With an all-day football tournament, recreational footballers from the Rhine-Main area want to collect donations for earthquake victims in Turkey this Saturday. 20 clubs have registered for the tournament, as organizer Bilal Can from the Frankfurt municipal representation for foreigners said. The Turkish Consul General Erdem Tuncer is also expected as a guest. In addition to money, donations in kind are also collected for people in the earthquake region.
In particular, the auction of autographed shirts by Borussia Dortmund footballer Emre Can and Besiktas player Cenk Tosun should generate income. Both athletes have symbolically taken over the patronage, but will not be present. The two footballers have family roots in the city of Gaziantep, which was badly hit by the earthquake.
The collection point for donations in kind in an industrial hall in the Griesheim district of Frankfurt is said to be closed after the weekend, as the Frankfurt state parliament member Turgut Yüksel (SPD) told the German Press Agency. A few days after the earthquake on February 6, the collection point was opened with the help of the city. Donations in kind could be made there for six weeks. There had also been numerous private initiatives in mosques, youth centres, companies and private individuals. In the Rhine-Main area, which is characterized by migration, there was great sympathy – many people in the region have relatives in the earthquake area.