'I don't think reality hit' - Leeds United will never forget Chris Loftus and Kevin Speight pain - YEP 5/4/22

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Leeds United supporters need no reminders of the tragic injustice suffered by Chris Loftus and Kevin Speight in Istanbul on April 5, 2000.

By Graham Smyth

In the 22nd minute of Saturday’s Premier League game against Southampton, without an announcement or any official notification on the big screen, Elland Road rose as one, turned their back to the play and sang for two of their own.

Today, on the 22nd anniversary, Leeds United will mark what is always a sombre occasion with the laying of wreaths outside the stadium’s East Stand by the first team squad and club officials.

The murders, which took place on the eve of Leeds’ UEFA Cup semi-final tie against Galatasaray, shook English football and the anguish felt in Leeds remains real and raw. Friends and family members, the other victims of the senseless violence, will still be hurting today as they pay their own traditional tributes. Anyone connected with the club at the time has their own haunting memories, which come flooding back on the anniversary.

Alan Sutton was one of the club’s physios and already a long-time servant by 2000. He did not travel to Istanbul and when news filtered through of the stabbings, it did not sink in.

“I wasn’t in Istanbul, I was at home,” he told the YEP.

“Only one physio was going. I always remember it coming through, what had happened. I remember talking to the secretary Ian Silvester saying I understood this had just happened but I don’t think the reality hit home for a day or so. For two lads to go and watch their team play in the UEFA Cup and never come back home again should never, never happen. It shouldn’t even be an issue.

“It was just so, so sad. It’s hard to put into words but I really felt for the families and everybody.”

The emotional display at Elland Road on Saturday held a mixture of sadness and anger. Leeds fans have resolved to show their solidarity and many will never forgive or forget.

Sutton, who left the club in 2014, struggles to articulate how deeply wounded the club was by the tragedy so tells a story to illustrate it.

He said: “About nine years ago we were on about signing an ex-Leeds player back again, but because he’d been at Galatasaray the manager said ‘there’s no way we can re-sign him because he would not be accepted by the crowd or anybody.’

“It was his decision to go play there knowing what the situation was and because of that there was no way, and even though this particular manager wasn’t anything to do with Leeds at the time it happened, he recognised there was no chance because the emotion was still so raw over 10 years later.

“That’s the only way for me to describe it, how emotional it feels for the fans and everybody at the club. It still is, for so many people.”

Another year has passed, another anniversary will come and go today but some things time cannot take away or heal. As the East Stand plaque says: “They will never be forgotten.”

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