Süper Lig

The Süper Lig (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈsypæɾ liɟ], Super League) is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system. It is one of the top leagues in the UEFA confederation, and the winner of the competition automatically qualifies for the UEFA Champions League group stage. Eighteen clubs compete annually, where a champion is decided and three clubs are promoted and relegated from, and to, the 1. Lig. The season runs from August to May, with each club playing 34 matches. Matches are played Friday through Monday. It is sponsored by Spor Toto and therefore officially known as the Spor Toto Süper Lig.

The competition formed as the Milli Lig in 1958. It was the first national league competition held in Turkey. Previously, league competitions took place in a few cities, including Adana, Ankara, Eskişehir, Istanbul, Izmir, Kayseri, and Trabzon. It is currently ranked 11th in the UEFA coefficients of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the last five years. A total of 67 clubs have competed in the Süper Lig, but just 5 have won the title: Galatasaray (20), Fenerbahçe (19), Beşiktaş (13), Trabzonspor (6) and Bursaspor (1).

2005–06 Süper Lig

The 2005–06 Süper Lig season began with Turkcell signing a 5-year sponsorship deal with the Turkish Football Federation to name the league Turkcell Süper Lig.

Since Turkey dropped from tenth to eleventh place in the UEFA association coefficient rankings at the end of the 2004–05 season, the champions will not directly be entered into the group stage of the UEFA Champions League any more, but rather have to begin in the third qualification round.

The season also saw a first in Turkish football; for the first time in history the team that entered the last week first, Fenerbahçe, failed to win the title. Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray went into the last week deadlocked at 80 points and Fenerbahçe had a better head-to-head record. Fenerbahçe needed only a win to defend their title and win their third successive championship. However, a 1-1 draw to Denizlispor combined with a 3-0 Galatasaray win against Kayserispor gave Galatasaray their 16th league title. The same day, Gaziantepspor defeated Malatyaspor 1-0 and remained in the Süper Lig. Ankaraspor, with an 1-0 win away to Erciyesspor, managed to remain, but Malatyaspor, Samsunspor and Diyarbakirspor were relegated to TFF First League.

2006–07 Süper Lig

The 2006–07 Süper Lig was the 49th edition of the top-flight professional football league in Turkey. The season kicked-off on 4 August 2006 in a match between Ankaraspor and Galatasaray, resulting in a 1-1 draw. Fenerbahçe became champions after drawing Trabzonspor 2-2, while Beşiktaş lost 3-0 to Bursaspor and Galatasaray draw 1-1 with Sivasspor. Kayseri Erciyesspor gained qualification to the UEFA Cup due to Beşiktaş's qualification to the Champions League Second Qualifying Round.

Since Turkey dropped from eleventh to fifteenth place in the UEFA association coefficient rankings at the end of the 2005–06 season, the cup winner (or the 3rd-placed team if the domestic cup winner already qualified for UEFA Champions League) will not directly be entered into the 1st round of the UEFA Cup, but rather have to begin in the second qualification round.

League table

Updated to games played on September 25, 2008.
Source:
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
¹Winner of 2006-07 Turkish Cup, Beşiktaş, qualified for the Champions League, so the loser finalists Erciyesspor qualified for the 2007-08 UEFA Cup 2nd qualifying round.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

1997 Super League season

1997 Super League season or 1997 Super League premiership may refer to the following rugby league football competitions:

Super League IX

Tetley's Super League IX was the name of the 2004 Super League championship season due to sponsorship by Tetley's Bitter. This was the 110th season of top-level professional rugby league held in Britain, and the ninth championship decided by Super League. The season culminated in the grand final between Leeds Rhinos and Bradford Bulls, which Leeds won, claiming the 2004 title.

Season summary

During this season Leeds claimed a couple of records, they became the 1st and so far only team to accumulate 50 points from the regular rounds and finished a record 9 points clear of 2nd placed Bradford Bulls, they also became only the 2nd team in the Super League era to finish at home with a 100% record in the regular weekly rounds. Lesley Vainikolo scored more tries than anybody else that season with 37, beating Danny McGuire who finished on 36.

Table

Source: Rugby League Project.
Classification: 1st on competition points; 2nd on match points difference.
Competition points: for win = 2; for draw = 1; for loss = 0.

Super League III

JJB Sports Super League III was the official name for the year 1998's Super League championship season, the 104th season of top-level professional rugby league football in Britain, and the third championship run by Super League. The League format changed in 1998 and the championship became a play off series to determine the Super League champions, similar to the way the Premiership was played a few seasons earlier. This meant the first Final to determine the British champions since the 1972–73 season. Huddersfield Giants, the league's bottom club was saved from relegation in 1998 due to the expansion of the league to fourteen teams in Super League IV. The season culminated in the grand final between Leeds Rhinos and Wigan Warriors, which Wigan won, claiming the 1998 Championship.

Super League III Table

Regular Season Final Standings

Play-offs

The top five clubs at the end of the 23-round regular season entered the play-offs to decide the championship.

The format was to have an elimination play off between the fourth and fifth teams (the fourth team gaining home advantage) and then have a qualifying play-off between the second and third placed teams (the second placed team gaining home advantage). The winner of the qualifier would play the team finishing first in the first semi final whilst the losing team got a second chance and played against the winner of the eliminating play off between fourth and fifth. The winner of the qualifying semi final would progress to the final of the Super League championship and the losing side would get another chance and play against the winning side of the elimination semi final.