Mini football figure - Turkey

Turkey

The Turkish national football team is a national selection of Turkish football players that represents the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) at international level, e.g. in friendly matches, the European Championship or the World Cup.

Their greatest success is the third place in the 2002 World Cup under coach Şenol Güneş. Their best result so far in a European Football Championship was reaching the semi-finals in 2008.

Beginnings

The Turkish Football Federation Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu, or TFF, was founded on 23 April 1923. It has been a member of FIFA since 1923 and UEFA since 1962. Turkey's first international match took place on 26 October 1923 at the Taksim Stadium in Istanbul. The opponent was Romania. Romania initially took a 1-0 lead through visiting Austrian Isidor Gansl in the 25th minute, but two goals by Zeki Rıza Sporel in the 32nd minute and 50th minute surprisingly allowed Turkey to take the lead for a short time. But in the 67th minute, Romania still managed to equalise through another goal by Gansl and so the score of the first friendly match for Turkey remained until the final whistle. With his two goals, Zeki Rıza Sporel was the first goal scorer for the Turkish national team. In total, he scored 15 goals for Turkey and was the top scorer for a long time until he was caught up by Lefter Küçükandonyadis. The Turkish national team celebrated its first victory with a 4-2 win over Finland on 17 June 1924. In Helsinki's Helsingfors Stadium, Zeki Rıza Sporel scored four times, accounting for all of the Turks' goals.

World Cup 1954 in Switzerland

Turkey participated in a World Cup finals for the first time at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland. The Turkish team was in Group 2 with Hungary, Germany and South Korea, where they were considered underdogs. Turkey lost the first match against Germany 1:4. Three days later, they defeated the World Cup newcomer South Korea clearly 7:0. On 23 April 1954, there was a deciding match between Turks and Germans. Turkey lost 7-2 to the future world champions and was eliminated from the tournament.

World Cup 2002 in Japan and South Korea

It was not until 48 years later that Turkey qualified for another World Cup. Turkey beat Austria 1-0 away and 5-0 at home in the relegation round to qualify for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. In Group C, the Turks faced record world champions Brazil, Costa Rica and China. They were considered favourites behind Brazil to qualify for the last 16. In the first group match against Brazil, the Turks played well and took the lead through a goal by Hasan Şaş. After Ronaldo had levelled the match, the Korean referee judged a disputed situation to be an emergency stop, sending off Turkey's Alpay and awarding the Brazilians a penalty, which Rivaldo converted for the winning goal. In injury time, Rivaldo caused an inglorious scene when he was shot by Hakan Ünsal and faked a head injury, causing the Turkish player to be sent off.

In the second match against Costa Rica, Turkey could not lose the game, otherwise they would have been eliminated after the preliminary round, just like in the first participation. At the end of the match, the score was 1-1 - a draw. Turkey had to hope for help from the Brazilians and win the match against China themselves. They defeated the Chinese 3:0 and were then informed that Brazil had won the match 5:2. Thus, Turkey was in the round of 16. In the round of 16, the Turks defeated the hosts Japan 1-0 with an early headed goal from Ümit Davala. In the quarter-finals, they faced the surprise team of Senegal, who had defeated the defending champions France in the opening match. Turkey reached the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup through a golden goal by İlhan Mansız in the 95th minute. In the semi-finals, the Turks met Brazil again and just like in the previous encounter, the Turks lost to the team from South America, this time by 0:1. The Ay-Yıldızlılar reached the 3rd place in the "small final" when they defeated South Korea by 3:2. The 1st goal of the match by Hakan Şükür in the 11th second was the fastest goal in World Cup history. After the 2002 World Cup, Turkey failed to qualify for the following tournaments.

1950 World Cup in Brazil

Turkey survived the qualifiers for the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, but opted out of the finals. The Turkish team would be in Group 4 with Uruguay, Bolivia and Scotland. The Scottish team also decided not to participate in the final round. The eventual world champions Uruguay and Bolivia played the only match in Group 4 against each other, which the Uruguayans won 8-0. In addition, France and Portugal, who were offered the vacant places, did not play.

2006 World Cup in Germany

Despite the 4-2 home win over Switzerland, Turkey failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup as Switzerland advanced to the finals in Germany on the away goals rule following their 2-0 home win in Bern. Before the start of the decisive match on 16 November 2005, the Swiss national anthem was drowned out by whistles from the Turks. After the end of the match, the players of both teams got into fisticuffs and physical confrontations. Stephane Grichting suffered a kick to the abdomen and had to go to hospital with suspected internal injuries. Goalkeeper coach Erich Burgener suffered a black eye. The assistant coach of the Turks, Mehmet Özdilek, tripped a Swiss player and then received a kick himself from the Swiss Benjamin Huggel. Media representatives were massively prevented from reporting and were also physically assaulted.

As a result, on 7 February 2006, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee fined the Turkish association and ordered it to pay the costs of the proceedings totalling 220,000 Swiss francs (over 130,000 euros), and also ordered it to play its next six home matches outside Turkey in a stadium at least 500 kilometres away from Turkish territory and without spectators. In addition, Alpay Özalan, Emre Belözoğlu each received a six-match ban - Benjamin Huggel also received a six-match ban. Serkan Balcı was banned for two matches and Mehmet Özdilek (one of Turkey's co-coaches) for twelve months, while Swiss physiotherapist Stephan Meyer was banned for two national team matches.

After the publication of these sanctions by FIFA, the Turkish Football Federation appealed without much success, as FIFA was not prepared to mitigate the penalties. The Turkish FA then sought justice by going to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which eventually mitigated the punishment and pronounced the final sanctions. The Turkish Football Federation now had to play its next three official home matches without an audience and in a third country. The players Huggel and Emre were now only suspended for four compulsory matches (previously six) of their association teams. The fines imposed, on the other hand, were confirmed. The Turkish association preferred to play all three matches in Frankfurt's Commerzbank Arena. The penalty against the federation ended with the European Championship qualifier against Norway.

1996 European Championship in England

The Turkish national team took part in the 1996 European Football Championship in England for the first time. Under the leadership of Fatih Terim, Turkey lost 0-1 to Croatia, 0-1 to Portugal and 0-3 to Denmark in the preliminary round. Turkey finished the tournament in the preliminary round as the last team in the group with no points and no goals.

European Championship 2000 in Belgium and the Netherlands

Four years after the debacle in England, Turkey qualified for the tournament in Belgium and the Netherlands. This time things went better for the team. With Mustafa Denizli as coach, the Turks scored the first goal against Italy in the European Football Championship through Okan Buruk. They lost the match 1-2, and the second match was 0-0 against Sweden. In the last group match against the hosts Belgium, Turkey won 2-0 with two goals from Hakan Şükür. This meant that they qualified for the quarter-finals as group runners-up, their best result to date. However, they lost 2-0 to Portugal and had to bow out of the competition.

2008 European Championship in Austria and Switzerland

In 2008, the Turks were again involved in a European Championship. In the first match against Portugal, the Red and Whites lost 0:2. In the second match against the hosts Switzerland, they were trailing 0:1 for a while and it looked like the Turks would have to leave the tournament. Semih Şentürk's goal made it 1-1, but Arda Turan scored the winning goal in the last minute of injury time to knock Switzerland out of the tournament. In the last group match against the Czechs, there was a special starting situation for the first time: a draw would not have led to a decision on the placement of both teams, as both teams had the same goal difference and number of points. There would have been a penalty shoot-out after 90 minutes to determine who would go into the quarter-finals as the runners-up behind the Portuguese. After the 60th minute, this was no longer deemed necessary. Arda Turan scored the equaliser and a mistake by Petr Čech allowed Nihat Kahveci to make it 2:2 in the 87th minute. Nihat, however, turned the game around completely, scoring the winning goal just before the end of normal time to make it 3-2. Turkey was back in the quarter-finals after 2000. The quarter-final was Croatia - Turkey. After the regular time ended goalless, the game went into extra time, which also remained goalless for a long time. A mistake by Rüştü Reçber gave Croatia the lead in the 119th minute. Croatia felt like the sure winner, but out of nowhere Semih Şentürk scored the equaliser in the 120th minute and saved his team into the penalty shootout. The Turks won the penalty shootout and were thus in the semi-finals against Germany. Despite a good performance against the Germans, the Turks were eliminated from the tournament with a score of 2:3. Reaching the semi-finals is Turkey's best result at a European Championship.

European Championship 2016 in France

The Turkish national team qualified for a European Football Championship after eight years. Coach Fatih Terim's team met Spain, Croatia and the Czech Republic in Group D. In the first group match, Turkey lost 1:0 thanks to a goal by Luka Modrić. The Turks also lost the second match to Spain 3:0. In the last match against the Czech Republic, the Turkish team, due to the new regulations, had the opportunity to qualify for the last 16 as third in the group. They won the game 2:0, with Burak Yılmaz (10th) and Ozan Tufan (65th) scoring the goals. Nevertheless, due to the worse goal difference, it is not enough for the next round.

2021 European Championship in Europe

Turkey qualified for the European Championship as runners-up in Group H. The Milli Takım was drawn in Group A with Italy, Switzerland and Wales. The team of national coach Şenol Güneş was eliminated from the group without points, the only goal for Turkey was scored by İrfan Can Kahveci in the last group match against Switzerland.

Confederations Cup 2003 in France

Turkey participated in the 2003 Confederations Cup in France for the first and last time so far. The Turks were nominated as the third-placed team due to the cancellation of Germany. In Group B, the red and white team played against Brazil, Cameroon and the USA. In the first match against the USA, they won 2-1 with goals from Okan Yılmaz and Tuncay Şanlı. This was followed by the match against Cameroon. The match ended in a 1-0 defeat. In the last group match, a point was enough for the Turks to reach the semi-finals against the Brazilians. The Turks played a good game and the result was 2-2, with Alex scoring the equaliser just before the final whistle. In the semi-finals, they faced the European champions, defending champions and hosts France. Despite a good performance, the Turkish team had to admit defeat in the end. In the match for 3rd place against Colombia, they managed to secure 3rd place thanks to a late goal by Okan Yılmaz. Before this goal, the game was tied 1-1.

Match jerseys

In the first matches, the national team played in white shirts with a red breast ring and white trousers. The Turkish flag was sewn onto the red breast ring.

The Turkish national team plays its home matches in red and white shirts and red shorts. Until the beginning of 2009, Turkish players wore white jerseys and turquoise shorts in away matches. This colour combination was criticised by many people in Turkey, but the Turkish Football Federation stuck to it.

In the 1996 European Championship, the first in which Turkey participated, and in the 2002 World Cup, they wore Adidas, but since 2003 Nike has been the technical sponsor. From 2010 to 2015, the Turkish national team again played with white home jerseys and a red breast ring. The away jersey was in red with dark red breast ring. On these rings was the Turkish flag.

Stadium

The Turkish national team does not have a national stadium like, for example, the English national football team with Wembley Stadium. Thus, home matches have always taken place in changing stadiums, with the choice depending on the importance of the match and the opponent.

The Turkish national team in the FIFA world rankings

When the FIFA World Ranking was introduced in August 1993, Turkey was ranked 66th. Two months later they were in 67th place, it is still the worst ranking of the Turkish team. In November 1993, they improved to 51st place. In June 1995, Turkey ranked 25th, which was the best ranking since its introduction. Turkey could not maintain its position consistently and fell to 62nd place in September 1998. After participating in the 2000 European Football Championship, they reached 29th place in July 2000. Due to their 3rd place in the 2002 World Cup, the Turks became seventh in the world rankings in September 2002. This was the first time they were among the top ten football teams in the world. The Turkish national team managed to stay in the top ten for two years. In September 2004, they were ranked 13th. After that, Turkey consistently changed positions between 15th and 30th. They reached a low point when the Red and Whites failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup. In February 2010, they fell to 42nd place.