British Govt drawn into England row

UEFA have raised their concerns with British sports minister Richard Caborn about England’s remaining European Championship qualifier in Turkey.

The matter was raised at a meeting yesterday afternoon between Caborn and UEFA’s chief executive Gerhard Aigner and communications director Mike Lee, and the minister promised Government action to do everything possible to prevent fans travelling to Istanbul.

UEFA will press ahead with a meeting of the English and Turkish football associations, pencilled in for September 25 in Nyon, Switzerland, to calm rising tensions between the organisations ahead of the game on October 11.

Lee said: “It was a very useful meeting. Richard Caborn made it clear the government would make every effort to ensure a safe and secure environment for the game.

“He expressed his total support for the policy of no fans travelling and said the Government would use all means available to them to try and make sure that this was achieved.”

The meeting at UEFA’s Swiss headquarters comes after the president of the Turkish Football Federation Haluk Ulusoy criticised England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson for warning fans their safety was in jeopardy if they defied advice and travelled to Istanbul for next month’s game.

He said: “I think Eriksson has forgotten the Heysel disaster. Of course he doesn’t want England fans in Turkey because he doesn’t want them to see a defeat.”

UEFA were furious and have tried to contact Ulusoy for an explanation.

Lee said: “The comments attributed to the president of the Turkish Football Federation are, to say the least, unfortunate.”

Caborn, Aigner and Lee also discussed moves to persuade the European Community to give sport special status and also discussed the campaign against racism in football.