The Turkish Women's First Football League () is the second-tier league competition for
women's association football
Women's association football, more commonly known as women's football or women's soccer, is the team sport of association football played by women. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries, and about 200 national teams partic ...
in
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 ...
. It was the first tier female football competition until the establishment of the
Turkish Women's Football Super League in 2022.
Format
In an effort to increase quality of the league, in the 2009–10 season two teams were relegated and four teams were promoted to the first league. Thus, the 2010–11 season consisted of twelve teams.
TV became the official media sponsor of the league for the 2010–11 season.
At this time the league gained little attention in Turkey.
After playing two groups with six teams and then having a championship and relegation group, the 2012–13 season was played as a double-round robin with ten teams again. The winner after 18 games was the champion and qualifies for the
UEFA Women's Champions League, the bottom two teams get relegated. In 2016–17 there again was introduced a championship and relegation round after the regular season.
For the
2019–20 league season, the number of participating teams was increased from ten to twelve again after eight seasons. No relegation was planned to take place, so that the planned number of teams would be achieved with two promoted teams from the Women's Second League. However,
Trabzon İdmanocağı had to be relegated since they did not show up in the entire previous season. To replace them, a third team from the Second League was promoted.
All three women's leagues of the 2019-20 season were stopped on 8 March 2020 due to
COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey.
Due to the Covid pandemic, the 2020–21 season of the Women's First Football League, after renaming the Turkcell Women's Football League, started with delay on 17 April 2021. The season was dedicated to
healthcare workers, and named 2021 Turkish Turkcell Women's Football League Healthcare Workers' Season (). The league consisted of 16 teams, including all the 12 teams from the previous season and 4 teams promoted from the
Second League's previous season. The teams were divided into four groups of four teams each, with one promoted team in each group. Each team in the group played only three matches in a
round-robin tournament
A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...
. The top two teams of the four groups play quarter-finals and semi-finals in
Single-elimination tournament
A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...
. The winner of the final match, on 4 May 2021, represented Turkey at the
2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League.
Past winners
File:KonakBelediyespor02.JPG, Konak Belediyespor( 2013-14)
File:KonakBS201516 (3).jpg, Konak Belediyespor( 2015-16)
File:AtaşehirBS2017-18 (28).jpg, Ataşehir Belediyespor ( 2017-18)
File:BeşiktaşJK2018-19 (3).jpg, Beşiktaş J.K. ( 2018-19)
File:AlgS2019-20 (17).jpg, ALG Spor ( 2019-20)
Top goalscorers
File:ReyhanŞeker05.JPG, Reyhan Şeker
File:SevgiÇınar02.JPG, Sevgi Çınar
File:MerveAladağ05.JPG, Merve Aladağ
File:CosminaDusa11.JPG, Cosmina Dușa
File:ArzuKarabulut (8).jpg, Arzu Karabulut
File:KaderHançar09.JPG, Kader Hançar
File:MariemHouij (18).jpg, Mariem Houij
File:YağmurUraz02.JPG, Yağmur Uraz
File:ZelalBaturay (29).jpg, Zelal Baturay
Teams promoted to Women's Super League
Format
As of 2024–25 Season, 17 teams (11 teams participated from First League, 3 teams relegated from
Super League
Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...
and 3 teams promoted from
Second League in the end of 2023–24 season) compete for promoting to Super League.
2024–25 season
The 2024–25 Turkish Women's First Football League consists of 17 teams.
See also
*
Women's football in Turkey
*
Turkish Women's Football Super League
*
Turkish Women's Second Football League
*
Turkish Women's Third Football League
*
Turkish Women's Regional Football League
*
List of women's football clubs in Turkey
*
Turkish women in sports
References
External links
Official Site of the
Turkish Football Federation
{{Football in Turkey
Sports leagues established in 2021
First
Tur
Football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
Professional sports leagues in Turkey