Leeds United fans were condemned for heckling a half-time speech on knife crime by the father of murdered teenage footballer Kiyan Prince.
Witnesses said Dr Mark Prince OBE, 55, was visibly shocked after being interrupted as he pleaded for an end to youth killings across the UK at Queens Park Rangers’ Loftus Road stadium on Friday night.
He responded: “Are you booing? Wow. You’ve got family? You have got kids, haven’t you?” which led to most of the stadium turning on them.
Even fellow Whites fans started applauding Mr Prince, who started his justice campaign after Kiyan, 15 - who played for QPR’s youth team - was stabbed trying to break up a fight outside his north London school in May 2006.
He later called out “ignorant” supporters who had “truly let their club down by poor behaviour”.
Mr Prince added: “Boos from some Leeds fans don’t represent the whole club.”
Leeds United were approached by the Standard for comment.
But their followers apologised online for the reception Mr Prince received from a section of the away crowd.
I love u Rrss 🔵⚪️🔵⚪️❤️❤️❤️🤗 pic.twitter.com/tsP27vTywW
— Dr Mark Prince OBE (@MarkPrinceOBE) April 26, 2024
The Hoops won 4-0 in the Championship game denting second-placed Leeds’ hopes of automatic promotion, meaning Leicester return to the top flight at the first time of asking.
One Leeds fan posted in response to Mr Prince’s post on X, formerly Twitter: “We aren’t all like that. Huge respect to you for the work you do.”
Leeds United Supporters’ Trust said on Saturday: “We would like to offer our sincere apologies.
“To provide some context, the fans in the away end were unable to hear the content being spoke due to the quality of the sound system, or see the big screen, which led to a frustrating and unfortunate reaction during Mark’s speech.
“Leeds United have spoken to us and said that they weren’t made aware that Mark was going to be speaking at half-time, otherwise communications would have been issued to supporters before the game.
“The club will also be reaching out to QPR and Mark individually to apologise for the incident.”
Dr Prince, a former IBF and WBO intercontinental boxing champion, has dedicated his life to empowering young people through The Kiyan Prince Foundation.
Three years ago, the Fifa 21 video game used AI technology to show Kiyan as a 30-year-old professional footballer, allowing gamers to play as him.
QPR listed him as a squad member on all matchday programmes, having already renamed their ground the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium in 2019 for three seasons.
Donate to Dr Prince’s work by visiting: thekpf.com
