It’s that time of the year again, where we sit down in our yellow-red shirts and allow 90 minutes of our lives to pass away in what feels like 5 minutes. When the fixture for the new season is drawn, everyone first looks for this game. The Galatasaray-Fenerbahce derby is without a doubt one of the greatest derbies in world football. This Sunday will see the latest edition of it, and the stakes couldn’t be higher (see 2008 edition). So what is the match all about? What makes it so intense? Let’s take a look.

Well for one, the team have completely polar begnnings. Galatasaray was formed by the students of the Galatasaray Lycée, one of, if not the, most prestigious institutes of education in Turkey. Most of the students came from wealthy families and were given the best education in the world with classes being held in French. Football came to these students because of their link with the west. Fener on the other hand was formed in the not-exactly-affluent district of Kadikoy by not-exactly-wealthy footballers who formed their own football club. In addition, while Galatasaray was formed on the European side of Istanbul (Beyoglu), Fener comes from the Asian side (Kadikoy).

In footballing terms, Galatasaray has always been known as the “European Team”, being the only Turkish team to win a European cup along with the fact that Galatasaray has been far more succesful in Europe than Fenerbahce. That being said, both sides have won 17 Turkish titles. In addition Galatasaray has continuosly sent its players to the national team with 9 being selected for the Euro 2008 tournament and 12 out of 23 players of the 2002 World Cup squad being CimBomlu’s.

However when it comes to matches between the two, Fener definitly have an upper hand. For 10 years now, Galatasaray has lost every single trip to the Sukru Saracoglu. However almost every “vital” derby between the two sides have been won by Galatasaray, recent examples include the 1-0 title decider, the 2-1 win in the Turkish Cup Quarterfinals, and going back to 04/05 Turkish Cup Final.

Today, there isn’t a key difference between both groups of supporters. Both teams are not limited to Istanbul as there are CimBomlu’s and Fenerli’s across Turkey and the world for that matter. Both sides have fans from all kinds of backgrounds. It’s common to find a Fenerli Husband and a CimBomlu Wife (with a Besiktasli son). In addition while both sides have a very devout following, conflict between the two is rare, and serious coordinated violence doesn’t exist, oppossed to the firms and Ultras of England and Italy.

To ignite the flames (as if that’s needed) here are some clips from past derbies:

Is that Ribery? I want the heads of those that let him go. Classic game altogether including 2 1/2 goals by Kral Hakan Sukur.

After we got our revenge in the second half of the season, Fener suffered 6 defeats and 6 draws in the remaining 13 matces and finished their season in 6th place. 666, the number of Fener’s season.

And let’s not forget where were playing.

Today is Hagi’s Birthday, he is 44 now. When he retired at the age of 37 he stated that “I didn’t retire because I was tired from playing football. I retired because I was tired of training for football.” Tells a lot about his work ethic. So let’s all sit back and enjoy this nice little Hagi tribute.

“The Truths are written in history, and history is written by Galatasaray!”

For those of you who aren’t familiar, Galatasaray is (according to UEFA) Turkey’s most succesful club with an impressive 16 Turkish league championships, 14 Turkish cup triumphs, an UEFA cup win in 2000, and a UEFA super cup win in 2000.

In recent years Galatasaray has witnessed something of a slump. The old champion squad began to disperse and, coupled with extremely poor club management and terrible transfers, Galatasaray was unable to regain its former pride. The club was in massive debt, the fans were furious, and the long awaited construction of a new stadium was canceled.

However despite this Galatasaray have been able to muster up its strength and formed a brand new squad for the 2007-2008 season which has so far been successful.