Turkey had a peculiar 1979-80. No doubt, Turkish football improved during the 1970s and became stronger opponent to the best in Europe, but by the end of the decade it reached the problem of the Italian and the Soviet football – very low scoring and abundance of tied matches. This season was perhaps the worst: only 4 of the 16 first division teams finished with less than 10 ties. Three clubs, the champions among them, managed to end in a tie 50% of their matches – 15. In the same time scoring was pitiful – only 2 clubs scored more than 30 goals during the season. The most scored Rizespor, but even this was very low record: 37 goals in 30 matches. The next high scoring team practically averaged a goal per game: Fenerbahce scored 31 goals total. The champions were happy with 25… May be the teams were relatively equal. May be the dominant concept was play safe and get the point. The most open team were Rizespor and no wonder they had the fewest number of ties – 4, scored the most goals in the league, and won the most matches -14. They also lost 12 – the second worst record in the league.. and the same goes for their defensive record: they allowed 34 goals. Only the last in the league received more then them. Pinching points and keeping back in their own half were evidently the tactics in almost the whole league. Not a pleasant picture.
But the season ended and with the end – the ups and downs, the joys and disasters. Promoted from second level were:
Boluspor
Mersin, and
Kocaelispor (Izmit).
A historic moment for this squad: Kocaelispor were not only the youngest club among the winners of second division, but they never played top flight football. This year was their best in their short history – of course, speaking of the history of the club under this name, because in 1966 three older clubs merged into one. To a point, the birth of Kocaelispor happened because of regulations – originally, Bacspor had the ambition to be strong professional club, but they lacked proper facilities and did not have three teams (youth system, presumably) required by the rules. The merger accomplished that and the new club finally climbed up. The winning squad is anonymous here, but no doubt the boys carved their names for posterity at home.