1959 Turkish National League

Millî Lig
Season	1959
Champions	Fenerbahçe; (1st Millî Lig title)
Relegated	none
European Champions Cup	Fenerbahçe
Goals scored	264 goals
Average goals/game	2.3 goals/game
Top goalscorer	Metin Oktay (11 goals)
Biggest home win	Galatasaray 5–0 Göztepe
Biggest away win	İstanbulspor 0–5 Fenerbahçe
Highest scoring	Göztepe 4–2 Ankara Demirspor
	← 1957–58 1959–60 →

1959 Millî Lig trophy at Fenerbahçe Museum

The 1959 Turkish National League was the first season of the professional nationwide league in Turkey, known as Süper Lig today. The first season consisted of sixteen clubs split into two groups: the Kırmızı Grup (Red Group) and Beyaz Grup (White Group), the colours of the Turkish flag. The first season took place in the calendar year of 1959, instead of 1958–59, because the qualifying stages took place in 1958.^[1]

Overview

The top eight clubs from the 1958–59 Istanbul Football League and the top four clubs from the Ankara and İzmir Leagues in the 1958–59 season took part in the league. These clubs were Adalet, Beşiktaş, Beykoz, Fatih Karagümrük, Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray, İstanbulspor, Vefa (from Istanbul), Ankaragücü, Ankara Demirspor, Gençlerbirliği, Hacettepe (from Ankara), Altay, Göztepe, İzmirspor, and Karşıyaka (from İzmir).^[1]

The final consisted of two legs and took place between the winners of each group. Galatasaray won the Red Group and Fenerbahçe won the White Group. Galatasaray won the first match 1-0, but Fenerbahçe won the second leg 4-0, winning 4-1 on aggregate. The title was Fenerbahçe's first Süper Lig title and 10th Turkish championship title overall, qualifying them for the 1959–60 European Cup. Metin Oktay was top scorer with 11 goals. No clubs were relegated this season.^[1]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Galatasaray	14	7	6	1	18	7	+11	20
2	Vefa	14	7	6	1	21	10	+11	20
3	Ankara Demirspor	14	4	8	2	12	11	+1	16
4	Göztepe A.Ş.	14	5	5	4	23	21	+2	15
5	Fatih Karagümrük	14	4	4	6	17	17	0	12
6	Karşıyaka	14	2	6	6	13	21	−8	10
7	Gençlerbirliği	14	1	8	5	10	18	−8	10
8	Adalet	14	1	7	6	12	21	−9	9

Source:
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Fenerbahçe	14	12	2	0	29	7	+22	26
2	Beşiktaş	14	8	2	4	22	16	+6	18
3	Altay	14	5	5	4	18	16	+2	15
4	İzmirspor	14	4	5	5	11	12	−1	13
5	MKE Ankaragücü	14	5	3	6	16	19	−3	13
6	Hacettepe Spor	14	5	1	8	14	20	−6	11
7	Beykoz	14	3	4	7	17	21	−4	10
8	İstanbulspor	14	1	4	9	6	22	−16	6

Source:
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.

Championship final

First leg

10 June 1959

Galatasaray	1 – 0	Fenerbahçe
Metin Oktay 39'	(Report)

Dolmabahçe Stadium, Istanbul

Attendance: 18,016

Referee: Markovic (Yugoslavia)

Second leg

14 June 1959

Fenerbahçe	4 – 0	Galatasaray
Yüksel Gündüz 9' Naci Erdem 44' Mustafa Güven 70' Şeref Has 72'	(Report)

Dolmabahçe Stadium, Istanbul

Attendance: 26,553

Referee: Francesco Liverani (Italy)

1959 Millî Lig winners
Fenerbahçe First title

Results table

Red Group

Home \ Away^[1]	ADA	ADS	GAL	GEN	GÖZ	CKG	KRŞ	VEF
Adalet		0–0	0–1	2–3	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–1
Ankara Demirspor	2–1		0–2	0–0	1–1	0–0	1–0	1–1
Galatasaray	2–1	1–2		0–0	5–0	1–0	1–1	0–0
Gençlerbirliği	1–1	0–0	0–0		2–2	1–2	1–1	0–3
Göztepe A.Ş.	2–3	4–2	0–0	2–1		3–0	3–2	0–1
Fatih Karagümrük	3–0	1–2	2–3	1–0	1–1		2–2	1–2
Karşıyaka	3–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–1	0–3		2–0
Vefa	2–2	0–0	1–1	3–0	3–2	1–0	3–0

Source: ^[1]
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

White Group

Home \ Away^[1]	ALT	MKE	BEY	BEŞ	FEN	HAC	IST	IZM
Altay		1–0	2–2	3–1	0–1	1–0	2–0	1–1
MKE Ankaragücü	2–1		2–2	1–3	2–3	1–0	1–1	1–0
Beykoz	2–2	3–1		2–3	0–1	1–2	1–1	0–2
Beşiktaş	2–1	0–0	0–1		0–2	3–2	2–1	2–0
Fenerbahçe	1–1	3–1	2–1	1–0		2–1	3–0	1–0
Hacettepe Spor	2–0	1–3	1–0	0–3	1–4		1–1	1–0
Istanbulspor	0–1	0–1	0–0	1–2	0–5	0–2		0–0
İzmirspor	2–2	1–0	2–1	1–1	0–0	1–0	2–0