Taksim Stadium

Due to the particular interest in football, the Artillery Corps Barracks began to be utilized as a stadium with the initiative of Turkey's first sports announcer, Çelebizade Said Tevfik Bey (Sait Çelebi) in 1921. It was the first stadium in İstanbul. The matches between Turkish teams and English and French occupation units brought the house down; Fenerbahçe defeated the English team 2-1 to win the General Harrington Cup, creating an ecstatic air as if the captive İstanbulites had won a national victory. The first match of the National Team was played here against Romania on 26 October, 1923. It remained intact with the financial support of the Galatasaray and Güneş sports clubs, serving a sort of field of these clubs until it was demolished in 1940. Besides football, the stadium also hosted 19 May celebrations, as well as several sports branches like wrestling, track & field, boxing and field hockey.