He had been involved in the plane crash which Leeds players and coaches escaped from on the way home from a Premier League game at West Ham United in 1998. [30] In total, nineteen people were injured and sixty people were arrested,[27] with 15 of the arrested being subsequently banned from attending Euro 2000. "Kevin had two young children. [3] Leeds fans had been drinking in bars reportedly taunting local people and Turkish police intervened to stop fights breaking out. George is different. I went off the rails, he says. You dont take much notice of whats said because youre out there for a beer and a laugh. As kick-off drew near, the drums and the noise from the stadium filtered down to the Ali Sami Yens subterranean dressing rooms. In Turkey, two supporters were murdered. When the second leg came round, in the dressing room we were trying to say, Come on, lets get stuck into them. But in the back of your mind youre putting football aside. The brother of one of two Leeds United fans killed in Turkey 20 years ago says his death is "still fresh in my memory". As a family, I dont know how you come to terms with that., Inside the Ali Sami Yen, hundreds of Leeds supporters attended the first leg as planned and were housed in a small section of yellow seats. [38], In 2013, Arsenal invited Galatasaray to compete at their annual Emirates Cup tournament. Youre a kid. [15] In the fight, Paul Dineen, an Arsenal fan, was stabbed, leading to Arsenal offering fans refunds if they did not want to fly to the game. [8], The stabbings caused anger throughout the United Kingdom, and subsequently members of Arsenal's hooligan firms The Herd and The Gooners,[9] wanted to avenge the deaths of the Leeds fans, and telephoned other British hooligan firms, inviting them to join them in Copenhagen to attack Galatasaray fans. They felt we were overreacting. In all the many layers of anger, that was one of them; the apparent inability to adopt some common decency. I spent the whole night thinking, What are we doing here? And when the Leeds fans turned their backs to the pitch, total respect to them because the football meant nothing. But if you back out, youll forfeit the game and incur a 3-0 defeat. The bodies were repatriated a few days later, beginning the process of mourning and funerals. The Turkish side are hated by those at Elland Road after two travelling fans were stabbed to death by Galatasaray supporters prior to the UEFA Cup semi-final in 2000. Andys last memory of Chris is of him rolling his eyes sarcastically and ribbing him for leaving early, in brotherly style. Phil grew up near Edinburgh in Scotland and is a staff writer for The Athletic, covering Leeds United. But he was not and the atmosphere was initially warmer than normal. Chris Loftus and Kevin Speight were stabbed in Istanbul on the eve of Leeds' Uefa Cup semi-final tie against Galatasaray in April 2000. She knows who he was but its not the same.. He previously worked for the Yorkshire Evening Post as its chief football writer. It sounds daft but I dont think I knew how to react. We had to say to them as clearly as we could, If you go into the streets, if you go out drinking, we cant tell you how dangerous itll be. That deal took Kewell back to a stadium where he and Leeds once needed protection with riot shields. But it was common sense. I genuinely feared for our lives. Everything happened in a flash. It triggered something and I ran into the ward. It was how away days in Europe played out. At the hospital, Ridsdale encountered absolute chaos. There was the time when he was caught stealing two pounds from the pub till and sent by Speight to sit in the office until Susan came home to read the riot act. Leeds had taken over an entire corridor at the five-star Kempinski and the squad were in their rooms, ready to sleep ahead of the game the next night. The blood had to be sourced externally and to do that, someone had to pay. He rushed to Taksim hospital, near where the men were stabbed. ', And: 'Alioski can f*** off, he obviously knows the history between the two clubs.'. I didnt want to be standing there telling them what to do and I understood that they didnt want to hear it. Leeds Crown Court sentenced him to 12 months. zhuri james net worth 2021 / low carb ground beef and spinach recipes / low carb ground beef and spinach recipes On the 20th anniversary of their deaths, he said: "I suffered quite badly after it happened. He sees it now as a necessary shock to the system. Those April nights were as close as Leeds will get to it. It was totally deliberate. Others suggested a group of Leeds supporters had attacked a lone Turk, possibly a taxi driver, who had then returned with a mob wielding knives and machetes. At a local police station, at around 4am on April 6, Ridsdale was given a stark message by the UEFA representative who turned up there: play the game, or forfeit it and incur an automatic 3-0 defeat. "They came into town to see. Im not sure Ive even processed it now. After a while, Andys eldest brother Phil complained of feeling ill and the two of them decided to go back to their hotel. On each trip he would set up a desk in the corridor where the team were staying, a point of contact in case of any problems. The Turkish media blamed the Leeds fans. The second leg was totally different. It is regarded as a significant act of betrayal by many fans for a Leeds player to join Galatasaray. Within a year, however, Demir, following an appeal, was a free man after his conviction was quashed and a re-trial ordered. It's a fantastic city and I'm willing to learn. I dont think a single one of the lads wanted to play that night.. No question.. For players and supporters alike, this has become one of the most fraught and difficult venues in Europe. "There's a lot of anger. The city centre was tense but, thanks to a massive police presence, mainly empty. Try a week on us. According to a waiter at a nearby restaurant, the Turkish club's fanatical fans had heard through the grapevine that trouble was brewing. The brother of one of two Leeds United fans killed in Turkey 20 years ago says his death is "still fresh in my memory". [32] The rest were fined an equivalent of $500 and banned from Denmark for a year.[33]. [2] They all say no. Around them, riot police are standing with shields in the air, protecting the players from what Fallows says was all sorts of things smashing off them. After a long legal process in Turkey, four men were jailed in 2010. According to one witness, a Turkish man was pushed to the ground and smashed his teeth on the pavement. He has never spoken about his memories of Turkey before but, like Andy Loftus, says he wants to reflect 20 years on. Galatasaray 2 - 1 Fraport TAV Antalyaspor MORE. The complication here is that football has no right to dictate how people manage a grievance that goes so far beyond standard rivalry. [27], At Parken Stadium, where the final was to be played, the police erected iron fencing outside to separate the Arsenal and Galatasaray fans as a precaution. 2000 fights between English and Turkish football fans. A streetwise Mancunian, he has looked after Oasis, Noel Gallagher and Take That and on the morning when we speak hes at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, organising staff for a gig by The Script. Follow Phil on Twitter @PhilHay_, George and Holly Speight with Peter Ridsdale after their fathers death. The events of the day started early in the morning when skirmishes broke out in a bar, which led to an Arsenal fan being stabbed. Harry Kewell is in front of him, carrying a ball and looking bewildered. Football riots in City Hall Square, Copenhagen, Denmark (May 2000). A Galatasaray player who endorsed a set of knives as Leeds United paid tribute to fans fatally stabbed before a game against his club has apologised. When the press came round, me and my cousin would bounce on my bed to try and get in the photos and in the papers. Andy has paid for the plaque to be cleaned a couple of times and it could do with another polish now. Speight and Loftus were not close friends but knew each other in passing, as travelling football fans do. [25] The British fans were later released without charge but were forbidden from returning to Denmark. On April 5 2000 two Leeds fans, Kevin Speight and Christopher Loftus, were stabbed to death before the 2000 Uefa Cup semi-final first leg against Galatasaray in Taksim Square, Istanbul. By then, you knew exactly what had gone on and you knew the severity of it. Their policing of City Hall Square in the days running up to the final was described as "non-existent" by Dineen. The Galatasaray fans were later attacked from behind by members of British hooligan firms seeking revenge for the Istanbul stabbings. [23] The violence, which included fans from other English clubs[24] and Turks living in Denmark,[25] lasted for 45 minutes. Without his help, my mum would have been a bit lost, George says. It felt to me like the police were trying to frighten us, he says. By
The brothers went to the British Embassy but, in Andys words, found them to be worse than useless. Phil grew up near Edinburgh in Scotland and is a staff writer for The Athletic, covering Leeds United. At conservative gathering, Trump is still the favourite. Association with the tragedy can be difficult. He started shouting for Christopher to wake up. Chelsea 1-0 Leeds LIVE: Blues finally find the breakthrough as Wesley Fofana heads home the opener in the second half in a game Graham Potter really needs to win as Brighton and Aston Villa . The way the police and the authorities were with us. The Turkish police didnt give a shit about us. sauce pizza and wine mac and cheese. All he recalls about the incident was being woken up by Susan the following morning and told, as softly as it could be broken, that Speight had died. My mum just felt she had to move on. The driver said hed turn it off but I wanted to listen to it. Galatasaray fans entered the area shortly afterwards which precipitated a fight between the two sets of supporters. Shes struggled with it more than I have because shes got nothing there. Peter Ridsdale, the Leeds chairman, had been dining with directors from Galatasaray when reports of trouble came through. galatasaray leeds death. The Turkish side are hated by those at Elland Road after two travelling fans were stabbed to. Fallows is a security guard with ample experience. At the hotel, Phil went up to his room. He said getting involved in charity work and fundraisers, including running half-marathons in memory of his brother, had helped him to deal with his sibling's death. Because I was so young and the memories arent clear, I get times when I ask myself if it really happened. Holly, as a two-year-old, was left with no memories at all. The police did nothing, in fact they were helping them beat us up." I say that as someone who was back at his hotel when the stabbings occurred, he would be one of the last people to blame. Galatasaray accused him of trying to gain an unfair sporting advantage.