The Battle of the Bosphorous 101, Galatasaray vs Fenerbahce
By: Musab | April 9th, 2009
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.
Category: History
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Comments
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I am a Besiktas fan. My Guess, Galatasaray will win this match with 2-1.
Posted from
Turkey
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i think this will be a high scoring match since both team’s defense has been very weak recently. galatasaray better come away with the victory
Posted from
United States -
Good article. One thing to remember was that sports clubs were banned in the late days of the Ottoman empire and even after they were allowed GS was the first to be allowed to play with the foreigners!!!!
Posted from
United States -
I LOVE BESIKTAS,BUT MY GUESS GALATASARAY WILL WIN 3:1
Posted from
Serbia And Montenegro -
this is a very biased article… considering fener has played quarter finals last year in champions league! also fener has always been more succesful in turkey, won 3 titles in the last 5 years!?
Posted from
United States -
denis, no you are wrong
Galatasaray has been more successful in and outside of turkey. Galatasaray have won the UEFA Cup, and been to the Quarter Finals of the Champions League. so it’s not biased, if anything you’re being biased.
Posted from
United States -
In the past 23 years Galatasaray has won 11 league titles, Besiktas have won 6 while Fener have won 6. In addition Galatasaray have come in 2nd place 5 times and 3rd place 4 times. I’d consider that pretty succesful on Galatasaray’s part.
Last year was the first time in Fener’s 100 year history that they made it through the group stages of the champions league.
Facts are facts, Galatasaray is the most succesful Turkish side.
Posted from
United States -
I’m not sure what your problem with Besiktas is… I thought you were a little more logical and even-tempered than to say that you want to see people’s hearts get crushed, but judging from Galatasray fans’ actions, I guess crushing the hearts of besiktas’ fans is better than nearly crushing to death your own kind at the stadium… Those morons are lucky they didn’t kill a good portion of fans (of Galatasaray…!) by running out on to that ledge.
The hate that emanates from the Fener and Galatasaray camps is viral. It ruins the image of Turkey, ruins the image of Turkish football and its footballers, and these people ruin the image of the sport in general.
And musab, don’t tell me you’re above that, either. Even if you feign objectivity in the beginning of this piece, by the end you’re clearly stoking the flames with your biased commentary and angry statements.
I’m well aware that this is part and parcel of the game internationally, and I’m also quite aware of the fact that Besiktas fans have had their historic mishaps as well, but it’s now to the point that you can guarantee this kind of ridiculous behavior every time you two play. Yes, love the game, your teams, etc… but it’s absurd that after that kind of tragedy, you people continue on with these angry blogs and posts.
This degeneracy perpetuates itself here through your words. This is a GAME that we all like a lot and stunts like those pulled yesterday should remind us of that, not further distance us.
Posted from
United States -
I’m guessing you wanted to post this on the newest post, but it’s fine with me
Oh no I dont have any problems with Besiktas, I just don’t want them to win a league title that should (if the players and staff had actually tried) have been ours a long time ago. Don’t forget that if Besiktas has a chance of winning the title, it’s all because Galatasaray and Fenerbahce were so terrible this year. If we wanted to win this title, we would have a long time ago.
And can you tell me why would I ever want to see Besiktas become champions? What has Besiktas done to deserve it? If losing the title means that the hearts of the Besiktas fans will be crushed then thats something the Besiktas fans should take up with their own club, not the Galatasaray fans.
In addition there are many Besiktas fans out there that I would love to see devastated by not winning the title. Don’t try to pretend that the Besiktas fans are all little lambs who are now giving the good fight to win the title. We all know what kind of filth comes from the Inonu stadium. We know about the attacks on police. We all remember the abuse thrown towards a 19 year old Arda for 90 minutes of the game. I would love to see those fans heartbroken.
Fact of the matter is that this is the state of Turkish football. The “hate” that you mention is a hate that you should appreciate. In other European leagues people kill each other over their football clubs (Red Star v Partizan, the UltrAs of Italy and the Good Firms of England). So if a few comments on my blog offend you, I’m afraid you are the exception.
That being said, as a non-Cimbomlu you (and others) are always invited to give your analysis of games, your outlooks on the season, and to bash the others.
Posted from
United States -
I appreciate the intensity that people love their clubs, sure, but not the part that manifests itself in violence. I’d like to be able to sit down and watch a game with a rival fan, or wear my team’s soccer shirt without having to fear any kind of irrational ‘retribution.’ Of course Besiktas fans have had their problems, I even said that, I still don’t advocate that. Come on, we can’t give football this exception. If you advocate violence over causes as petty as your club allegiance, then what other petty differences should people be (violently) fighting over? One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to put that piece of logic together…
Posted from
United States
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