) placed third.
National teams
Women's football in Turkey is represented in international competitions by:
A 2013-FIFA report stated that Turkey makes serious efforts to develop a strong women's national team at senior level by using foreign resources. Turkish-descent female players from diverse nations, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and the USA, are called up to international events. The idea behind is the hope that the experience of these players will help improve the standards, and give the youngsters at home a boost.
UEFA Women's Champions League
By virtue of winning 2008–09 Turkey National Women's First League, Trabzonspor played in August 2009 in the Group D for qualification to the 2009–10 UEFA Women's Champions League. This was the first time ever a Turkish women's football team participated in the play-offs for the UEFA league established in the 2001–2002 season. The team won its first match against ŽNK Krka from Slovenia by 2–0, however lost the following plays to Torres Calcio Femminile of Italy by 0–9 and to Slovan Duslo Šaľa from Slovakia by 1–2. Trabzonspor women's team failed so to participate in the 2009–2010 UEFA Champions League.
In the following years, Gazi Üniversitesispor in 2010–11, Ataşehir Belediyespor, twice in 2011–12 and 2012–13, and Konak Belediyespor, also twice in 2013–14 and 2014–15, played in the UEFA Women's Champions League. In the 2013–14 season, Konak Belediyespor became the first ever Turkish women's team to play in the league's Round of 16 knockout phase.