Tragedy ·
The match that went ahead after two Leeds fans were killed
Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight died in Istanbul before the first leg of Leeds United’s 2000 UEFA Cup semi-final. The following evening, a subdued team took the field.
After Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight were killed in Istanbul on 5 April 2000, the first leg of Leeds United’s UEFA Cup semi-final against Galatasaray went ahead the following evening. Club chairman Peter Ridsdale had gone from a pre-match dinner to the hospital where the supporters were taken. At a meeting before dawn, according to Rob Bagchi’s account in the Telegraph 20 years later, UEFA told him that Leeds faced a 3–0 default if they did not play. He reluctantly agreed.
Loftus and Speight had travelled to Turkey to watch Leeds. They were among supporters drinking in the Taksim district on the eve of the match, and both were stabbed during the violence that night. Bagchi reported that their friends took them to Taksim Hospital, where Loftus was pronounced dead shortly after Ridsdale arrived and Speight died in the operating theatre.
Television pictures broadcast at the time showed efforts to help the wounded. A-TV filmed a policeman giving one man mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in the road and police lifting another Leeds supporter into a car to take him to hospital. Ridsdale, visibly upset after visiting the hospital, said: “One minute I was talking to Galatasaray directors to promote the friendship between the two clubs and the next minute I receive a telephone call telling me there had been some problems in town and a fan had been killed.”
Leeds supporters with tickets were told to stay in their hotels during the day and seek a police escort to the stadium. A flight due to bring several hundred more fans from Leeds Bradford airport was cancelled. The team, meanwhile, had a long wait before the evening kick-off. Manager David O’Leary later said he had been told about incidents the night before but did not learn that people had died until breakfast.
At the team meeting, O’Leary found his players subdued. “I was thinking how needless the game was and because I wasn’t focused on it and couldn’t get them to focus, I remember thinking I’d failed them,” he told Bagchi. Leeds had reached their first European semi-final in a quarter of a century, but his recollection of the hours before it was of a young team whose minds were elsewhere.
O’Leary recalled missiles thrown at the team coach and police using riot shields to protect the players as they emerged into the stadium. According to Bagchi, Galatasaray refused Leeds’ requests for a minute’s silence and for their players to wear black armbands. The 300 visiting supporters turned their backs in protest. Leeds lost 2–0 and could not overturn the deficit in the return leg.
After a late flight home, O’Leary went to Elland Road the following morning and placed a bouquet among the scarves and other tributes. “No one cares about football or matches then, there was just a tremendous feeling of disappointment, such grief,” he recalled.