The leaving of Istanbul

WHAT a week. First it was Cardiff and the FA Cup final between Arsenal and Manchester United and then, two days later, off to Istanbul for the Champions’ League decider between Liverpool and AC Milan.

All in all, there could hardly have been a better build-up to the big one - a trip to Glasgow this weekend for Ireland and Celtic in the Jackie McNamara testimonial.

You’ll forgive the flippancy and appreciate that it’s hard to get the dander up for an exceedingly friendly game which arrives sandwiched between two glamorous club finals and the resumption of a World Cup qualifying campaign.

And that’s even allowing for the fact that the occasion in Glasgow tomorrow will carry an added emotional weight, coming as it does the day after the great Martin O’ Neill takes charge of his team for the last time in the Scottish Cup final.

Indeed, in any other week, the moving circumstances of O’ Neill’s resignation and his replacement by Gordon Strachan would have dominated the back pages. Instead, the changing of the guard at Parkhead has barely had a look-in, as the world of football still struggles to come to terms with the astonishing drama of Istanbul on Wednesday.

When the Lisbon Lions of Celtic became the first British trophy to lift the European Cup back in 1967, it was said that some of the team’s supporters never made it home at all. Tales are still told of fans who were so overwhelmed by the life-changing occasion that they lingered too long in Lisbon, fell in love with local girls and stayed to raise families in little fishing villages on the Algarve.

Then too, there is the yarn about one who did make it back - but left something valuable behind. A couple of days after the game, the man was found wandering in a daze around Lisbon airport. Unable to get any sense out of him, the authorities simply gave him a flight ticket and put him on a plane home. In Glasgow airport, still tired and emotional, he was barely able to tell officials where he lived. But eventually, someone managed it get an address out of him and a taxi was called to deposit him outside his house. Great was the relief of his wife when she saw her beloved staggering up to the front door. “Ah, Jock, ye’re home at last,” she said. And then, looking over his shoulder, she asked in a puzzled tone: “But where’s the car?”

Doubtless, the Istanbul adventure is already churning out a thousand and one extraordinary tales. Certainly, as I tried to leave at the crack of dawn on Thursday morning, the scenes at the city’s airport were so chaotic that you’d have to wonder if, even now, some of the fans are still stuck at check-in for flights to Sofia, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Glasgow, Liverpool and all points in between.

But even if the majority of the Red Army have finally made it home, it’s unlikely that any of them will put their feet fully back on the ground for a very long time to come. Even for one who was physically there, the surreal events in the Ataturk Olympic Stadium retain the quality of a dream.

But, at official level, harsh reality has already taken hold, as the row gathers momentum over whether Liverpool should be allowed to defend the trophy. FA Chief Executive Brian Barwick has been quoted as saying: “It’s an exceptional situation, that follows an exceptional match and which we believe requires an exceptional situation.”

This is supposed to be the “common-sense” argument but it sounds much more emotionally-based to me. Are we to take it that if the match hadn’t been “exceptional” - say, if Liverpool had won a dour struggle with a scrappy o.g. - then we wouldn’t be having such a heated debate?

Nor, contrary to Barwick’s claim, is the situation of the champions not defending the Champions’ League exceptional. In 2000, when Real Madrid defended their crown despite finishing fifth in the league, it was only because the Spanish football federation awarded them the spot that rightfully belonged to Real Zaragoza. Thankfully, no one is seriously suggesting Everton should forfeit their well-earned place - it’s enough that the blue half of Merseyside have already seen their season’s thunder stolen by the city rivals they beat into fifth place in the league.

And while there is some logical merit in the view that, in any sport, champions should be able to defend their titles, it’s rather undermined in the context of European football by the fact that the Champions’ League isn’t strictly for champions at all. But I didn’t hear too many complaining about the lack of common sense when fourth-placed Liverpool began their long road to Istanbul.

Frankly, whether or not Liverpool do get a waiver is of less significance, in the bigger picture, than the fact that they actually require one in the first place. For what the current debate really underlines is how barren the club’s season would have been had they not miraculously redeemed it with the fantastic heroics of Istanbul.

For the champions of Europe, as for the FA Cup holders and runners-up, the stark truth is that, at this season ends, you would back none of the three to topple Chelsea next time around.

And, finally, one last snapshot from Istanbul.

On Wednesday morning, I’m standing in a mosque, my shoes held in a plastic bag, having obeyed the strict dress code signs outside which also inform me that gentlemen must wear trousers, not shorts. Nearby, I spot another tourist who clearly didn’t read the instructions. Dressed in t-shirt and shorts, and rubber-necking the impressive dome, it’s none other than Liverpool legend Ian Rush.

It was neither the time nor the place to conduct an exclusive interview, but I’d like to think that if I’d asked ‘Rushie’ for his impressions, he’d have been bound to reply: “It’s like being in a different religion.”