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Police ahead of the game

May 11 2005

By James Glover, Liverpool Echo

 

Liverpool players celebrate Luis Garcia's goal against Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final second leg

TAKE a country with a recent history scarred by incidents of horrific football trouble and brutal violence by police.

Add a team whose last European fixture was ruined by hooliganism and another whose fans were locked in a castle before an away game.

Sprinkle in the tension surrounding the biggest game in club football anywhere in the world - the Champions League final between AC Milan and Liverpool in Istanbul on May 25.

Now police from Merseyside have teamed up with their counterparts in Turkey to draw up plans to keep the lid on any trouble, and prevent violence simmering or boiling over at the event.

Features of the plan include:

* Home Office cash to be spent putting hundreds of police on duty at every major port and airport in Britain to stop suspected troublemakers from travelling, the same scale of operation as for an England match.

* Istanbul to be split into a Liverpool and a Milan end where the two sets of supporters will be taken by coaches.

* Police using a firm but fair approach with the supporters - with many officers kept in reserve in case of outbreaks of violence.

* Turkish police to get tips on keeping fans apart in a fact-finding visit to Liverpool this weekend.

* Liverpool fans getting their own airport to fly into, with no planes other than those carrying Reds fans arriving there in the days before and after the game.

Every plane arriving in Istanbul carrying Liverpool fans will arrive at the tiny Sabiha Gokcen airport and coaches will then ferry fans to Tacsim Square in the city centre.

Milan fans will be taken to the other side of the city but police have said they will not try to keep them apart.

Chief Superintendent Dave Lewis, of Merseyside police, said: "We want the fans to be able to see the city.

"I asked the Turkish match commander the direct question whether he felt our supporters would be at risk in the city centre.

"He gave a very firm 'no'. There's nothing to suggest either the Milan fans or the locals will cause us any trouble.

"It's up to the Liverpool supporters to behave respectably and act as great ambasadors for the city."

 
 

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