European Club Association president donates over $2M for relief efforts in quake-hit Türkiye

By Emre Asikci

ISTANBUL (AA) - European Club Association (ECA) and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi has donated over $2 million for relief efforts for the victims of last month’s earthquakes in Türkiye.

Al-Khelaifi pledged to donate a total of 50 million Turkish liras ($2.6 million) -- 20 million Turkish liras from Digiturk, which is the main sports broadcaster in Türkiye, €1 million from PSG and €500,000 from the European Club Association.

He spoke on the "shoulder-to-shoulder" aid campaign, broadcast live on many sports channels, saying they are not in Türkiye at the moment but their hearts are with the Turkish people.

The "shoulder-to-shoulder” fundraising campaign was organized by Türkiye's Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Turkish Football Federation, the Turkish Union of Clubs and beIN Media Group.

In addition to TV channels affiliated with beIN, the program was aired live by Turkish broadcasters A Sports, SportsTV, D Smart Sports, S Sport, Tivibu Sports, TRT Spor, TV8 and Club televisions, TRT Radio, Radio Gol, Radyospor and League Radyo, as well as many digital media channels.

More than 45,000 people have died in the magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes on Feb. 6, which were centered in Kahramanmaras and struck 10 other provinces – Hatay, Gaziantep, Adiyaman, Malatya, Adana, Diyarbakir, Kilis, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa and Elazig.