Mersin İdman Yurdu was a Turkish sports club from Mersin, Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean Region. The team played in the Turkish first division for 15 seasons, and after the 1983–84 season the football team played in the Turkish second and third divisions. The team was promoted to the Turkish second level division after the 2008–09 season. MİY became the champions of the Turkish second division during the 2010–11 season and earned promotion to the Turkish Süper Lig during the 2011–12 season. Tevfik Sırrı Gür Stadium was the previous ground of the team with a capacity of 10,125.[1] In 2013, their new 25,534 person capacity stadium, Mersin Arena, was inaugurated on 23 March 2013 with a TFF First League match against Gaziantep Büyükşehir Belediyespor. Their main rivals were Adana Demirspor, Adanaspor and Tarsus İdman Yurdu, and were friendly with Bucaspor.
Name
The name "Mersin İdman Yurdu" was originated as Turkish equivalent of "Mersin Sports Club". In the beginning of the Republic, many of the sports clubs carried the names as such. Later, most of those clubs, either by merging or renaming, changed their names. The "İdman Yurdu" name remained for some clubs throughout the country. Later it lost its meaning. Therefore, "İdman Yurdu" has become a particular name for the club. Then, the club adopted the name "Mersin İdmanyurdu Sports Club". In its original form, the club's name is written separately. However, because of the norm that noun phrases which have lost their meaning are written contiguously, the team's name has become "Mersin İdmanyurdu". Today, both depictions are common in Turkish for MİY: Some write it separately (In Turkish, abbreviations are possible, even if the words had been conjunct). Club website has shown divergent interests.
Their nickname is Şeytanlar (meaning "Devils") or Kırmızı Şeytanlar ("Red Devils").[2]
Their song is "Şampiyon yap bizi / Cehennemde yak bizi" ("Make us the champs / Burn us in hellfire").[2]
History
Club logo in the 1960sClub logo in the 1970sMersin İdman Yurdu park, a part of Mersin coastal park reserved for Mersin İdman Yurdu, with view to Muğdat MosqueTevfik Sırrı Gür Stadium
Mersin İdman Yurdu is one of the oldest clubs of the Mediterranean region. The club was founded on 16 August 1925 as Mersin Gençlerbirliği (English: Mersin Youth Union) during a meeting between Edip Buran and his friends İbrahim Yekta, Fevzi Serdengeçti, Asım Güler, Muhip Batıbeki, Necati Salim, Lütfi Resimci, Sami İstanbullu, Hayri Güntekin, Hakkı Cemal Üçer, Hasan Tahsin, and Mustafa Lütfi. Their aim was to provide Mersin's youth with activities to fill their spare time with sports during long, hot summer days in Mersin. Later, the club obtained a license with the participation of other founders, namely İbrahim Bigam, İhsan Dağıstan, Hamit Abey, Rauf Süleymaniyeli, Semih Can, Ömer, Cevdet Türkmenli, Kazım Kırzade, and Muharrem Yeğin.[3]
The first colors of the team were red and white. The club changed its name to Mersin İdman Yurdu in 1926, and their colors were changed to red and dark blue.[4] The logo was established as three connected circles, the center circle in red and the left and right circles in dark blue.
Mersin İdman Yurdu had won the regional title every year since its foundation until 1964, except during the 1949–50 season when Mersin Demirspor captured the title. In 1944, the team reached the third place in the Turkish Football Championship. In 1952, the club inaugurated their new stadium, Tevfik Sırrı Gür Stadyumu,[5] by playing an opening match that was tied 3–3 with Galatasaray.[6]
In 1957, the club became sponsored by the Çukurova Group and adopted the name Çukurova İdmanyurdu. The team again finished third in the Turkish Amateur Championship.[6] Çukurova İdmanyurdu, as "a rather well-known amateur club from the city of Mersin",[7] turned professional and was promoted to Turkey's first second level league founded in 1963. Çukurova İdmanyurdu again became the amateur champions of Turkey in 1963. When they became a part of the Turkish second division they were one of only three clubs that came from outside of the major cities of Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir, the other clubs being Adana Demirspor and Bursaspor.
In June 1966, the club changed its name to Mersin İdman Yurdu after three seasons and became champions of the Turkish second division in the 1966–67 season. At the end of that season they won the Prime Minister's Cup by defeating the Amateur League champions. Beginning in the 1967–68 season they played in the Turkish top level division (Süper Lig) for 7 consecutive years and 11 years in total. The same season on 6 April 1968, Pakistani internationals Maula Bakhsh and Abdul Jabbar became the team's first foreign transfers.[8][9]
After the 1982–83 season, MİY was relegated from the Süper Lig. They played in the second division until the formation of a one-group second level division in 2001–02. Because of their place in the 2000–01 season they were automatically relegated to third level formed under the name of "Second League, Category B". They spent one season there and were promoted to the second division (Second League, Category A). After the 2005–06 season, they were relegated to the third division again.
In 2008, Ali Kahramanlı was elected president of the club. They finished the 2008–09 season in the TFF Second League playoffs in second place and advanced to the second division, now with the name TFF First League, also known as Bank Asya 1. Lig. After spending two seasons in the TFF First League, MİY became the champions of 2010–11 Bank Asya 1. Lig and were promoted to 2011–12 Süper Lig after being absent from the Süper Lig for 28 years. Their championship was widely attributed to coach Nurullah Sağlam, who took over the team after the 9th week during that season. They finished Süper Lig as 12th in the 2011–12 season but relegated again to First League after finishing 18th or last in the 2012–13 season. MİY finished the First League as 6th and qualified for the promotion play-offs in the 2013–14 season. They beat Orduspor 3–0 on aggregate and 2–0 Samsunspor and returned to top level at the first attempt. MİY finished the 2014-15 season as seventh. However, next season was a disaster for MİY due to financial problems. Eventually MİY relegated to second level after a 2-0 defeat to Çaykur Rizespor on 29 April 2016.
After the city of Mersin hosted the 2013 Mediterranean Games, there was an urgent need to build a modern stadium in the city. After the games were over, the club started to use the stadium for their league games. The stadium has a capacity of 25,534 people and it is one of the most modern stadiums in Turkey.[10]
Third place (1): 1969 (Represented Turkey in a friendly tournament, and played four matches against Pakistan, Spartak Moscow, Iran, and Iraq in a one-leg league system; finished third with 2 wins and 2 losses. See MİY 1968–69 for details)
Note: Classification group statistics are accumulated on normal season. Note (*): The team played as "Çukurova İdmanyurdu". League and group colors: Green: Promoted; Light green: Qualified; Pink: Relegated.
Play-off games
2013–14 – Turkish First League championship game: Mersin İdman Yurdu 2–0 Samsunspor
1998–99 – Turkish Second League play-offs quarter-finals: Çaykur Rizespor 2–0 Mersin İdman Yurdu
1996–97 – Turkish Second League play-offs quarter-finals: Kartalspor 2–0 Mersin İdman Yurdu
1979–80 – Turkish Second League championship game: Kocaelispor 2–2 (pen: 4–2) Mersin İdman Yurdu
1975–76 – Turkish Second League championship game: Samsunspor 3–1 Mersin İdman Yurdu
1966–67 – Turkish Second League championship game: Mersin İdman Yurdu 2–0 Bursaspor
^Name of presidents and their terms of presidency are determined through a comparative review of page on the previous presidents of the club at the club's official websiteArchived 2011-12-02 at the Wayback Machine; Erbil, Cihat (1975). Story of the 50 Years(in Turkish). Retrieved on 29 July 2011 from 50 Yılın Öyküsü; and an advanced search performed in Milliyet online archive for various Mersin İdmanyurdu seasons.Other details obtained from web search.
