UPDATE - Turkish football club to donate UEFA Conference League ticket revenue to quake victims

UPDATE WITH MORE DETAILS

By Emre Asikci

ISTANBUL (AA) - Defending Turkish Super Lig champions Trabzonspor will donate their UEFA Europa Conference League ticket earnings to earthquake victims in the country, the club announced on Monday.

In a statement, Trabzonspor said tickets for the first leg of the play-off range cost between 100 and 750 Turkish liras ($5-40).

Thursday's Trabzonspor vs. Basel clash will be held at 1745 GMT at the Senol Gunes Sports Complex.

Cevad Prekazi, a legendary Kosovo-born veteran in Galatasaray, put an autographed jersey up for auction, with the 210,000 liras it sold for to go to victims of the two massive earthquakes in southern Türkiye that left over 31,600 people dead.

Atalanta defender Merih Demiral also auctioned off the autographed shirts and gloves of superstars to the benefit of Turkish aid organization Ahbap.

Demiral, 24, said on Twitter that total donations to the earthquake zone had reached 7.5 million Turkish liras, or almost $400,000.

- Sports world mourns losses

The earthquakes also took the lives of several Turkish and international players who were in the region at the time of the tremors.

TFF First League club Yeni Malatyaspor's goalkeeper Ahmet Eyup Turkaslan and Women's Basketball Super League's Cankaya University player Nilay Aydogan died after the 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude quakes.

In addition, second-tier Kahramanmaras Istiklal Spor footballers Burhanettin Sever, Taner Kahriman, Hakan Dogan, and Saruhan Bolat also died.

Rescuers also found the dead bodies of volleyball players under the rubble.

Married couple Betul Coban Cakir and Bedrettin Cakir, as well as their fellow volleyball players Mehmet Can Agirbas, Murat Cilogullari, Umitcan Dogan, Azat Jumayev, and Sevgi Cihangir, died as a result of the earthquakes.

Rowing athletes Mir Berke Mutlu and Halil Ibrahim Elvermez, tennis trainer Tuba Pidecioglu, and Iranian amputee players Mehdi Seyyidavi, Muhammed Riza Mirahmedi, and Hamid Matrudi also lost their lives in the wake of the devastating earthquakes.

The Türkiye Handball Federation confirmed on Monday that Turkish national team captain Cemal Kutahya and his five-year old son's bodies had also been found under the rubble.

On Twitter, the federation's President Ugur Kilic extended his condolences to Kutahya's family and wrote: "You hugged your son, you walked to heaven."

Turkish Super Lig Atakas Hatayspor's Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu and sporting director Taner Savut's whereabouts are still unknown. Both were in Hatay when the disaster struck.

The earthquakes, centered in Kahramanmaras province, also hit nine other provinces – Hatay, Gaziantep, Adiyaman, Malatya, Adana, Diyarbakir, Kilis, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.