The 2007âÂÂ08 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 2006âÂÂ07 season, and UEFA Champions League-bound Zenit Saint Petersburg won the 2007âÂÂ08 UEFA Cup, the domestic cup winner, Kayserispor, which had qualified for the second qualifying round of the 2008âÂÂ09 UEFA Cup, was promoted to the first round, filling the unused title holder spot.
The league began on 10 August 2007 with the ðstanbul B.B.âÂÂFenerbahçe match at Atatürk Olympic Stadium.
The three relegated clubs would be replaced by three promoted clubs from the Bank Asya 1. Lig. GençlerbirliÃÂi OFTAà  and ðstanbul B.B. both earned automatic promotion, while Altay, Diyarbakñrspor, Kasñmpaà Âa and Malatyaspor played in the play-off tournament with Kasñmpaà Âa coming out victorious, becoming the third and last club to be promoted to the Süper Lig for 2007âÂÂ08.
The league started with a surprise result, with ðstanbul B.B. defeating giants Fenerbahçe 2âÂÂ0. Another important event of the first week was the record of Hakan à Âükür. By scoring two goals, he managed to reach to the record of the most goals scored domestically. The TrabzonsporâÂÂSivasspor match was suspended due to "player and fan trouble", just minutes before the referee would end it. The Federation ultimately awarded a default 3âÂÂ0 victory to Sivasspor. This caused a harsh opposition from the Trabzonspor side.
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 Beà Âiktaà  because he decided to exclude two important players of his team, à Âükür 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.
Fenerbahçe, after collecting five points in three Champions League matches, faced the newcomer of the league, Kasñmpaà Âa. 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 DoÃÂan left his seat after the shocking defeat at the hands of Beà Âiktaà  in the 9th week where Trabzonspor lost its early advantage of 2âÂÂ0 and ended up losing the game 2âÂÂ3.
Beà Âiktaà  hosted Galatasaray on their 319th randez-vous. Both teams had critical absences such as injured Bobo and suspended Lincoln. Beà Âiktaà  won the game with final score of 1âÂÂ0. Mert Nobre have scored to Galatasaray for the 6th time in his career as he already scored 3 whilst his Fenerbahçe spelling. 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, Beà Âiktaà  captured the top of table after 137 weeks of the league. Almost entire Beà Âiktaà  squad and board including chairman Yñldñrñm Demirören and coach ErtuÃÂrul SaÃÂlam had achieved the top position of the league for the very first time in their personal careers; squad exceptions were Serdar ÃÂzkan, Gökhan Zan, and captain ðbrahim ÃÂzülmez.
The most important match up of the weekend was between Beà Âiktaà  and Fenerbahçe. Sarñ Kanaryalar had already captured the leadership previous week, Beà Âiktaà  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 Kazñm-Richards' cross from the right side. Kazñm will have been to score against Chelsea on next match in Champions League. Beà Âiktaà  equalized the scoresheet with Serdar ÃÂzkan'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 Beà Âiktaà  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, Yñldñrñm 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 Beà Âiktaà  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 0âÂÂ0 draw with Gaziantep.
Turkish Professional Discipline Board fined Beà Âiktaà  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 GençlerbirliÃÂi which did not consist Hakan à Âükür, Hasan à Âaà  and Okan Buruk.
Sivasspor hosted Beà Âiktaà  as Fenerbahçe did for Kayserispor in the very crucial encounters of the weekend. Galatasaray was the guest of GençlerbirliÃÂi. All three matches finished with narrow scores, therefore Fenerbahçe kept going as the leader. Lincoln was the scorer for Cimbom.
ðstanbul B.B. manager Abdullah Avcñ was linked with Galatasaray after his successful performance throughout the season.
Former Beà Âiktaà  player Pascal Nouma was in Turkey to follow the Beà Âiktaà Â' match as he claimed that his former team to reach the title at the end of the season.
Kasñmpaà Âa were relegated to Bank Asya 1. Lig, after their away match loss against Bursaspor with a 1âÂÂ0 score.
At the biggest game of the season, Galatasaray defeated Fenerbahçe 1âÂÂ0 at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium and went three points clear at the top of the table. ÃÂaykur Rizespor were relegated to Bank Asya 1. Lig, after their away match loss against Kayserispor with a 3âÂÂ0 score.
Manisaspor Vestel Manisaspor were relegated to Bank Asya 1. Lig following a home loss against relegated Kasñmpaà Âa with a 2âÂÂ1 score. Galatasaray defeated Sivasspor 5âÂÂ3 at an away match and took a big step to the title. Fenerbahçe defeated GençlerbirliÃÂi 3âÂÂ2 at home and guaranteed UEFA Champions League qualification.
Galatasaray won their 17th championship after defeating GençlerbirliÃÂi OFTAà  2âÂÂ0. Fenerbahçe finished in second position after losing 2âÂÂ0 to Trabzonspor. Beà Âiktaà  finished in third position, securing a UEFA Cup spot, after winning 5âÂÂ1 against relegated Vestel Manisaspor. Sivasspor won 2âÂÂ0 against GençlerbirliÃÂi, but could only qualify for UEFA Intertoto Cup after finishing in fourth, behind Fenerbahçe and Beà Âiktaà Â, because of a poor head-to-head record against those two teams.
<onlyinclude></onlyinclude>
Below is the list of coaches who left their teams after the start of the season.
The teams promoted from the TFF First League for the 2006âÂÂ07 season:
The teams relegated to the TFF First League for the 2006âÂÂ07 season:
2008 Turkcell Super League Fixture List
weekly Turkish Turkcell Super League Reviews and news by Ahmet Turgut