Galatasaray vice chairman contracts COVID-19

By Emre Asikci

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish Super Lig club Galatasaray confirmed on Monday that its vice-chairman Abdurrahim Albayrak tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

The club said Albayrak and his wife Sukran Albayrak both tested positive for the virus, adding that they were both in good health on the sixth day of a treatment process.

Albayrak has served as a board member for Galatasaray as a fervent fan of the club. He served as an executive member of Galatasaray youth football from 1992 to 1994.

Now 65 years old, Albayrak was an executive member for the football branch in different periods between 2001 and 2013. In 2014, he became the vice-chairman and football branch executive, but he resigned from the position in 2015.

Albayrak became as Galatasaray's vice-chairman in an annual general assembly held in 2018.

Meanwhile, its rivals Fenerbahce said on the club's official social media account that it hopes they would quickly recover.

Turkey has 1,236 confirmed cases of the virus with 30 deaths so far.

The virus, which emerged in Wuhan, China last December, has spread to at least 167 countries and regions around the globe, while the tally of confirmed cases exceeds 349,000, the death toll is over 15,000 and more than 100,000 have recovered, according to data compiled by U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.