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. I jumped in a taxi and went back to Taksim Square., He has no recollection of how he came to be at Taksim Hospital, only that he found himself there after being told that the fighting had been serious. By the time the match kicked off, the ramifications of two fatal stabbings the previous evening were rapidly sinking in and for those who were closest to it, the images wont fade. The police told us themselves that the shoe-shine boys had been trailing us for a while, waiting to see when some of us had split away from the main group.. You dont get it.. [20], Then, in a calculated attack, approximately 500 Arsenal fans[19] attacked from the main road behind the Galatasaray fans. There was a sense of relief to be leaving, he says, but I knew that flying out of Istanbul wasnt the end of it. 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. 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. Phil grew up near Edinburgh in Scotland and is a staff writer for The Athletic, covering Leeds United. He started shouting for Christopher to wake up. 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. For players and supporters alike, this has become one of the most fraught and difficult venues in Europe. 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. Further information on the Istanbul violence: "Tragedy that awaited two fans on a journey to hell", "16 Hardcore Hooligan Firms, Ultras Groups We Wouldn't Want to Mess with", "Soldiers join hooligans to attack Turks in Cup clash", "Town in fear as drunken English pour in", "Arsenal-Galatasaray, sous le signe de la violence", "English, Turkish fans clash on eve final", "Copenhagen police overrun as soccer fans cause mayhem", "Folkefest endte i vold og masseslagsml", "Surprise attack by Arsenal fans seeking revenge sparked battle", "Violence erupts again as English and Turkish football fans riot in Copenhagen", "Danish police fear more brawls after European soccer final", "Violence overshadows historic soccer victory", "Charleroi lobby yet to learn lessons of Heysel", "Turkish and English fans clash at airport", "Galatasaray Wins UEFA Cup After Day of Rioting by Fans", "England told: more rioting and you're out", "Piers Morgan On Arsenal, Foreign Ownership and Twitter Rants", "SPORTS - The shadow on the UEFA Cup triumph", "How long until Turk fans cause another death on the pitch? We are no longer accepting comments on this article. I got a lot of abuse for that and no wonder. Anywhere else in Europe, I doubt it would have been played. The Football Associations David Davies said playing the game was the least worst option. Leeds fans furious as Alioski's move to Galatasaray nears completion It was the same at the second leg when I had to stand and look after Galatasarays main man at Elland Road. I didnt catch everything but I heard enough. I was totally speechless, totally shocked. It felt to me like the police were trying to frighten us, he says. He died in an operating theatre in the early hours of the morning, despite Leeds United paying for blood supplies to be rushed to him. The Galatasaray fans were later attacked from behind by members of British hooligan firms seeking revenge for the Istanbul stabbings. As injured and angry Leeds fans came through, he did what he could. Something went wrong, please try again later. With CCTV evidence, four men were indicted for murder within a week, including Ali Umit Demir, at whose flat the police found a knife stained with the blood of both victims. Exclusive: Leeds icon Martyn on 21st anniversary of Galatasaray murders They stressed as delicately as they could the importance of staying indoors. And it is far too late to redress that now. The Turkish media tried to blame English fans for provoking the violence by being drunk and disrespecting the Turkish flag. One of 13 Turks arrested in Istanbul has confessed to stabbing Leeds United fan Christopher Loftus, whose body is expected . [2] I went for some counselling and didnt go through with all of it but the charity work helped. I make no secret of that., Leeds were beaten 2-0 in Istanbul and lost over two legs after a 2-2 draw at home. At the hotel, Phil went up to his room. In the first leg it was difficult to say, Lets get out there do it for the two lads because we didnt have the full picture, Gray says. Bowyer leads out the Leeds team as the first leg went ahead (Photo: Steve Mitchell/EMPICS via Getty Images), A minutes silence is observed before the return leg at Elland Road (Photo: Steve Mitchell/EMPICS via Getty Images). Gjanni Alioski Leeds to Galatasaray transfer talks end for - TEAMtalk He had a passion for Lambretta scooters and spent his spare time fixing old models in his mothers garden. [38] In Turkey, the media portrayed Galatasaray fans as acting in self-defence, with criticism directed at the British fans for allegedly attacking members of the press. We tried to raise awareness but it was a farce. The connection was not comparable to Kewells. Peter Ridsdale, the chairman who guided Leeds through the tragedy, is approaching 70. I dont know why.. The story goes that he and his wife Susan got together after he offered her a lift on the back of one. Convention required the directors of the clubs involved in a European tie to share a meal with UEFA delegates the night before the game and Galatasaray arranged the gathering, not far from the Kempinski Hotel where Leedss players and directors were staying. 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). [18] Arsenal fans congregated in nearby bars. Within an hour of the stabbings in central Istanbul, some of David OLearys squad emerged to speak to him. 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 . A couple of lads came back to the hotel on their own and when I asked where the rest of them were, they didnt know. The manager of Leeds, David O'Leary, had voiced fears of being met at the airport by "a 100-strong rentamob". It sounds daft but I dont think I knew how to react. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Turkish eye-witnesses accused Leeds fans of insulting women, defacing the Turkish flag, urinating in the street and tipping over a car. In 2014 he was spoken to by a Turkish website, a free man again. 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. I thought about Graeme Souness running and planting a Galatasaray flag in the middle of the pitch at Fenerbahce. Harry Kewell - Wikipedia 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. He sees it now as a necessary shock to the system. Ridsdale still struggles to accept Galatasarays indifferent reaction to the stabbings. The cause of the fighting which broke out after dark in Istanbul was a subject of fierce contention in the weeks after the stabbings. Four men were arrested and charged with their murders. 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. The brother of one of two Leeds United fans killed in Turkey 20 years ago says his death is "still fresh in my memory". Acquittal plea in soccer death trial. He was seven when Speight died, his sister Holly two. He has never spoken about his memories of Turkey before but, like Andy Loftus, says he wants to reflect 20 years on. My sympathy was with them. Harry Kewell (born 22 September 1978) is an Australian association football coach, manager and former player. [6] Demir was later found guilty of murder and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, but released in 2004. It was completely against your idea of law and order. on the 20th anniversary of the killings in Istanbul. Jesus. Leeds always kept records of who was travelling and which hotels they were using. galatasaray leeds death - kikuyajp.com I heard the rumours that some Leeds fan wiped his arse with a Turkey flag and things like that but people tell me none of its true. Andy was jailed in 2013 for his part in a fight between Leeds and Tottenham Hotspur fans in which a Spurs supporter was knocked unconscious. 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. He rushed to Taksim hospital, near where the men were stabbed.
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