Aigner: 'It's your fault for Leeds deaths, not Turks' By Martin Lipton

English football's blackened reputation received another body-blow as the power behind the UEFA throne launched another attack on the so-called supporters who followed Kevin Keegan's team in Euro 2000.

General secretary Gerhard Aigner, who stunned the FA with the threat to kick England out of the tournament last weekend, refused to offer anything like the same condemnation of the Turkish fans who have rioted throughout the competition.

Yesterday, pressed over the apparent dichotomy, Aigner pointed an accusing finger at the English fan stabbed by Turks in Brussels last week and also at one of the Leeds supporters murdered in Istanbul in April.

'It's too easy to put the blame on the Turks,' said Aigner. 'They react when they are provoked and they are also people who are impulsive.

'But they don't drink and they are not rioting as such. They do not have mass movements of people and they do not travel to matches without tickets.

'We deplore also the actions of the Turkish and we deeply regret what happened in Istanbul. But we know that one of them was a trouble-maker, we know that the guy who got stabbed in Brussels was a known troublemaker, so the question must be put somewhere else.'

Eric Carlisle, spokesman for Leeds United Supporters' Club, said: 'Aigner has no right to try to rewrite history. They were just two ordinary blokes who went to watch a game of football. I dread to think how the families will feel when they hear him suggesting the Turks were provoked.'

When Galatasaray president Faruk Suren levelled the same accusations as Aigner in the aftermath of the tragedy, Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale, who is currently on holiday, insisted: 'We had British police in Istanbul and their reports are unequivocal that Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight were with a group who had behaved impeccably all evening.'

The accusation will doubtless cause anger in Leeds, especially as Aigner alleged that one of the two murdered men was not as innocent as club officials and other Elland Road fans have maintained.

It certainly appears Aigner is applying different criteria to the supporters from the two nations and that UEFA feels knife-wielding Turkish thugs must be allowed some dispensation for their criminal actions, while cracking down hard on English hooligans.

Last Monday, Turks went on the rampage in Brussels, smashing up a bar where they erroneously believed English fans were congregated. Aigner's response then was to suggest it had been a joyous celebration of qualification for the quarterfinals which had got out of hand.

Yesterday, UEFA for once treated England and Turkey in a similar manner, removing both from the tournament's 'Fair Play Trophy' table as punishment for the scenes that had left 'an ugly stain' on the group phase.

Yet while the thugs - whose nature was further shown up by this week's BBC Panorama documentary - might have gone back home, it was evident last night that their legacy threatens to undermine English football for many years to come.

The first proof of that is likely to come in Luxembourg next weekend, with FA chairman Geoff Thompson's bid to earn a place on UEFA's executive committee set for failure.

Within five days, as Lancaster Gate privately accepts, the #10million 2006 World Cup campaign will officially be pronounced dead in Zurich. The comments of senior UEFA dignitaries - who are firmly in the German camp in the campaign - have only reinforced that outcome.

-- Anonymous, June 24, 2000

Answers

This beggars belief. A classic example of xenophobia and jingoism if ever I saw one.

-- Anonymous, June 24, 2000

beggers belief alright, this is utter nonsense, if this bloke isn't pulled up for this officially then something must be done officially through supporters associations. Talk about spitting on someones grave....appalling.

-- Anonymous, June 24, 2000