TURKISH FOOTBALL COMES OF AGE.

Football began officially in Turkey back in 1875. Back then, England had also played a role, as it was English tobacco and cotton traders who had set up the first match in the then-Ottoman city of Thessalonica. The game then moved to Istanbul and Izmir, though still initially confined to bouts between visiting foreigners and the Sultan's local Greek subjects. By 1903 though, the first Turkish club — Besiktas — had entered the Christian-dominated Ottoman league, to be followed by the other two Istanbul giants, Fenerbahce and Galatasaray.