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Walking from Kadıköy or Moda towards Fenerbahçe, you’ll pass Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium. It’s the home of the Fenerbahçe football club and contains a museum and gift shop.
History of Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium
Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium (Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadyumu) is located just outside the Fenerbahçe neighborhood, which gives the club its name. It was originally the site of Priest’s Field (Papazın Çayırı) and was the first ever football pitch in Turkey. It hosted all Constantinople Football Association League games.
In 1908, the league needed a bigger stadium, so they built Union Club Field on the site. It was named after Union Club, which made the biggest donation towards construction. The field was the main football pitch in the city until Taksim Field was built at Taksim Square in 1922. It was located on the site of today’s Gezi Park.
Union Club Field was sold to the government and leased to Fenerbahçe, who changed its name to Fenerbahçe Stadium. The club renovated the stadium between 1929 and 1932. By 1949, it had a capacity of 25,000 and was the country’s biggest.
In 1998, the stadium was renamed in honor of Şükrü Saracoğlu (1887-1953), Turkey’s fifth Prime Minister and the chairman of Fenerbahçe from 1934 to 1950. A renovation from 1999 to 2006 gave it its current appearance. Outside the stadium, which has a capacity of over 47,000, is a lighthouse that stands as a monument to the club. Fener means lighthouse in Turkish.
My Experiences at Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium
Fenerbahçe is my favorite Turkish football team. I actually started supporting them long before I ever visited the city because of their history and one player in particular, Lefter Küçükandonyadis (1924-2012).
I’ve been fortunate to attend two games at the stadium. One was to see Fenerbahçe play Konyaspor in 2011 and another to see the Turkish national team in 2012. My schedule never quite worked out to see more games, and reasonably priced tickets were hard to come by for the ones I could attend.
Turkey vs Romania 2014 World Cup Qualifier
Martin and Gönül invited me to join them at the 2014 World Cup Qualifier between Turkey and Romania. It was a little difficult to find each other in the sea of everyone wearing red, but I found them outside the stadium an hour before the game. We had fantastic seats right at midfield. The atmosphere before the game was festive and a bit loud. There was also a good-sized Romanian contingent at one of the corners.
When the national anthems were sung, we were right underneath the giant Turkish flag that was unfurled over the crowd. It was quite an experience!
The national anthem was pretty much the highlight. Once the game started, it was all downhill. Although the crowd remained enthusiastic throughout the first half, it was a boring affair with little action. It was quite frustrating to watch at times, and the crowd echoed their sentiment loudly with whistles and boos.
Turkey had the only real threats for most of the first half when Semih Kaya had a header pushed away early in the game. An Umut Bulut header also went just wide.
The game remained scoreless up until the stroke of half time, when Turkish keeper Volkan Demirel made a crucial mistake by leaving the penalty area and allowing Gheorghe Grozav to score an easy goal.
The Turkish fans were a bit restless during the second half. The rest of the game was more of a battle for possession and lacked any flair from either side. Neither keeper saw much trouble. In the end, Romania came away victorious 1-0.
It was a great experience to attend a World Cup qualifier even though the game was a dud. Gönül was quite disappointed with the result while Martin and I were more disappointed with the quality of play overall.
Fenerbahçe Lefter Küçükandonyadis Facilities
A few blocks south of the stadium are the Fenerbahçe Dereağzı Lefter Küçükandonyadis Facilities (Fenerbahçe Dereağzı Lefter Küçükandonyadis Tesisleri). It’s a 37,000 square meter training facility and has been in service since 1989.
