My brother returned from a visit to Turkey recently in an evangelical mood about the atmosphere at Turkish first division games. His hotel was a couple of hundred meters from Besiktas' ground in Istanbul and he was barely able to hear the TV in his room from the continuous roar even with the window shut. While most sane people would consider this an annoyance tantamount to discovering a colony of insect larvae hatching within one's ear, he loved it and wants to go see a game there.

Now my knowledge of the Turkish game is virtually non-existent. Fenerbache's European ventures this year is about as far as it extends and I of course remember United's first visit to Galatasaaray in 93/94 with the "Welcome To Hell" banners adorning every corner of their stadium. But it sounds like fun and we were hoping to head over and catch one of the big Istanbul derbies next season (Gala vs Fener or Besiktas). So, after my interminable introduction, we come to the crux of the matter. Has anyone here attended a game in Turkey? What kind of football are we likely to see (Premiership-style attack or Serie A-style sophistication)? Anywhere you'd recommend we buy tickets?

The guy you need here is our former Istanbul correspondent Spock, but he (very regrettably) hasn't been around this year.

My first hand experience is 25 years out of date and thus likely to be useless, but the football itself is more "continental" than either English or Italian in inspiration. Zico has brought a definite Brazilian influence to Fenerbache.

As to tickets, my understanding is that derbies are difficult outside of brokers and the like, but once the fixtures are out it may be worth taking a look at Billetix, which is Ticketmaster's Turkish affiliate (and definitely sells Fener and Besiktas tickets).

Istanbul is a fabulous city for non-footballing reasons, too.

My experience is only 15 years out of date, but I saw my home town team Bursaspor play a lot, and it was always easy to get tickets (even for the matches against the big 3 Istanbul teams) at the gate. The standard was pretty good, and even back then there were a fair number of Brazilians playing in the league. If Zico is still at Fener when you go, I'd recommend seeing them play - it seems like he has a very attacking style, which lends itself to good football.

Cheers, ursus and ad hoc. Will definitely be checking out Belletix when the fixture is list decided. And yeah Istanbul is beautiful. Was only there for a couple of days sadly but still I was blown away.

Myself and a couple of others got to see Galatasaray v PSV Eindhoven in 2001/2002 in a CL fixture. We stopped over on our way back from Saudia Arabia when we realised that this was being played, I think it was the morning of the fixture that we actually found out. Not speaking more than 2 words of Turkish between us we simply headed for the ground a couple of hours before kick-off and managed to get 3 tickets from a tout, it's strictly illegal to tout tickets there (or was), but despite a brief run in with the local constabulary whilst trying to buy the tickets we didn't have any problems. The tickets couldn't have cost more than £15 in total for what was Galatasaray's biggest game of the season so far. I don't think I've been to a game before or since with a better atmosphere, absolutely tremendous experience and thoroughly recommended.

Well worth going to a game, not much in the way of away support though.
Would recommend billetix as well for the tickets or just turn up and you will get in.
Are you set on a trip to Istanbul or another city?
Bursaspor get the best crowds and regularly fill the stadium.
I have many tales to tell of my Turkish matches.

We spent a week in Istanbul for the CL final 3 years ago and managed to catch the Fenerbahce-Galatasaray title decider at Sukru Saracoglu - one of my all-time favourite footballing experiences. People were queuing up outside the ground 5 hours before the match, it was full and rocking 2 hours before the kick off. The atmosphere during the match itself was excellent (if a tad nervous), the game scrappy, Fenerbahce won 1-0 and edged 1 title ahead of Galatasaray in the all-time list (it's now 17 apiece after Galatasaray won 2 of the last 3). Must've been a great experience for the several hundred Galatasaray fans tucked away in the away end surrounded by a ridiculous number of riot police (they were standing what looked like 10 deep).

I did try to get hold of tickets in advance via billetix and fans' websites but couldn't, so in the end we had to shell out 100YTL for 35YTL tickets for one of the stands behind the goals.

Also, we stayed in Sultanahmet, so getting the boat across the Sea of Marmara to see a match in Asia was a novel way to travel to a match. GREAT atmosphere on the boat back!

I saw a CL qualifier at the Ali Sami Yen stadium 6 years ago. against leckvi sofia so a bit of a derby.

got tickets from the ticket office an hour before KO. no problems, great atmosphere, reasonable football. easier done with a taxi, just take a blindfold.

I'm backpacking across Turkey in a couple of months, but I'll be in Istanbul for a night at both ends of the trip.

So, do you know what times the games tend to be in Turkey? i.e. I'm hoping they have the crazy late kick-offs you tend to get in Spain. And which of the big three is closet to the city centre?

Istanbul is MASSIVE. by city centre i take it you mean around the blue mosque

I am sure its not gala, probably besiktas but a trip to the south of the bosphperus to see turkeys most popular team may be nearer

having said that taxis are abundant and cheap. KO was 8 i think

Cheers Rick. Yeah, I don't know where I'm staying yet, but I'm guessing I'll be on the European side of the city.

Besiktas is closest to the centre, but transport to both Galatasaray and Fenerbahce is good (and I second the recommendation of taking a boat to a match if possible).

Looking at the League website, the early rounds of matches start at 19h00 local time, but I recall the ones later in the year starting later than that. Not as late as Spain, though.

The Besiktas Stadium is in Inonu, right on the Bosphorus, about 10-minute walk from Taksim. I would recommend staying in Sultanahmet. You can get a boat from Eminonu to Kadikoy and then follow the masses to the ground.

There is no point staying on the Asian side as there isn't really that much to see there. There is a cracking railway station though http://www.geocities.com/goztepeparki/ph2/HaydarpasaBCmin.JPG
Haydarpasa - the Asian terminus of Turkish railways, built by ze Germans in 1908, when they were working on the Istanbul-Baghdad railway line.

That is a fabulous railway station (and one that is servd by ferries).

There is (or was) also an excellent spice market at the main ferry terminal on the Asian side, and there are excellent views of the centre from there. Agree with Sash that it doesn't make sense to stay there if you are really trying to get a sense of "Istanbul".

Thanks for that. Multimap makes the Besiktas ground look really easy to find.

Although, ignoring my big-clubs rule, there's a team called Kasimpasa S.K. who are even closer.

Both Besiktas and Galatasaray are about 15 minutes from Taksim.
Besiktas can be reached easily on foot and the view is spectacular from the stadium, probably one of the best situated grounds in the world as it overlooks the Bosphorous.
Galatasaray is in Mecidekoy which is the second stop on the metro/underground from Taksim.

I second the idea of the boat across to Kadikoy from Eminonu, Karakoy or Besiktas for the match.

As for kick off times well television is king and as there are only four teams that attract any real interest from the media, the big three in Istanbul and Trabzonspor, they will never play at the same time.
With European games on as well you will probably find all the games on the weekends at either 7pm or 9pm but I remember some being even later.
Do check the times in the week before as they do change from the current all at 7pm on the same day.

I'll post kick off times when they are released on this board, enjoy the games.

Here are this weekend's matches:

23 August 2008
19:00 Galatasaray v Denizlispor
21:00 Sivasspor v Kayserispor
21:00 Hacettepe v Bursaspor
21:00 Istanbul B.B.v Eskisehirspor
21:45 Gaziantepspor v Fenerbahce

24 August 2008
19:00 Trabzonspor v Ankaraspor
21:00 Konyaspor v Ankaragucu
21:00 Genclerbirligi v Kocaelispor
21:45 Antalyaspor v Besiktas