You mention him over Farsley way and people respect him. The Loftuses had travelled to Turkey on the same flight as David OLearys players. Even then, it was meant to be closed to the press but loads of them were there and they were being really intrusive, Fallows says. The eggs were massive and I was chuffed to bits with mine, he says. In the circumstances, it was a total irrelevance and too highly-charged. Maybe, he says, and his voice tails off. Ill hear them saying, Thats Kevin Speights lad and I like that. Youre a kid. "Their chanting should make Ali Sami Yen [the Galatasaray stadium] hell for Leeds United.". 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. Obviously he liked his football too. Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight were stabbed during street clashes the night before Leeds played Turkey's Galatasaray in the second leg of the Uefa Cup semi-finals in April 2000. Twenty Leeds fans, witnesses to the fight, were interviewed. [17] This came after Arsenal had warned the police before the final that there could be hooligans travelling to Copenhagen. 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. According to a waiter at a nearby restaurant, the Turkish club's fanatical fans had heard through the grapevine that trouble was brewing. 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. Read about our approach to external linking. Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. The brother of one of two Leeds United fans killed in Turkey 20 years ago says his death is "still fresh in my memory". Who really cares?. Four men were arrested and charged with their murders. In contrast, what Leeds saw in Galatasaray was a baffling lack of sympathy. Right up to the attack, I didnt see any trouble. Other fans in Istanbul spoke of isolated incidents here and there but nothing serious. A lot of what the police were doing was pure intimidation, Fallows says. Ridsdale can visualise it all 21 years on: the lay-out of the hospital, the chaos inside, the panicked confusion. Your mind was elsewhere., Harte also felt a delayed reaction. Hed just met a girl. Fallows is convinced that Galatasaray and the Turkish police made deliberate attempts to rattle and unsettle away teams, forcing players to squeeze through tight lines of officers to gain entry to the ground and admitting thousands of home fans to the stadium hours before kick-off. He liked a drink and a laugh, simple as that, Andy says. Life is good. Galatasaray advance to Ziraat Trkiye Kupas . One Love was a controlled situation. A lot of what went on I dont want to know. You ask them one by one if 20 years have helped them process what happened. If someone could have shown me those levels of intimidation, Id have refused to play the game unhesitatingly. 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. Some Arsenal fans reacted negatively to the news, claiming that there was still bad blood between the two sets of supporters and were concerned that there would be a resumption of hostilities between them.[51]. The way the police and the authorities were with us. Anywhere else in Europe, I doubt it would have been played. He sees it now as a necessary shock to the system. Galatasaray accused him of trying to gain an unfair sporting advantage. I respect the Loftuses for fighting, 100 per cent. He previously worked for the Yorkshire Evening Post as its chief football writer. At the time he said: 'It was a tragic thing in football but we can't live in the past. Within an hour of the stabbings in central Istanbul, some of David OLearys squad emerged to speak to him. I stopped getting involved eventually, Andy says. We could only do what we thought was best at that moment. The journey to the stadium prior to kick-off made him wish he had forfeited it and taken the consequences. It takes a certain amount of nerve to put a foot in both camps, which is doubtless why Harry Kewell was able to do so in 2008 when he left Liverpool for the Ali Sami Yen. [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. He had been in touch with the Turkish authorities, and with Chief Superintendent Steve Matthews from West Yorkshire police, who travels abroad with Leeds fans on away trips, and his team of three or four officers acting as "spotters". Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter'. The police claim he was punched. Try a week on us. My mum struggled massively with it all and she still does now, George says. It is his life and his career, much as the option of Galatasaray was incapable of arising without anyone passing comment. [4], It was not clear how the fight started, with reports of it either being started by Leeds fans throwing beer glasses and insulting the Turkish flag,[5] or being started by Galatasaray fans throwing chairs. [18] Arsenal fans congregated in nearby bars. Leeds and Galatasaray fans clashed in violent scenes 21 years agoat 21:00 in Istanbul's Taksim Square. The setting was Turkeys biggest city, on the banks of the Bosphorus, and the game was the first leg of a UEFA Cup semi-final. British fans were outnumbered and chased up side streets. My instinct was that we had to know what was happening, Ridsdale says. The images of that never grow old. Following the two tragic deaths, local police arrested and charged four Galatasaray supporters with murder. Try a week on us. She knows who he was but its not the same.. My mum just felt she had to move on. But he didnt make much of it, like it was something of nothing. , updated We tried to keep a lot of the information about what had happened [to Speight and Loftus] from them, rightly or wrongly. (Top photo: Robbie Jay Barratt AMA/Getty Images). They then broke into an apartment building to threaten Kosovan refugees with a knife, mistakenly believing them to be Turkish. He was on the scene as the club grieved and as much as any other of David OLearys players, he was in a position to fully comprehend both the impact of the killings and Galatasarays response to them. It was how away days in Europe played out. The away supporters responded with songs about two Leeds fans who were stabbed to death in Istanbul prior to a fixture against Galatasaray in 2000. . Me and the security team tried to create a bit of a cushion between them so the players werent worried about getting batoned, Fallows says. And I still blame myself a lot.. Menu To this day, it is used as a tribute every time the anniversary comes round. 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. Riots and 2 English deaths around UEFA Cup matches Galatasaray from Turkey against English teams in 2000 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. Galatasaray away on April 6, 2000; "a huge occasion for the club in a football sense," Ridsdale says. He rushed to Taksim hospital, near where the men were stabbed. "It's just a bit of a rollercoaster ride really but we get by," he said. Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The only thing I could compare it to is the One Love concert in Manchester (held after the terrorist bombing at the Manchester Arena in 2017) and thats purely because of how difficult the logistics of One Love were, he says. Both had numerous other wounds. Theyd been seeing each other for about six months.. A few hours later two Leeds supporters, Kevin Speight, 40, and Christopher Loftus, 37, were dead from stab wounds. The police warned a postponement could cause more trouble. Later in the day, Galatasaray fans occupied City Hall Square before heading towards Arsenal fans in bars nearby. Over a coffee in Starbucks, George Speight finds a way to be philosophical about his fathers death. 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. "I haven't seen a single Englishman all day," said a newspaper vendor. Shes struggled with it more than I have because shes got nothing there. Speight was with a group of Leeds fans attacked by Turkish locals outside a bar by Istanbuls Taksim Square, sustaining a slash wound to his stomach. 'There were a lot of other clubs out there but this is perfect for me. The driver said hed turn it off but I wanted to listen to it. ', Some wrote stronger messages, such as: 'Washed my hands with Alioski if he f***s off to those vermin. I didnt feel that their response was what our response would have been. 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. Andy has paid for the plaque to be cleaned a couple of times and it could do with another polish now. Asked shortly afterwards whether he thought the tie would still go ahead, Mr Ridsdale said: "It's too early to say. 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. The families of the victims will tell you that. I was amazed, he says. The blood had to be sourced externally and to do that, someone had to pay. The Turkish police didnt give a shit about us. Loftuss brother Andy jokes that he had thicker hair back in the day. That decision drew much criticism, as well it might. (Main photo of Kevin Speight with his son George and daughter Holly). This led to the two Leeds fans being stabbed. Leeds will on Saturday afternoon mark 15 years since the deaths of supporters Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight, who were stabbed by a Galatasaray fan in April 2000. Andy got a pint at the bar. Wed spoken about doing something beforehand, he says. [44], In the United Kingdom, the Daily Mirror newspaper printed pictures of Arsenal fans alleged to have been part of the violence. 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. Its completely different. [32] The rest were fined an equivalent of $500 and banned from Denmark for a year.[33]. They will never be forgotten.. Their policing of City Hall Square in the days running up to the final was described as "non-existent" by Dineen. The potential for trouble was as high as anything Id been involved in. It is wrong to presume to tell those who were affected by the events in Istanbul how to feel or how to react to a player taking Galatasarays money. When the Turkish club flew over for the return leg two weeks later, an occasion as venomous and bitter as any Elland Road has hosted, they railed against Ridsdales request that their fans be banned from travelling. 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. I got a lot of abuse for that and no wonder. Then you get your head around whats actually happened. As. Scuffles broke out but the police moved in and fans scattered. Nigel Martyn has exclusively told LeedsUnited.News that playing against Galatasaray in the first leg of the UEFA Cup semi-final in 2000 - just 24 hours after the murders of two Leeds fans - is to this day, his biggest regret in football. [7] The ban was supported by UEFA and only 80 tickets were issued to Galatasaray for officials and representatives of the Turkish government. I went for some counselling and didnt go through with all of it but the charity work helped. Gray, one of OLearys assistants, tried to focus his attention elsewhere. We were just trying to control the worst situation imaginable.. There were a few Turkish fans outside the bars we started drinking in but we didnt think much of it. UEFA also requested that fences be put up around the perimeter of the pitch. By then, you knew exactly what had gone on and you knew the severity of it. 15:32 EST 23 Mar 2021. They phoned their parents back home but the media had already informed them of Chriss death. When they came back to Elland Road they thought our request for no away fans was inappropriate. The Danish police were also criticized for their mishandling of the riots. There was a sense of relief to be leaving, he says, but I knew that flying out of Istanbul wasnt the end of it. I dont know why.. It was a haunting moment then and it haunts me now. Four men were arrested and charged with their murders. Absolutely amazed and totally stunned. galatasaray leeds death. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. When the hospital said they were short of blood supplies, Ridsdale sent his chauffeur off to get more. 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.