ANKARA
Swiss football club Basel on Wednesday expressed condolences over last week’s devastating earthquakes in Türkiye, ahead of their UEFA Europa Conference League playoff first leg against Trabzonspor.
“At these times, football is not important. All our thoughts remain with the victims and those affected by the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria,” Basel said on Twitter.
In the same tweet, the Swiss club put several black-and-white photos of their players.
Basel will visit Trabzonspor in a Thursday Europa Conference League game at the Senol Gunes Sports Complex in Trabzon, and the match will start at 1745GMT.
The second leg of this tie will be held at Basel’s St. Jakob-Park on Feb. 23.
The winning team will go through to the Round of 16.
At least 35,400 people were killed by two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Türkiye on Feb. 6.
The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 tremors were centered in Kahramanmaras and struck nine other provinces – Hatay, Gaziantep, Adiyaman, Malatya, Adana, Diyarbakir, Kilis, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.
Thursday’s fixtures:
Braga – Fiorentina
Trabzonspor – Basel
Bodo/Glimt – Lech Poznan
Qarabag – Gent
Sheriff – Partizan
Lazio – Cluj
AEK Larnaca – Dnipro-1
Ludogorets – Anderlecht
