The 1961–62 Turkish National League was the fourth season of professional

football in Turkey Football is the most popular sport in Turkey, followed by basketball, tracing its roots to the Ottoman Empire. The first matches were played in Ottoman Salonica in 1875. The sport was introduced by English residents. The Turkish football league ...

. The league consisted of 20 clubs, with

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club'') is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Most notable for its association football department, the club also consists of various other de ...

winning their first title.

Overview

won their first league title after previously finishing second place two times and third in 1959–60. The club qualified for the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

, while runners-up Fenerbahçe qualified for the

Balkans Cup The Balkans Cup was an international football competition for clubs from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. It was introduced in 1961 and was very popular in the 1960s (the 1967 final attracted 42,000 spectators), being t ...

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and Şişli, on the west by Kağıthane and Şişli, on the south by Beyoğlu, and ...

rounded out the top-three, while Altay were the other European representative, earning qualification to the

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, sometimes referred to as the European Fairs Cup, Fairs Cities' Cup, or simply as the Fairs Cup, was a European Association football, football competition played between 1955 and 1971. It is often considered the predecess ...

. Fikri Elma of finished top scorer of the league, scoring 22 of

Ankara Demirspor Ankara Demirspor is a Turkish professional Association football, football club based in Ankara. They compete in the TFF Second League. They were one of the Süper Lig, Super League's founding members in 1959. By winning the former Turkish Footbal ...

's 42 goals as they finished last in the league. Hacettepe and Beyoğluspor were promoted to the 1962–63 Milli Lig, while no clubs were relegated. Before the start of the season, it was decided only one club would be promoted from the Baraj Games in order to cut down the number of competing clubs from 20 to 18. However, after the Baraj Games, cities boycotted for their clubs to remain in the Milli Lig, and Prime Minister

İsmet İnönü Mustafa İsmet İnönü (; 24 September 1884 – 25 December 1973) was a Turkish army officer and statesman of Kurdish descent, who served as the second President of Turkey from 11 November 1938 to 22 May 1950, and its Prime Minister three tim ...

asked the

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 Süper Lig, Turk ...

to allow these clubs to compete. The TFF allowed for five clubs – three already participating and two promoted from the regional leagues – to compete in the 1962–63 season. The TFF decided to create a second division the following season.

Final league table

Results

Baraj Games

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1961-62 Turkish National League Turkish National League 1961–62 in Turkish football

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...