The Süper Lig

The Süper Lig is contested by 18 clubs each season. Every club plays the other 17 twice — once at home, once away — for 34 matches in total. Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw, and none for a defeat. The club with the most points at the end of the season is the Turkish champion. The bottom three clubs are relegated to the TFF 1. Lig, the second tier, and replaced by three promoted clubs from that division.

The league has been held continuously since 1959, when it was launched as the Millî Lig (National League) — Turkey's first nationwide professional competition. It was renamed the 1. Lig in 1963, and was rebranded as the Süper Lig in 2001 when a new second-tier 1. Lig was created. The competition is run by the Turkish Football Federation and is currently officially known as the Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons. The Süper Lig often sits around the edge of UEFA's top 10 country coefficient table.

The season runs from mid-August to late May, with a winter break of around three weeks across late December and early January. Matches are played Friday through Monday, with most fixtures on weekends and selected Monday-evening games for television. Tiebreakers for clubs level on points are, in order, head-to-head matches between the tied clubs, then head-to-head goal difference, then overall goal difference, then goals scored — the same head-to-head-first rule used in La Liga and Serie A.

Three clubs are promoted from the TFF 1. Lig each year — the top two automatically, with a third through a play-off. Three clubs are relegated from the Süper Lig with no play-offs. From 2025-26, the league returned to an 18-club, three-up, three-down structure. Unlike leagues that use relegation play-offs, the bottom-three clubs go down directly.

The Süper Lig champion qualifies directly for the Champions League league phase. The second-placed club enters the Champions League qualifying rounds. The Turkish Cup winner takes the Europa League place, and the third-placed Süper Lig club enters the Europa League qualifying rounds. Lower-ranked qualifying places go to the next-best Süper Lig finishers in the Conference League. Turkey's UEFA coefficient position gives the Süper Lig a strong continental allocation, although exact access routes can change from season to season.

The Süper Lig made a major breakthrough in European football across the late 1990s and 2000s, with Galatasaray winning the 1999-2000 UEFA Cup and the 2000 UEFA Super Cup — becoming the first Turkish club to win a major European trophy. Galatasaray had also reached the European Cup semi-finals in 1988-89, before the Champions League era. Turkish clubs have continued to compete deep into European competitions across the modern era, although none has matched Galatasaray's 2000 UEFA Cup win.

Turkish football's pre-Süper Lig history was a series of regional leagues in Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir, plus several short-lived national competitions. The Turkish Football Championship ran from 1924 to 1951 as a knockout tournament between regional winners. The Millî Küme ran from 1937 to 1950 as a national league for the top Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir clubs. The Federation Cup in 1956-57 and 1957-58 was a one-off competition to find a champion to represent Turkey in the new European Cup.

The Süper Lig was launched in 1959 as the Millî Lig, with 16 founding clubs drawn from the regional leagues. Fenerbahçe won the inaugural title. The league grew across the following decades, with Trabzonspor breaking the Istanbul Big Three's dominance in the late 1970s, Bursaspor's surprise 2010 title, and Başakşehir's 2020 title. The Süper Lig has been hit by several governance and refereeing controversies across the modern era, including a notable December 2023 incident when a referee was attacked during a match, leading to a brief league suspension.