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. 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"). Their song is "Şampiyon yap bizi / Cehennemde yak bizi" ("Make us the champs / Burn us in hellfire").
History
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.
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. 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, by playing an opening match that was tied 3–3 with Galatasaray.
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. Çukurova İdmanyurdu, as "a rather well-known amateur club from the city of Mersin", 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.