PART 1: How it all began

During the year 1895, a few of the English residents living in the Moda district of Istanbul began to play modern football on a regular basis, and in doing so introduced the game to local citizens.  The players taking part could not have predicted that their sportive activity would become the first steps of forming Fenerbahçe Spor Kulübü.

Marine student Fuat Hüsnü Kayacan was one of several young Turkish men who became intrigued with the sport and would often be a spectator at the English football matches.  One afternoon in 1899 Fuat and his friends Resat Denyal and Mehmet Ali were kicking a ball around in a field (which was to become the grounds that Sükrü Saracoglu Stadium is built on) and raised the infamous question of, “What if we formed our own football club?”  

This dream was fulfilled when they played an integral part in forming the first ever Turkish football club, Black Stocking FC.  However, the excitement was short lived and the club folded soon after following social and political pressures of the Ottoman regime.  

In 1902 the same three aforementioned names continued with their ambition and formed another football club, Kadiköy Futbol Kulübü. However, they were forced to close down once again for similar reasons. 

By the spring of 1907 the strict regime began to show signs of lenience and this encouraged another trio of Nurizade Ziya Songülen, Ayetullah Bey and Necip Okaner to revisit the possibility of forming a football club in Kadikoy. It is here, over cups of tea in the basement of 3 Besbiyik Sokak, that FENERBAHÇE FUTBOL KULÜBÜ was formed. The 3 founding members also made up the first board of directors with Ziya becoming the first club president, Ayetullah club secretary and Necip the club treasurer.