Legendary Ankara football club chair İlhan Cavcav dies at 81

ISTANBUL

The long-standing chair of Turkish football club Gençlerbirliği, İlhan Cavcav, died in the capital Ankara on Jan. 22, Doğan News Agency has reported.

Cavcav had been suffering from hypertension and was being treated due to an apoplexy in Ankara’s Güven Hospital. 

He reportedly hit his head after stumbling over on Jan. 21 and was rushed to hospital, where he was immediately operated on.  

His funeral ceremony will take place on Jan. 24 at his football club Gençlerbirliği’s facility in Ankara, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.

The match due to be played between Gaziantepspor and Gençlerbirliği on Jan. 22 was postponed following Cavcav’s death.

The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) and top Turkish football clubs issued statements of condolences following the loss of Cavcav.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu expressed his condolences to Cavcav’s family and the Gençlerbirliği Football Club via his official Twitter account.

Cavcav was born in Ankara in 1935, and started his footballing career as a defender at the age of 16 for Maskespor. Cavcav quit his professional football career in the early 1950s, after which he went into business. He left his family company in the 1960s and established a flour-producing company in Ankara in 1967, going on to become one of the capital’s biggest industrialists. He served as the chair of Gençlerbirliği from 1978, working with a total of 42 different head coaches in his 39-year tenure.