The 8.8-registered earthquake on February 27 is estimated to have killed more than 800 people.

The sporting calendar has survived in Chile, however, with last weekend's Davis Cup tie with Israel going ahead and a restructured domestic football championship set to resume this weekend.

World football's governing body FIFA were among various bodies to show support, with a monetary gesture, while South American confederation CONMEBOL also sent across USD 100,000.

Mayne-Nicholls, appearing at the Global Sports Forum in Barcelona, told Press Association Sport: "There has been a lot of support, a lot of letters, lots of things like that.

"We saw gestures from West Bromwich, some Italian clubs, Real Madrid, Almeria wore Forza Chile t-shirts and things like that.

"FIFA gave us USD 250,000 to cope with this and CONMEBOL gave us USD 100,000 to help rebuild.

"We have received support from all over the world, a lot of games flew the Chilean flag and people supporting our country.

"We are very grateful and what they have done will never be forgotten."

Asked whether FIFA's contribution was somewhat paltry, he added: "It's not the amount of money, that is not the point. The point is that they really want to help and co-operate.

"You will never recover from what you lost so it's not a matter of money. It's the solidarity they express which is the important thing.

"There was a 26-hour telethon and this, plus other things, collected USD 60million for the rebuilding of the country. But we need more than USD 2billion to rebuild.

"So it doesn't matter what we do, we will never be able to get the money back to recover. That is not the point, the point is people really want to help and we're very grateful for that."