I copied this from a Turkish footy site. Very interesting.
The modern football was played in Selanik (now ThessalonÃki) in the Ottoman
Empire in 1875 by the English people living there. It is also known that the
game was played at the meadows of Bornova, izmir in 1877. The first club was
established in izmir with a name "Football Club Smyrna" - Smyrna was the English
name for izmir. Some of the English man brought the football with them to istanbul
when they moved from izmir, in 1895. They played the game at Kadiköy and Moda.
The first inter-city games were being played by izmir and istanbul select teams
in 1897, 1898, 1899, and 1904, izmir select teams winning them all.
It is believed that the first Turkish man playing football was Selim Sirri Tarcan who was
in izmir on an assignment in 1898.
The game was prohibited in the Ottoman Empire at the beginning and it
was played by mostly the English families, Greek, Armenian, and Jewish
minorities.
The first Turkish team played football in 1901 with an English name
"Black Stockings" (Siyah Çoraplilar). However, the police interrupted
the team's first game when they were losing 5-1 and arrested the players
they could catch.
The first club established was Cadi-keu FC (Kadiköy FK) in 1902. Later on
Moda FC, Elpis and Imogene FC followed.
The first league games in Turkey was held in istanbul in 1904. This
league was called "The Constantinople Football League" originally. The
teams participating were called Kadiköy FC, Moda FC, Elpis, imojen.
These teams were made up of the English, Greek, and Armenian minorities
living in Turkey. Later on the teams like Galatasaray SK, Fenerbahçe SK,
Rumblers, Progres(Altinordu), Telefoncular SK with Turkish players
joined the league. The league games were played on Sundays that's why
the league was called also as the Sunday league.
In 1906, the football was a demonstration sport at the special Olympic Games
in Ãthina. Two teams from the Ottoman Empire participated.
A team from Izmir as "Smyrna" and another from Selanik as "Selanik Music Club".
Izmir team was made up of mostly the English players and Selanik team was
made up of Greek players.
In the four team tournament, Ãthina withdrew from the play-off game for the
second place. Denmark won the gold, Smyrna the silver, and Selanik the bronze.
The Smyrna team: Edwin Charnaud, Zarek Kuyumcuyan, Edouard Giraud, Jacques Giraud,
Henri Joly, Percy de la Fontaine, Donald Whittal, Albert Whittal, Godfrey Whittal,
Herbert Whittal, Edward Whittal
The Selanik team: Georgios Vaporis, Nicolaos Pindos, A.Tegon, Nicolaos Pentzikis,
Ioannis Kyrou, Georgis Sotiriadis, V.Zarkadis, Dimitrios Michitsopoulos,
A.Karangonidis, Ioannis - Saridakis, Ioannis Abbot
A second league had started in 1912 in istanbul. The games for this
league was played on Fridays and the league was called the Friday
league. The teams playing in this league were Darülfünun SK, istanbul
Jimnastik K (later on known as (Türk idman Oca&gi), Anadolu SK,
Sanayii FK, Sehremini SK, and Fenerbahçe SK (II). The Pazar league was
still the main league and they refused the promotion requests of the
Friday league until 1915-1916 season. In 1915-1916 they combined under
the name of the Friday League and played until 1923.
A third league in istanbul had started in 1919-1920 by Besiktas JK,
which were denied the to join the Friday league. This league was called
"istanbul Türk idman Birli&gi".
The Türkiye idman Cemiyetleri ittifaki (The Turkish Gymnastics Clubs
Union) was established for the Turkey in April 1922 combining the clubs in
other cities as well. TICI has setup a temporary committee to set up the
Turkish Football Federation under the name of "Futbol Encümeni". The committee
completed its work and the Football Federation was established in the
meeting of 23 April 1923 under the name of "Futbol Hey'et-i Müttehidesi".
Then the league games became more official. The federation started
soccer leagues in several cities like istanbul, Ankara, izmir, Adana, Eskisehir
and Trabzon.
The federation held an inter-cities league called the Milli Küme games
between 1937 and 1950 this league is played between the teams from
istanbul, Ankara, and izmir. Only in 1941 a team from Eskisehir joined
them.
In 1952 the professionalism in soccer was accepted and the pro-soccer
leagues started in istanbul, Ankara, and izmir. The amateur leagues were
also being held in these cities.
In 1959 the first Turkish League started. This weakened the pro-leagues
in the cities and after the initiation of the 2. and 3. Turkish Leagues
these regional pro-leagues stop playing and the cities leagues became
amateur leagues only.
