The 2007–08 Süper Lig season, (also known as the Turkcell Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons), was the 50th anniversary of top-flight professional football in Turkey. It was won by Galatasaray, who won their 17th championship.
Since Turkey had climbed from 15th to 14th position in the UEFA association coefficient rankings at the end of the 2006–07 season, and UEFA Champions League-bound Zenit Saint Petersburg won the 2007–08 UEFA Cup, the domestic cup winner, Kayserispor, which had qualified for the second qualifying round of the 2008–09 UEFA Cup, was promoted to the first round, filling the unused title holder spot.
The league began on 10 August 2007 with the İstanbul B.B.–Fenerbahçe match at Atatürk Olympic Stadium.
The three relegated clubs would be replaced by three promoted clubs from the Bank Asya 1. Lig. Gençlerbirliği OFTAŞ and İstanbul B.B. both earned automatic promotion, while Altay, Diyarbakırspor, Kasımpaşa and Malatyaspor played in the play-off tournament with Kasımpaşa coming out victorious, becoming the third and last club to be promoted to the Süper Lig for 2007–08.
Events
Matchday 1 The league started with a surprise result, with İstanbul B.B. defeating giants Fenerbahçe 2–0.Opinions of football columnists about Fenerbahçe Retrieved on 12 September 2007 Another important event of the first week was the record of Hakan Şükür. By scoring two goals, he managed to reach to the record of the most goals scored domestically.UEFA news about Hakan Şükür Retrieved on 12 September 2007 The Trabzonspor–Sivasspor match was suspended due to "player and fan trouble", just minutes before the referee would end it. The Federation ultimately awarded a default 3–0 victory to Sivasspor.Yönetim Kurulu Kararları This caused a harsh opposition from the Trabzonspor side.
Matchday 7 The first derby of the season was the main event of this week but the decision of Karl Heinz Feldkamp became the center of the discussion rather than the match between Galatasaray and Beşiktaş because he decided to exclude two important players of his team, Şükür and Lincoln, from the match squad. The reason was their disciplinary problems. This week is also worth mentioning because none of the matches ended with a draw.
Matchday 10 Fenerbahçe, after collecting five points in three Champions League matches, faced the newcomer of the league, Kasımpaşa. Fenerbahçe hardly won the game which they were expected to dominate. On the other field of the competition, Galatasaray secured the victory in the last minutes and the surprise leader of the 9th Week, Sivasspor, was defeated by the desperate Konyaspor. One of the key events of the week was the transfer of Ersun Yanal, former national team manager, to Trabzonspor. Ziya Doğan left his seat after the shocking defeat at the hands of Beşiktaş in the 9th week where Trabzonspor lost its early advantage of 2–0 and ended up losing the game 2–3.Trabzonspor:2 Beşiktaş:3
Matchday 24 Beşiktaş hosted Galatasaray on their 319th randez-vous. Both teams had critical absences such as injured Bobo and suspended Lincoln.Lincoln'e Taciz (Eng:Lincoln was teased in half time Beşiktaş won the game with final score of 1–0.Derbiden Koltuk Çıktı Mert Nobre have scored to Galatasaray for the 6th time in his career as he already scored 3 whilst his Fenerbahçe spelling.Galatarasay'ın Belalısı Nobre Eng:(Nobre,troubler of Gala Nobre could only score once in the first half of the season, then he accelerated his form and earned 6 goals until 24th week. Thereby, Beşiktaş captured the top of table after 137 weeks of the league.Zirvedeli 5 takımın son 10 maçıGalatasaray'ı Yenen Beşiktaş Lider Almost entire Beşiktaş squad and board including chairman Yıldırım Demirören and coach Ertuğrul Sağlam had achieved the top position of the league for the very first time in their personal careers; squad exceptions were Serdar Özkan, Gökhan Zan, and captain İbrahim Üzülmez.Beşiktaş'ta ilk kez liderlik yaşayanlar
Matchday 28 The most important match up of the weekend was between Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe. Sarı Kanaryalar had already captured the leadership previous week, Beşiktaş was on target to overtake them again as the home side winner on last 6 weeks.
Fenerbahçe started the match well with the header of Alex after Colin Kazım-Richards' cross from the right side. Kazım will have been to score against Chelsea on next match in Champions League. Beşiktaş equalized the scoresheet with Serdar Özkan's goal; however, Alex closed the curtain with his second goal as he became the man of the match. This was a big impact on Beşiktaş due to the victory of Sivasspor as they even lost the second place which they would lose the chance to join Champions League next season. During the match, Yıldırım Demirören's mother got feel faint, it was diagnosed that she had a sudden hypertension. Demirören had to leave the match in early minutes. Alex was protested by Beşiktaş supporters after manipulated the situations during the corner kicks. The referee had added 4 and 8 minutes of stoppage time, sum of 12.
Galatasaray was fined by TFF and played against Gaziantepspor with no audience. This was the 6th match without the supporters this season due to be disciplined; nevertheless Cimbom was able to win 5 times that far. They had a 0–0 draw with Gaziantep.
Matchday 29 Turkish Professional Discipline Board fined Beşiktaş for two matches, one to play in a neutral stadium and one with no audience due to manifestations consisting oaths on TFF and the referees in the match against Fenerbahçe previous weekend.
The most unexpected news was the resignation of Karl-Heinz Feldkamp from Galatasaray. Club officials declared that the reason was the opinion gap between Feldkamp and club board. On the later emerging news on the papers, it was claimed that the very last reason was Feldkamp's tactical changes on the team and selection before the match against Gençlerbirliği which did not consist Hakan Şükür, Hasan Şaş and Okan Buruk.
Sivasspor hosted Beşiktaş as Fenerbahçe did for Kayserispor in the very crucial encounters of the weekend. Galatasaray was the guest of Gençlerbirliği. All three matches finished with narrow scores, therefore Fenerbahçe kept going as the leader. Lincoln was the scorer for Cimbom.
İstanbul B.B. manager Abdullah Avcı was linked with Galatasaray after his successful performance throughout the season.
Former Beşiktaş player Pascal Nouma was in Turkey to follow the Beşiktaş' match as he claimed that his former team to reach the title at the end of the season.
Matchday 31 Kasımpaşa were relegated to Bank Asya 1. Lig, after their away match loss against Bursaspor with a 1–0 score.
Matchday 32 At the biggest game of the season, Galatasaray defeated Fenerbahçe 1–0 at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium and went three points clear at the top of the table. Çaykur Rizespor were relegated to Bank Asya 1. Lig, after their away match loss against Kayserispor with a 3–0 score.
Matchday 33 Manisaspor Vestel Manisaspor were relegated to Bank Asya 1. Lig following a home loss against relegated Kasımpaşa with a 2–1 score. Galatasaray defeated Sivasspor 5–3 at an away match and took a big step to the title. Fenerbahçe defeated Gençlerbirliği 3–2 at home and guaranteed UEFA Champions League qualification.
Matchday 34 Galatasaray won their 17th championship after defeating Gençlerbirliği OFTAŞ 2–0. Fenerbahçe finished in second position after losing 2–0 to Trabzonspor. Beşiktaş finished in third position, securing a UEFA Cup spot, after winning 5–1 against relegated Vestel Manisaspor. Sivasspor won 2–0 against Gençlerbirliği, but could only qualify for UEFA Intertoto Cup after finishing in fourth, behind Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş, because of a poor head-to-head record against those two teams.
League table
Results
Coaches
Team Namehttp://www.haber3.com/haber.php?haber_id=268510 for the list at the beginning of the season Nationality Ankaragücü Hakan Kutlu Ankaraspor Safet Sušić Beşiktaş Ertuğrul Sağlam Bursaspor Samet Aybaba Denizlispor Tuncay Özbek Fenerbahçe Zico Galatasaray Cevat GülerGalatasaray'da sorumlu Cevat Güler Gaziantepspor Nurullah Sağlam Gençlerbirliği Mesut Bakkal Gençlerbirliği OFTAŞ Osman Özdemir İstanbul B.B. Abdullah Avcı Kasımpaşa Uğur Tütüneker Kayserispor Tolunay Kafkas Konyaspor Raşit ÇetinerKonyaspor, Raşit Çetiner'le anlaştı Vestel Manisaspor Levent ErişManisaspor Levent Eriş ile anlaştı ] Çaykur Rizespor Metin DiyadinHürriyet Spor – Çaykur Rizespor Metin Diyadin'le anlaştı – 2 Mayıs, 2008Çaykur Rizespor Erdoğan Arıca ile yollarını ayırdıÇaykur Rizespor, Erdoğan Arıca ile anlaştı / Spor / Milliyet İnternet Sivasspor Bülent Uygun Trabzonspor Ersun YanalErsun Yanal Trabzonspor’da
Below is the list of coaches who left their teams after the start of the season.
Team Name Nationality Weeks in charge Ankaragücü Hans-Peter Briegel 1–9Hikmet Karaman başkent ekibinde | haber7com Bursaspor Bülent Korkmaz 1–9 Trabzonspor Ziya Doğan 1–9 Ankaraspor Aykut Kocaman 1–8Aykut Kocaman istifa etti | haber7com Gençlerbirliği Fuat Çapa 1–5G.Birliği hocasız kaldı | haber7com Kasımpaşa Ömer Kadri Özcan 1–7 Konyaspor Nurullah Sağlam 1–6 Çaykur Rizespor Samet Aybaba 1–2 Gençlerbirliği Reinhard Stumpf 7–10Bülent Korkmaz Gençlerbirliği’nde... / Spor / Milliyet İnternet Kasımpaşa Werner Lorant 9–14 Gaziantepspor Mesut Bakkal 1–15 Gaziantepspor Bünyamin Süral 16–20Nurullah Sağlam Gaziantep’e döndü Manisaspor Giray Bulak 1–18 Galatasaray Karl-Heinz Feldkamp 1–28Karl Heinz Feldkamp istifa etti Çaykur Rizespor Safet Sušić 4–20Nurullah Sağlam Gaziantep’e döndü Gençlerbirliği Bülent Korkmaz 11–20 Ankaraspor Hikmet Karaman 9–24Ankaraspor, Hikmet Karaman İle yollarını ayırdı Manisaspor Yılmaz Vural 19–25 Konyaspor Ünal Karaman 7–27CNN TÜRK.com – Haberler – Spor Futbol – Konyaspor'da Karaman imzaladı – 28 Eylül, 2007Konyaspor teknik direktörü Ünal Karaman görevinden istifa etti Rizespor Erdoğan Arıca 21–32 Denizlispor Güvenç Kurtar 1–32Denizlispor Güvenç Kurtar ile yollarını ayırdı
Statistics
Top goalscorers Last updated on 10 May 2008Süper Lig Panorama RankPlayerClubGoals1 Semih Şentürk Fenerbahçe172 Alex Fenerbahçe163 Filip Hološko Vestel Manisaspor / Beşiktaş154 Antonio de Nigris Gaziantepspor / Ankaraspor14 Mehmet Yıldız Sivasspor Umut Bulut Trabzonspor7 Necati Ateş Ankaraspor / İstanbul B.B.11 Ümit Karan Galatasaray Gökdeniz Karadeniz Trabzonspor Gökhan Ünal Kayserispor Mateja Kežman Fenerbahçe Shabani Nonda Galatasaray Hakan Şükür Galatasaray Deivid Fenerbahçe
Top assists Last updated on 21 December 2008 RankPlayerClubAssists1 Alex Fenerbahçe152 Mehmet Yıldız Sivasspor113 Erman Kılıç İstanbul B.B.10 Filip Hološko Manisaspor / Beşiktaş5 Arda Turan Galatasaray9 Deivid Fenerbahçe Ibrahima Yattara Trabzonspor Rodrigo Tello Beşiktaş9 Ayman Abdelaziz Trabzonspor8 Caner Celep Denizlispor Franco Cangele Kayserispor Mehmet Topuz Kayserispor
Hat-tricks Player For Against Result Date Sinan KaloğluBursasporGençlerbirliği 3–1 Antonio de NigrisGaziantepsporKayserispor 4–3 Adrianoİstanbul B.B.Manisaspor 4–1 AlexFenerbahçeAnkaraspor 4–2 Murat HacıoğluKonyasporVentel Manisaspor 4–2 Shabani NondaGalatasarayÇaykur Rizespor 5–2 Burak YılmazManisasporDenizlispor 3–2 Hakan ŞükürGalatasarayManisaspor 6–3 Ivan TsvetkovSivassporKasımpaşa 4–0 Arda TuranGalatasaraySivasspor 5–3
Kit and shirt sponsors ClubKit makerShirt sponsorAnkaragücüUmbroTurkcellAnkarasporNikeTurkcellBeşiktaşUmbroCola TurkaBursasporPumaTurkcellÇaykur RizesporAdidasTurkcellDenizlisporKappaTurkcellFenerbahçeAdidasAveaGalatasarayAdidasAveaGaziantepsporLottoTurkcellGençlerbirliği S.K.LottoTurkcellGençlerbirliği OFTAŞLottoTurkcellİstanbul B.B.LesconSunnyKasımpaşaLottoTurkcellKayserisporAdidasTurkcellKonyasporLottoTurkcellSivassporDiadoraTurkcellTrabzonsporPumaAveaVestel ManisasporLesconVestel
Stadiums