Leeds United players, staff and fans gathered at Elland Road today to remember the lives of supporters Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight with a fresh plea they must never be forgotten. On the 22nd anniversary of their deaths, a memorial service was held by the plaque dedicated to Chris and Kevin near Billy Bremner’s statue at 2pm.
Jesse Marsch, Liam Cooper and the rest of the first-team squad joined a small crowd of fans and staff to lay flowers and pay their respects. Gareth Senior, one of the Leeds supporters who were in Istanbul on that tragic evening, gave a moving speech and reflected upon the lies and misinformation which have been published since that night.
Gareth reiterated his desire to ensure the men are never forgotten, with some hurt caused by a lack of any acknowledgement from the club during Saturday’s match with Southampton, aside from a small news piece in the programme. He said: “It’s always difficult.
“Sometimes it seems like it was yesterday and then sometimes when you reflect on everything that’s happened in the intervening 22 years, you realise how long ago it was. The events of that night will always have an impact on everybody that was there, but also the people it impacted back at home, friends and family and everybody that knew both of the lads tragically murdered that night
“We will never forget them, we will always pay our tribute to them and we have made it quite clear today the club should never forget them as well and that’s the most important thing, because what happened that night is bigger than Leeds United, it's bigger than football, it’s bigger than anything else and their memories have to live on through us.”
Asked about the importance of sharing the same message every year and remembering Chris and Kevin, Gareth said: “It’s really important. What people tend to forget is the night before the game was nothing short of cold-blooded murder.
“There were none of the offences we were accused of. Nothing like that ever happened. It was a cover-up to put the blame onto us, who were just a group of 20 or 30 innocent lads having a drink in a city we had gone to explore the night before that game in Istanbul.
“It’s really important because if you were to Google the events of that night you would be told a pack of lies. There is so much misinformation out there I feel it's part of my mission in life to inform people it is misinformation and what happened was nothing like what was portrayed.
“We were attacked by cowards carrying knives, machetes, lumps of metal, anything they could arm themselves with, against a group of defenceless men who weren't there to cause any trouble whatsoever.
“Two people lost their lives because of the behaviour of more than one person involved. It’s right we do our best to portray the truth of that night.”
While 22 years have passed since that awful night on the continent, Gareth said the pain remains as acute as it ever was. He remains close to the family of the men, seeing them at the football along with the other fans who were in Turkey that night.
“We see each other at football. We obviously get together on this day every single year. Everybody copes in different ways.
“I can stand and talk about it, get upset at times, but other people don't feel able to speak about it and they deal with it in their own ways. I know some people there that night who were badly injured. They've never been to a football game again.
“You do lose contact with a few people, but everybody deals with their own memories and their own pain and the impact on themselves in their own way. Personally, I am fine because I have managed to find a way to deal with things over the years, but everybody's different and everyone deals with it in their own special ways.”
Chief executive Angus Kinnear said the club would always look to make time to remember the pair and look to unite the fanbase. He said: "We know how important this is to the whole fanbase, how it unites the fanbase and how the tragic events were so deeply felt by everybody at the time and still 22 years later.
"We've made a commitment that during our custodianship we'll always take time to remember both gentlemen at this time of year and try and unite the fanbase in remembering them and the tragic event that happened. It was great Jesse and the whole squad agreed to make it a team event and come down to lay flowers and scarves outside the plaque at Elland Road.
“I think that shows how seriously we take our commitment to making sure their memories aren't forgotten.”
