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 leagu ...

. The league consisted of 20 clubs, with

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

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 (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

, 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 ...

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 18 km2 and its population is 175,190 (2022). It is located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and ...

rounded out the top-three, while

Altay Altai or Altay may refer to: Places *Altai Mountains, in Central and East Asia, a region shared by China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Russia In China *Altay Prefecture (阿勒泰地区), Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China *Altay City (阿勒� ...

were the other European representative, earning qualification to the

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, most commonly referred to as the Fairs Cup and sometimes as the European Fairs Cup or Fairs Cities' Cup, was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. The Fairs Cup was the idea of FIFA vice-presid ...

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

Ankara Demirspor Ankara Demirspor is a Turkish professional football club based in Ankara. They compete in the TFF Second League. They were one of the Super League's founding members in 1959. By winning the former Turkish Football Championship in 1947, they bec ...

's 42 goals as they finished last in the league. Hacettepe and Beyoğluspor were promoted to the

1962–63 Milli Lig Year 196 ( CXCVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Dexter and Messalla (or, less frequently, year 949 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 196 for this ye ...

, 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 politician and military officer who served as the second List of Presidents of Turkey, president of Turkey from 1938 to 1950, and as its Prime Minister of Turkey, pr ...

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 Turkish Foo ...

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, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...