There was nothing you could say to him. He had been up all night receiving news of the stabbings, inflicted during violence which broke out on the eve of a UEFA Cup tie between Leeds and Galatasaray. Andy is one of six siblings, two sisters and four brothers, and all of the boys Phil, Chris, Darren and Andy made the trip to Turkey. By last night's kick-off, the pools of blood, shattered glass and debris had been cleared away. He was taken to identify the other, Chris Loftus, in the morgue after doctors mistook him for a family member. [45] It later arose that the majority of the people in the photos were either not involved or had been acting in self-defence. The pair were met by angry, upset and bewildered groups. Menu The images are so vivid in Peter Ridsdales mind that he can describe every aspect of the hospital where Speight and Loftus were taken after they were attacked. The Turkish. The 2000 UEFA Cup semi-final violence in Istanbul, Turkey, between fans of English football team Leeds United and Turkish team Galatasaray before the first match of the UEFA Cup semi-final on 5 April 2000, led to two Leeds fans being stabbed to death by Galatasaray fans. Confusion reigned. Galatasaray accused him of trying to gain an unfair sporting advantage. That decision drew much criticism, as well it might. [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. Then you turn around and Kevin and Chris are lying there., In the hospitals waiting area, Andy overheard a voice saying that one of the fatalities was one of the four brothers. [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. Anger: Leeds fans are angry that Galatasaray's Wesley Sneijder has announced a new knife range on the 15th anniversary of the stabbing of two fans in Istanbul, Violence: An injured fan is taken away after riots between Leeds and Galatasaray fans before match in Turkey, Horror: A fan is escorted away from the violence by a police officer after riots between Leeds and Galatasaray fans. Convictions were quashed, appeals were repetitive and it is far from clear how much of their respective sentences were served. 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. Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. George has no recollection of his dad leaving for Istanbul or of him saying goodbye. This caused a severe riot in the city square, with several restaurant facilities used by fans to fight each other, with iron bars and knives also being used. [44], In the United Kingdom, the Daily Mirror newspaper printed pictures of Arsenal fans alleged to have been part of the violence. Kevin Fallows was the clubs head of security and travelled with the players to all their fixtures in Europe. The plaque on the wall by Elland Roads East Stand says Never Forgotten and Leeds United swore themselves to those words. Leeds fans have reacted furiously to reports that Ezgjan Alioski has agreed to move to Galatasaray. Six people were arrested and three Metropolitan Police officers were injured. The fan responded: "If you did not know then fair enough but your club certainly did and they should be ashamed of themselves. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. A lot of what went on I dont want to know. Every year, the families of Kevin Speight and Chris Loftus place wreathes at the plaque and go together for a drink, to catch up and reflect. Turkish eye-witnesses accused Leeds fans of insulting women, defacing the Turkish flag, urinating in the street and tipping over a car. Those April nights were as close as Leeds will get to it. The stadium is stuck in a state of eerie silence but this Sunday it will do what it always does on April 5 by standing in salute to the two who were lost. 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There were a few Turkish fans outside the bars we started drinking in but we didnt think much of it. Former Leeds United Chairman Peter Ridsdale said: "The lasting impact has been to see the devastating effect it's had on Christopher and Kevin's families. No question.. The second leg was totally different. Istanbul was life and death and more than focusing on Alioski himself, the attention on him generated by the very prospect of a move to Turkey itself should make us ask why it was ever allowed to come to this; a horrific episode which offered no chance of peace or proper closure. Even now I get the feeling that people think we started it, Andy says. [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. "We came out of a bar and there were 100 people waiting for us with machetes, knives, bits of chair and table legs and they just attacked us. You ask them one by one if 20 years have helped them process what happened. By the time the match kicked off, the ramifications of two fatal stabbings the previous. At the hospital, Ridsdale encountered absolute chaos. Spencer stepped in and paid with his personal credit card. [42] Arsenal fans also criticised the police, claiming that they had been slow to intervene and were "too soft" on the hooligans. Its funny what sticks in your head, he says. Scuffles broke out but the police moved in and fans scattered. I think those who arrived later knew what to expect.". Its a strange thing but its important to me. Arsenal qualified for the final by defeating French club Lens in their semi-final. Kewell was quoted after joining Galatasaray as saying that to blame Galatasaray for the tragedy in Istanbul is simply wrong and discriminatory. Speight arrived soon after and was seen chatting to midfielder Alan Smith as they walked through the breezy foyer at Ataturk Airport. The morning after Loftus and Speight were killed, Fallows and Stokoe were asked by Ridsdale to visit every hotel where the clubs supporters were staying. [41] It was noted by Turkish newspaper, Radikal that cannabis was being freely traded in the city square during the time before the riots, and the police did nothing about it. Jesus. I thought about Graeme Souness running and planting a Galatasaray flag in the middle of the pitch at Fenerbahce. "This was a premeditated attack," said Steve Wilkinson, who suffered knife wounds to one leg and a wound to his hand. I am happy and I hope everyone else can be too. I tried telling Galatasarays staff to get them out. "Kevin had two young children. Has to be the biggest DO NOT for any Leeds player!! Try a week on us. But it was common sense. I stood there with Eddie Gray, Fallows says. Leeds and Galatasaray fans clashed in violent scenes 21 years agoat 21:00 in Istanbul's Taksim Square. For players and supporters alike, this has become one of the most fraught and difficult venues in Europe. And worse things too. It is regarded as a significant act of betrayal by many fans for a Leeds player to join Galatasaray. 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. More importantly, we needed to find out what state the two lads were in and whether we could help them.. Shes struggled with it more than I have because shes got nothing there. The families of the victims will tell you that. [13], On the Wednesday at 1:00, Galatasaray fans attacked a bar in Strget in Copenhagen, where some Arsenal fans were located. 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. Thats just how the system worked. Everything happened in a flash. Gala is an awful football club and Alioski is an awful footballer. "We did amazing business in one hour. Try a week on us. galatasaray leeds death. I genuinely feared for our lives. I just said to them, Good luck., Galatasarays reputation went before them. To this day, it is used as a tribute every time the anniversary comes round. Galatasaray fans entered the area shortly afterwards which precipitated a fight between the two sets of supporters. The Football Associations David Davies said playing the game was the least worst option. And thats without even mentioning what had gone on the night before with the two lads who were killed. The blood had to be sourced externally and to do that, someone had to pay. How can it be that two lads go to watch a football game and dont come back?. How the violence started is unclear. Everything was muddled. [4] Police arrested Ali Umit Demir and three other men for the stabbings. They ordered us to pump up the volume, so we did," said Mr Dedeler, 24. [18] Arsenal fans congregated in nearby bars. He has never spoken about his memories of Turkey before but, like Andy Loftus, says he wants to reflect 20 years on. As chairman of Leeds, he told the UEFA official that it would make sense to postpone the first leg of the semi-final which Leeds and Galatasaray were about to play. If the thought of a transfer like that sits uncomfortably then perhaps it should. After a long legal process in Turkey, four men were jailed in 2010. The story goes that he and his wife Susan got together after he offered her a lift on the back of one. 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. After a while, Andys eldest brother Phil complained of feeling ill and the two of them decided to go back to their hotel. But where Galatasaray failed, and where Ridsdale specifically felt resentment, was in grasping the scale of the tragedy and in refusing to accept that violence on the streets and a UEFA Cup tie could not be classed as unrelated events once the worst had happened. Follow Phil on Twitter @PhilHay_, George and Holly Speight with Peter Ridsdale after their fathers death. Turkish police, according to British of ficials, appeared to be taking the killings as seriously as they would hope. Harry Kewell (born 22 September 1978) is an Australian association football coach, manager and former player. 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. "It's just a bit of a rollercoaster ride really but we get by," he said. When we got to the bottom of the stairs they pulled out a drawer, a bit like a filing cabinet, and Christophers body was there. We werent talking about Leeds General Infirmary. Speights treatment failed to save him. Something went wrong, please try again later. David Davies, the Football Association's executive director, called it "frankly, the least worst option". The Football Associations David Davies said playing the game was the least worst option. 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. Wed spoken about doing something beforehand, he says. [10] It was reported that members of Leeds United's Leeds United Service Crew[11] and Chelsea's Chelsea Headhunters, along with hooligans supporting Rangers, Cardiff City and Swansea City all travelled to Denmark to join Arsenal fans in attacks on Galatasaray fans. [37], In the United Kingdom, Arsenal fans were originally blamed for the violence as the police had fixed blame on them. I think you just go into a downward spiral. The potential for trouble was as high as anything Id been involved in. I prefer to remember that way. George is a regular at Leeds games but until his teens he would wait outside the stadium at the home fixture closest to the April 5 anniversary while a minutes applause played out. It was a lad from Shipley who I knew, Andy says. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. Leeds supporters in Istanbul were told to stay in their hotels. He must have been off his head., Ian Harte, the left-back, is more vivid in describing it. Looking at it from where the fans were standing, Id have been as angry as them. Peter Ridsdale, the chairman who guided Leeds through the tragedy, is approaching 70. Following the two tragic deaths, local police arrested and charged four Galatasaray supporters with murder. 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. In the circumstances, it was a total irrelevance and too highly-charged. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Galatasaray away on April 6, 2000; "a huge occasion for the club in a football sense," Ridsdale says. I went off the rails, he says. Four people were stabbed in the scuffles, which also involved fans from other clubs and were viewed by the media as part of a retaliation for the killing of two Leeds United fans by Galatasaray supporters the month before. Former club legend Harry Kewell previously soured his relationship with Leeds fans after moving to Galatasaray from Liverpool in 2008. Ali Sami Yen, the stadium was so overcrowded that he had Galatasaray fans in front of him literally sat on my feet. The next day, he and Leeds players and coaching staff reached the airport, climbed on a plane and flew home. My mum flicked it straight off again. Gray remembers OLeary going out of the team hotel to visit a barbers for a shave beforehand. Surprise me? The deaths led to an angry reaction in England with Galatasaray fans . Its a game. After taking stock, he got involved with the cancer charity Candlelighters and helped raise almost 150,000 for local hospital facilities. 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. I had no idea where we were going or why we were going there, he says. Galatasaray fans attempted to provoke the Arsenal fans in the bars, and the two sides began chanting at each other until bottles were thrown from both sides around 16:00. Holmes was there and witnessed the entire away end turning their backs to the pitch with arms raised, an act of silent defiance and dissent. The police claim he was punched. As injured and angry Leeds fans came through, he did what he could. 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"Maybe they thought they were being funny but to Turks who do not speak good English, it was very offensive.". 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. And it is far too late to redress that now. But eventually the issue of what to do about the game had to be addressed. Summarize this article for a 10 years old. on the 20th anniversary of the killings in Istanbul. galatasaray leeds deathashtoreth worship practices. A few hours later two Leeds supporters, Kevin Speight, 40, and Christopher Loftus, 37, were dead from stab wounds. We had hundreds of fans in Turkey, some in the air and another plane due to fly the following morning (the morning flight out from Leeds-Bradford Airport was rapidly cancelled). At no stage between arriving at the hospital and Leeds playing the first leg against Galatasaray the following night did Ridsdale sleep. They phoned their parents back home but the media had already informed them of Chriss death. [22] The riots did not spread to the stadium, although there was an attempt to pull down the fences by fans heading towards the Arsenal area of the stadium before police stopped them.
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