Revisited: Manchester United v Galatasaray, 1993 – Forgotten Stories of Football podcast

A listener note: this podcast contains very strong language.

Forgotten Stories of Football.

The not-so-forgotten story of Manchester United v Galataserai, 1993.

How Alex Ferguson's first European Cup campaign at Old Trafford ended amid humiliation on the field and terrifying hostility off it.

Written by Rob Smy.

Forgotten Stories of Football from The Guardian

Sir Alex Ferguson's quest to win the European Cup with Manchester United was the sort of epic tale that usually takes a lot more than six years.

It culminated at the Camp Now in May 1999, when Ferguson uttered his most famous phrase and pretty much began when United were eliminated by Galatassarai in November 1993.

You might call it from hell to football.

Bloody hell.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game day scratchers from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

Play the new Los Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Los Angeles Rams Scratchers from the California Lottery.

A little play can make your day.

Please play responsibly.

Must be 18 years or older to purchase, play, or claim.

HiPod fans of America.

Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

Football Weekly is supported by the Remarkable Paper Pro.

Now, if you're a regular listener to this show, you'll have heard us talk before about the remarkable paper pro.

We already know that remarkable is the leader in the paper tablet category, digital notebooks that give you everything you love about paper, but with the power of modern technology.

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Remarkable, a brand name and an adjective, man.

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It holds all your notes, to-dos and documents, but it's smaller than a paperback and an incredible 0.26 inches thin.

So it slips easily into a bag or jacket pocket.

Perfect for working professionals whose jobs take them out of the office.

Like maybe a football journalist, Barry.

Although not like you.

A proper football journalist, mate.

Exactly.

Too much technology draws us in and shuts the world out.

This paper tablet doesn't.

It'll never beat or buzz to try and grab your attention, so you can devote your focus to what or who is in front of you.

It has a display that looks, feels, and even sounds like paper.

Think and work like a writer, not a texter.

And the battery performance is amazing.

No worries about running out of power before the end of extra time.

The Remarkable Paper Pro Move can keep going for up to two weeks.

And if you do need to recharge, you can go from naught to 90% in less than 45 minutes, Barry.

Fantastic.

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If it's not what you're looking for, get your money back.

Visit remarkable.com to learn more and get your paper tablet today.

Forgotten Stories of Football.

The not-so-forgotten story of Manchester United v.

Galataserite.

From The Guardian.

During that trip to Istanbul 27 years ago, Ferguson said United were exposed to as much hostility and harassment as I've ever known on a football expedition.

In his autobiography, Gary Pallister went further.

It was a terrifying business which had nothing to do with sport and can be categorised objectively as an absolute disgrace.

A number of United players were assaulted by police.

Steve Bruce was almost maimed by a flying brick, and 164 United fans were thrown in the cells without food or drink and then deported for the crime of breathing in oxygen.

But as Rob Hughes wrote in The Times, this was all a violent smokescreen to a more horrid truth.

That United and English football were out of their depth in the European Cup.

No Champions League for Manchester United and in the Alisami Yen Stadium, they made a poor case for belonging to anybody's league of champions, wrote David Lacey in The Guardian.

Hugh Michilvani's verdict in The Observer was even more damning.

After more than three decades of reporting British involvement in the European Cup, it is difficult to remember another occasion when genuinely outstanding challengers from this country fell so pathetically short of their true standards on a foreign ground.

United were cruising towards the retention of the Premier League.

Going into the second leg, they had a staggering 11-point lead after only 13 games.

The general assumption was that, even with the debilitating foreigner rule that permitted only five overseas and assimilated players, they could challenge Milan, Barcelona and Monaco for the trophy.

They beat Homved pretty comfortably in the first round, 5-3 on aggregate.

and few people expected Galatasrai to give them any problems.

United knew that if they won the tie, they would progress to the last eight and the lucrative Champions League.

Rumour has it, United's Scouting Report said Galatasarai were nothing to worry about.

Turkish football had come a long way since Brian Robson helped West Bromwich Albion win 3-1 away to Galatasarai in the UEFA Cup in 1978.

And this would be its greatest night thus far.

Galatasarai were an accomplished side, and their spine of Bulank Kurt Kourtmaz, Tugai, and Hakan Shakur was also the spine of the Turkey side that ended 42 years on the periphery of international football by qualifying for Euro 96.

Yet they were far from world beaters.

They had only won the title because of an 8-nil away win at Ankaraguju SK on the final day of the previous season.

And in the 10 games they played in the European Cup in 1993-4, their only two victories were against Cork City, each by a single goal.

They did not need to beat United, instead putting them out on away goals.

That seemed impossible when United took an early 2-0 lead in the first leg at Old Trafford.

But their flying start prompted a costly hubris.

Ferguson said United replaced controlled aggression with self-indulgence.

Before they knew it, they were 3-2 down and facing a first-ever European defeat at Old Trafford as Galatassarai passed through them with alarming ease.

Eric Cantenar scored a late equalizer.

Although the second half was as notable for Peter Schmeichel's rough house treatment of a Kurdish demonstrator, who he grabbed by the coat and threw over the touchline, Schmeichel erroneously thought he was burning a United flag.

It set the mood for the second leg.

They will be waiting for you at the airport, promised Galatasarai's German manager, Rainer Holman, after the first leg, with a twinkle in his eye.

So they were.

United were greeted by hundreds of fans chanting furiously, and Welcome to the Hell was the most famous of many banners.

Another said, This is the end of the road.

It did not specify whether it referred to United's European hopes or the players' lives.

A fan got right in Paul Parker's face and offered a touch of clarity: You will die.

Forgotten stories of football.

Hi Pod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

Football Weekly is supported by the Remarkable Paper Pro.

Now, if you're a regular listener to this show, you'll have heard us talk before about the Remarkable Paper Pro.

We already know that Remarkable's the leader in the paper tablet category digital notebooks that give you everything you love about paper but with the power of modern technology but there's something new and exciting the remarkable paper pro move remarkable a brand name and an adjective man yeah it's their most portable paper tablet yet it holds all your notes to-dos and documents but it's smaller than a paperback and an incredible 0.26 inches thin so it slips easily into a bag or jacket pocket perfect for working professionals whose jobs take them out of the office like maybe a football journalist Barry.

Although not like you.

A proper football journalist, man.

Exactly.

Too much technology draws us in and shuts the world out.

This paper tablet doesn't.

It'll never beat or buzz to try and grab your attention, so you can devote your focus to what or who is in front of you.

It has a display that looks, feels, and even sounds like paper.

Think and work like a writer, not a texter.

And the battery performance is amazing.

No worries about running out of power before the end of extra time.

The remarkable Paper Pro move can keep going for up to two weeks.

And if you do need to recharge, you can go from naught to 90% in less than 45 minutes Barry.

Fantastic.

Why not give it a go for nothing?

You can try remarkable paper pro move for a hundred days for free.

If it's not what you're looking for, get your money back.

Visit remarkable.com to learn more and get your paper tablet today.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game Day Scratchers from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

Play the new Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Los Angeles Rams Scratchers from the California Lottery.

A little play can make your day.

Please play responsibly.

Must be 18 years or older to purchase, play, or claim.

Forgotten Stories of Football.

The not-so-forgotten story of Manchester United be Galataserite.

From The Guardian

Reaction to the welcome was mixed.

In The Guardian, Lacey wrote that it was good-humoured if fervent.

In The Express, Steve Curry said that,

it was the crazed delirium usually witnessed on news bulletins from Islamic rallies in Iraq.

On the plane home, Schmeichel chastised a group of journalists for unnecessarily scaring his family.

United players smiled their way through it, albeit a little nervously.

When he was asked the following day about the riot at the airport, Ferguson grinned.

You've obviously never seen a Glasgow wedding.

Nonetheless, the hostility was obvious.

When United arrived at their beautiful hotel, Pallister trailed in last, doing things in his own time as as usual, and smiled at a bellboy as he walked past.

The bellboy drew a finger across his throat.

On the day before the game, an Istanbul paper launched into a prolonged rant against English football, the highlight of which was, Stuff turkey, stuff this,

it was a recurring metaphor.

After the game, the headline in one paper was, The turkey mounted the English.

First, it assaulted the English ears.

On the day of the match, the majority of fans arrived eight or nine hours before the game.

When United went out to look around a couple of hours before kickoff, they were hit by the most magnificent wall of sound.

The most incredible noise I've ever experienced in my life, said Gary Neville, who at the time was an 18-year-old with one first-team appearance to his name.

The way the chanting was organized, one side of the ground followed by the other, gave new meaning to the phrase end-to-end stuff.

United were an exceptionally hard team, with the spine of Schmeichel, Bruce, Pallister, Paul Lince, Roy Keene, Mark Hughes and Cantonagh.

But they'd never seen anything like this.

Pallister said that, it made Anphil look like a tea party.

Pallister missed the game with injury.

That and the foreigner rule left Ferguson with some tricky decisions.

He had to admit one of Schmeichel, Cantonagh, Giggs, Dennis Irwin, Keene and Hughes.

Eventually, to general astonishment, he decided to leave out Hughes.

The game was a stinker.

A combination of the difficult pitch, Galatassarai's man-to-man marking and time-wasting, not to mention United's painful lack of European street wisdom, meant Ferguson's side got no momentum.

and did not create a single clear chance.

Lee Sharp had a goal disallowed, but the best opportunity went to Galatassarai, with Schmeichael making a remarkable save from Hakan.

Galatassarai fully deserved to go through.

They were tough and wily, said Keane.

They pulled every stroke in the book.

The match was over before United knew it.

There are occasional rumors that they thought League Cup rules applied, with the away goals rule kicking in after extra time rather than before.

They wouldn't have scored anyway.

There can be no excuse for that terrible performance and I'm not going to waste time looking for one, said Ferguson in the aftermath of the game.

It was depressing to see how completely frustrated our fellas were when Galatasarai man-marked everybody.

Cantonar's verdict was simple.

Galatasarai is a little team, but today so were Manchester United.

Cantonar had lost his rag long before the end.

In the 77th minute, with Galatasarai faffing over a throw-in, he booted the ball in frustration and then floored the reserve keeper Neziale Bololiou with an elbow to the chest.

He could have been sent off for that.

He did receive a red card at the final whistle after informing the Swiss referee, Kurt Rottlisberger, what he thought of his performance.

Some say Cantenard did not utter a word to Rottlisberger, who was a French teacher, although his gestures probably made things clear enough.

As Rottlisberger reached for the red card, Cantenard punched the ball into the heavens with rare fury.

Cantonal was convinced Rotlisberger was on the take.

He was banned from refereeing for life in 1997 after being found guilty of bribery.

And though there were subsequent allegations about this game, nothing has ever been proven.

The reality is that Terry Christian could have refereed the game and Galatasarai would probably have gone through.

At the time, there were bigger problems with officialdom to worry about.

As the referee blew the final whistle, I could see in Eric's eyes that he had gone, said Robson.

He took Cantonard by the arm to lead him off the pitch.

They were accompanied by a policeman, all the way to the top of the pitch side tunnel that led to the dressing rooms underneath the ground.

It was then that the United players were forced to take the result on the chin.

I was just about to thank the policeman when he punched Eric, said Robson.

Eric stumbled down a couple of steps, so I turned to throw a punch at the copper.

As I did, a shield smashed into the back of me.

I fell down a few steps, bashing my elbow against the wall.

Eric wanted to go back up and fight, but by then the other lads were coming down the steps and calmed us down.

Robson needed six stitches in his elbow.

Parker was also plouted down a few steps, Weschmichael broke his fall.

United's players did not start it, but nor were they a group of pacifists.

We had a few who could look after themselves, said Bruce.

We gave as good as we got.

One player wanted to give a lot more.

In the dressing room, Eric went crazy, said Kean.

While the rest of us just wanted to get out of there, he was determined to go back outside to sort out the rogue cop who'd been wielding his truncheon.

Eric was a big, strong lad.

He was serious.

He insisted that he was going to kill that fucker.

It took the combined efforts of the assistant manager, Brian Kidd, and a few of the players to restrain him.

Normally, I wouldn't have backed off a fight, but even I wasn't up for this one.

There were a lot of Turks out there.

It did not end there.

The bus was bricked on the way back to the hotel.

One shattered a window where Bruce had been resting his head.

If it had smashed through, I'd have been dead, he said.

That would have just about summed it up.

All the while, there were groups of United fans on their way back to Manchester, most or all of whom had done nothing wrong.

Hundreds of others were battered around the city the night before the match.

Some were dumped in the Bayrampasa jail, made notorious by the film Midnight Express.

One group of fans did not get home for a month.

Their experiences were inevitably, miserably covered up by the authorities.

It took a long time for the anger to go away.

One only has to to watch the pre-second leg footage from the United video to see that the lack of what we considered to be proper civilisation in Turkey created such angst in the United team that what followed was scarcely sport as we know it, wrote Richard Kurt in United, dispatches from Old Trafford.

What they did to our fans alone merited their exclusion from the Cup as a nation unfit to receive visitors.

When Ferguson was interviewed soon after for United's new VHS magazine, magazine, he was asked if he was glad to be out of Turkey.

Ock, you bet.

I'll no be going back.

In fact, he went back a year later, when United again drew Nil-nil in very different circumstances, and again in his final season as United manager.

The horror movie of 1993 became a vital part of United's European education.

Gary Neville, who was brought on for the last few minutes to deliver some long throws, said he learned more in 10 minutes than I had in the previous two years.

It was not only the inexperienced who picked up new tricks, the whole club learned about man-to-man marking and the need for central midfield discipline.

Not to mention the alien environments they would encounter on their quest to lift the giant trophy.

United didn't only go to hell, they went to school as well.

But it was a long time before they could take the positives from a harrowing trip to Turkey.

The not-so-forgotten story of Manchester United vs.

Gullatasarai 1993 was written by Rob Smythe.

The reader was Emma Powell.

Studio production by Polly Thomas.

Theme music composed by Mike Payne.

Sound designed by Eloise Whitmore and Tony Chernside.

Forgotten Stories of Football is brought to you by The Guardian.

Hi Pod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

Football Weekly is supported by the Remarkable Paper Pro.

Now, if you're a regular listener to this show, you'll have heard us talk before about the Remarkable Paper Pro.

We already know that Remarkable's the leader in the paper tablet category, digital notebooks that give you everything you love about paper, but with the power of modern technology.

But there's something new and exciting: the remarkable Paper Pro Move.

Remarkable, a brand name and an adjective, man.

Yeah, it's their most portable paper tablet yet.

It holds all your notes, to-dos, and documents, but it's smaller than a paperback and an incredible 0.26 inches thin, so it slips easily into a bag or jacket pocket.

Perfect for working professionals whose jobs take them out of the office, like maybe a football journalist, Barry.

Although not like you.

A proper football journalist, man.

Exactly.

Too much technology draws us in and shuts the world out.

This paper tablet doesn't.

It'll never beat or buzz to try and grab your attention, so you can devote your focus to what or who is in front of you.

It has a display that looks, feels, and even sounds like paper.

Think and work like a writer, not a texter.

And the battery performance is amazing.

No worries about running out of power before the end of extra time.

The Remarkable Paper Pro Move can keep going for up to two weeks.

And if you do need to recharge, you can go from naught to 90% in less than 45 minutes, Barry.

Fantastic.

Why not give it a go for nothing?

You can try Remarkable Paper Pro Move for 100 days for free.

If it's not what you're looking for, get your money back.

Visit remarkable.com to learn more and get your paper tablet today.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game, Day Scratchers from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question: play the new Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Los Angeles Rams scratchers from the California Lottery.

A little play can make your day.

Please play responsibly must be 18 years or older to purchase, play, or claim.