The Scratching Shed

Today marks ten years since the brutal murders of Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight. The two Leeds United fans were guilty of nothing more than following their football team on our European adventures when they were attacked by Turkish thugs who still haven’t been brought to justice.

10 years ago at Elland Road

Today in Yeovil, myself and the rest of the travelling Leeds United fans will be turning our backs on football to show our united disgust at the contiued failure of the Turkish authorites, UEFA & FIFA.

Despite several swift arrests and an admission of guilt from one of the thugs responsible, the Turkish authorites have still failed to prosecute anyone for the vicious and unprovoked crimes. A lack of punishment from UEFA and FIFA for both Galatasaray and Turkey has not gone unnoticed either and our disgust should be noted by them all.

Ken Bates gave his support to the campaign on Saturday suggesting that a country with such a failing legal system should not be allowed entry into the European Union;

‘We were holding a minute’s silence before the Swindon match and it was silence not applause because we were mourning their lives after they were murdered in Turkey. 

‘I would use the word murder because that’s what it was.  

‘I’ve read a lot about it, and about what happened in the bar area where the Turkish thugs were following the Leeds fans. 

‘Where were the police? What were they doing? It’s supposed to be a pretty tough state – why was it allowed to get out of hand?

‘And why after 10 years is there no justice? It doesn’t make sense. 

‘It would suggest Turkey is not ready to be admitted to the EU and maybe that’s something the campaigners should focus on. 

‘It would concentrate the authorities minds, because if the country cannot hand out European justice …’  

Chairman of the time, Peter Ridsdale also added his own thoughts;

‘Some things that happened ages ago are etched in your memory as if they were yesterday. 
‘It was just the most amazingly awful experience. I don’t mean for me, this wasn’t about me, it wasn’t about Leeds United, it was about the families of two individuals who should never, ever have lost their lives.‘

As the appeals for justice continue from the victims families, Leeds United fans around the world are united behind their campaign. A decade on and still no justice, but the fight continues.

Christopher Loftus & Kevin Speight. Never forgotten!

Turning our backs on football

Just a quick heads up to anyone else heading to Yeovil about a planned protest to show our united disgust at the lack of justice served to those responsible in the deaths of Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight.

The protest will see all the travelling Leeds United fans turn their backs on football for one minute after the whistle blows for kick-off. The protest is a fitting way to show our disgust at how not only the Turkish courts, but UEFA and FIFA have failed in this matter.

What still makes me bitter to this day is how Turkish “fans” are allowed to go unpunished for the mindless acts of terror they inflict on any visiting team. If such events took place in England, I have no doubts whatever team was involved, would be banned from the competition as punishment. As someone in attendance for that game, I can’t even begin to describe how hostile the fans and Police were to the visiting Leeds United fans. The club should have been banned from European football indefinitely.

Ben Parker’s hopes washed away

The longest anticipated injury comeback in the history of sport (slight exaggeration maybe)continues as Ben Parker’s planned Tuesday night outing for the reserves was thwarted by torrential rain.

It seems that fate is against our young full-back and whether he’ll feature in the managers plans at all for the rest of this season seems questionable. In his absence, the left-back spot has been a really troublesome area for Larry with Hughes occupying it for the majority of the season.

Somma continues to reign at Lincoln

Four goals, two assists and only five games in to his Lincoln loan spell, but those kind of stats guarantee you a place on the League Two player of the month shortlist. Good to see Davide drawing the plaudits and we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed that his form can continue and carry over into next season for Leeds United.

Since Chelsea were banned from signing any players for the next two transfer windows, everyone seems to have thrown their opinion into the mix regarding the tapping up of youth players, so I figure it’s only fair I have mine.  

Every lower league club has been a victim of the higher clubs tactics. I bet there’s not a single club outside the Premiership that’s never trained a youngster upto the age of 16, only to see him snatched from their grip just as he turns old enough to sign a professional contract.

Since our relegation, we’ve been a constant target for the Premier League clubs. The reputation we have for developing youth talent is recognised throughout the country and there’s always a scout on hand waiting to move in and steal our latest development. Perhaps it’s divine retribution. Leeds will have snatched plenty of players from the smaller clubs back when we were a major force in this country, but it’s not until you’re sitting on the other side of the fence that you realise how frustrating it can be.

The FA brought in the transfer tribunal so clubs would be compensated for the money spent on developing young players. Leeds have done well from this netting millions over the past few years with the most recent award being £600,000 (plus possible add-ons) for Garbutt just a few days ago. It’s a good first step, but not really enough.

UEFA have now started to act on this suggesting that players should be tied to the club that trained them ’til the age of 18. This again is a positive, but I personally feel it should be older. 21 for me is a good age. Afterall, the player is highly unlikely to make the starting XI until he reaches this age and will most probably spend his time out on loan at lower clubs. Bringing this in will be tough though as it’s unlikely to meet the European Union’s working laws.

Shaun Harvey’s raised a good point saying that compensation is no longer adequate punishment for clubs that breach the rules and tap up young players. The compensation rule has been in place a while now but has failed to deter the major clubs. Harvey suggests it may be time to start docking teams points for breaking the rules and I couldn’t agree more. If clubs that are struggling financially and are forced into administration are to be docked points then this should apply to the Premier League clubs that are causing the problems too.

Fabian Delph is a prime example of the kind of money clubs should be getting for their talent. Most clubs are paid off so cheaply that it makes little difference to the bottom line of Premier League clubs finances. However, when the clubs have the player tied down and he’s unable to leave without both parties agreeing, the lower clubs get a decent sum of money for their talent. There’s a major difference bewteen £600,000 and £6,000,000! The kind of difference that could stop lower clubs from going into administration in the first place and give them the chance to compete in the Sky Sports savaged football leagues.

For me, the Sky Sports funded Premier League is destroying football with it’s uneven distribution of money. When the lower clubs develop a player capable of earning them some money (or helping them achieve promotion) he’s snatched away from them for pittance. If a rule was brought in whereby young players could only leave through mutual consent, it would go a long way to levelling the uphill playing field.

The ban imposed on Chelsea is an excellent move from UEFA. It’s taken a while for them to get into gear, but they have to start playing hard ball for the long term benefit of the game. If they were to follow this with bans (or points deductions) on Manchester City, Manchester United and anyone else found guilty of tapping up then it would bring an end to this ridiculous and totally unfair culture once and for all.  More of the same please UEFA!