The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 291 That Infamous Night

"Even if the team is being strangled, even if Ferguson's anger is ignored, even if Cantona is subjected to police violence, Hughes is brutally assaulted, Bruce almost died, even if the wrong result cannot be changed, we must not lose courage."

--Inscription

Many years later, the official website of the Red Devils published an article by Joe Ganley, recalling the match between the Red Devils and Galatasaray. He said in the article: "It was an infamous night and a landmark match for the Red Devils in the European arena in the 90s. This match witnessed the process and result of the Red Devils being bullied and having no status. This is not the fault of the Red Devils, it is essentially a shame for European football."

The Red Devils' encounter with Galatasaray had not yet ended, but the Red Devils' experience in Turkey had already caused an uproar. But even though countless reporters and media were surprised during the game, and countless fans could not believe what had happened, the game was still irreversibly over, and the Red Devils' elimination was already determined.

As soon as the game was over, Ferguson protested and complained to UEFA on behalf of the team, but Ferguson could not directly accuse UEFA of a crime, nor could he accuse the referee of a crime. Everyone saw what happened, but Ferguson had no solid evidence.

Even if the whole world can see that there is definitely something wrong with this game, that the Red Devils encountered a bad whistle and a conspiracy. But without clear evidence, nothing can be discussed. Bad whistles, wrong decisions, controversial penalties... these things are visible to the naked eye, but they cannot overturn the results, and it is even difficult to directly hold the referee accountable. And even if the Red Devils successfully prove that they were harmed by a wrong decision, it still cannot change anything.

Ferguson has always been upset about this game. He said many years later: "Even a fool can feel that this game is unusual. We have encountered too much unfairness. The opponent players are violently fouling, but every penalty is harmful to the Red Devils. The referee made the result of the game go in the expected direction, and they succeeded in the end. Those whistles are so harsh and those penalties are so incredible that it is impossible not to be suspicious."

This defeat made Ferguson realize the sin of referees, the stupidity of UEFA, and their arrogance and blindness. Ferguson said: "This is not a matter of misjudgment or misjudgment of the game, this is not a matter of poor refereeing or on-the-spot mistakes, this is a crime. We are victims of bad whistles, this is not how the world should be. I believe that there are other games besides the Red Devils, and we need fair and just games."

UEFA ignored the Red Devils' appeal and even imposed additional penalties on Cantona. Years later, the scandal of bribing referees in Turkish football was exposed, and the darkness of this dusty game was finally revealed.

In 2002, Ihsan Düle, a senior retired Turkish referee, was interviewed by the Milliyet newspaper, revealing a corner of the story. Ihsan Düle said: "When I was a referee, I personally experienced at least 50 abnormal matches. In the early 90s, Galatasaray's chairman Alp Yarman came to me specifically, hoping to establish a relationship with an Italian referee. Galatasaray was going to play a match against a Romanian team, and they needed to deal with that referee. I invited that guy to dinner with Chairman Yarman, and the host gave him a gold watch and a considerable amount of money, and also provided him with the services of a prostitute after the meal. In the end, the Italian referee sent off two main players of the Romanian team, one of whom was the goalkeeper, and Galatasaray won smoothly."

"There have been too many such incidents in my career," concluded Ehsan Düle.

This interview caused an uproar, but even though the Romanian Football Association and the victimized clubs actively complained to UEFA, the incident was still covered up by UEFA, and the Turkish government's anti-corruption agency and FIFA did not launch an investigation.

In 2006, more accusations began to emerge. A football insider took the initiative to report that Denizli Club bribed three players from the rival Malayspor Club before the game, with the amount reaching US$ million. In the end, the three players played as requested, and Denizli defeated the opponent smoothly.

The Turkish Football Association bowed to pressure in July and announced an investigation, but in the end the investigation came to nothing and no one was punished.

More than a decade after the match between the Red Devils and Galatasaray, the Turkish government's anti-corruption storm began in the summer of 2011. This storm swept across the football field and finally revealed some of the secrets of that game.

Evidence from Türkiye's anti-mafia investigation showed that this match was a typical case of being manipulated by a black hand. The Red Devils knew nothing about it, but were directly murdered. Under the black hand of the referee, the Red Devils were finally eliminated unjustly.

In the summer of 2011, the Turkish police suddenly took action to directly investigate corruption in the football field. The anti-corruption storm quickly reached a climax. The Turkish police raided several related football clubs, seized a large amount of evidence, and summoned suspects for examination. The police closed the net in July and arrested about 7 players, club managers and officials suspected of match-fixing, including Aziz Yildirim, chairman of the league champion Fenerbahçe club, and Emenik, a Nigerian striker who had just transferred to the team. Yildirim was accused of being the mastermind of the entire criminal group, charged with match manipulation and bribery. The police searched the Fenerbahçe club headquarters, the Sukru Saracooglu Stadium and several locations in Antalya, and seized a large amount of cash. The Turkish police determined that there were major problems in the last game of the Turkish Super League, in which Fenerbahçe defeated Sivas 60:4. Sivas goalkeeper Celikay performed abnormally in the game, and it was obvious that he deliberately lost the game after receiving bribes. The police then continued to investigate and finally announced that 3 games were confirmed to be problematic, including the A-League, the B-League and the Champions League. The Turkish government announced that Fenerbahçe, the champion of the Turkish Super League last season, was suspected of manipulating multiple games and playing match-fixing, and was stripped of the championship honors and disqualified from the UEFA Champions League.

Galatasaray was not among the clubs dug up in the anti-gang storm, but this giant is not glorious either. British journalists obtained secret information from inside Turkey, which included the content of the match between the Red Devils and Galatasaray. Ahmet Kakar, a former international referee in Turkey, revealed that the Champions League match was a match-fixing match. Galatasaray bribed the referee and gave the referee Roethlisberger 100 million Turkish lira (about 40 US dollars), and was finally allowed to advance by the referee.

The British newspaper The Independent and Turkish newspaper Sabah interviewed Ahmet Guvener, former chairman of the Turkish Referee Center. The heavyweight football referee said, "This was a match-fixing in which the referee was bribed. I heard the club official say many times that they bribed Roethlisberger. I can prove that he said this, and he knew I was next to him but he didn't care at all."

Ahmet Kakar, a former international referee who is a household name in Turkey, officiated at the 1996 European Championship and many Champions League matches and was named one of the best referees in the last 26 years of the last century by the International Football History and Statistics Association (IFFHS). Kakar said: "I witnessed Galatasaray official Sami Kogsang offering a bribe to the referee on duty, Swiss Kurt Roethlisberger, to help them in the match against the Red Devils."

Kakar and Cogsang had dinner together that night. Cogsang left the table for a few minutes to make a phone call. When he came back, he proudly told Kakar that he had already arranged for the referee to play. Cogsang said shamelessly that he had contacted Rodriguezberg and asked him to help in the Champions League, and the other party agreed.

Kakar said, "Galatasaray club asked Kogsang to transfer 100 million Turkish liras to Roethlisberger's account as a reward. These are all facts, not fabricated by me. At an appropriate time in the future, I will provide evidence to prove this match-fixing case."

Why is Cogsang so bold and ostentatious?

"Club officials were almost so unscrupulous in that era," Kakar said. "They felt that this could be done openly. They didn't care about keeping it secret and didn't think it was illegal or could not be seen. This shows how serious the black whistle situation was at that time."

Cantona always thought that the game was not clean. He told the reporter of L'Equipe that the referee might have been bribed. The referee was too unprincipled and too dirty during the game! Even when Cantona yelled at him in person, he dared not look Cantona in the eye.

Hughes also felt that the game was very strange. He was violated by the opponent many times and suddenly exploded, becoming a troublemaker everywhere, but he only received a yellow card. Hughes said after the game, "The referee's whistle was completely unreasonable. Frankly speaking, I should have been sent off long ago, but I only got a yellow card. At least three of the opponent's players should have been sent off, but they all made it to the end. The referee may not dare to send me off, and may still want to find a chance to send Cantona off. This is something I did not expect at all."

After the joint report by English and Turkish journalists, Galatasaray Club strongly denied the allegations, denied paying bribes and said they would sue Kakar for defamation.

At the center of the storm is Roethlisberger, a referee who has been found to have problems. His refereeing career was full of bad deeds, and he was later "banned for life" by FIFA. In addition to the Red Devils' match, Roethlisberger also officiated another famous match-fixing in the history of the Champions League, which was the 1993 Champions League final when Marseille defeated Milan. Under his black whistle, Marseille defeated Milan to win the championship, which was a shocking upset. Not only that, Roethlisberger also served as a referee in the 1994 World Cup in the United States, but he was found to have accepted bribes at the time and was sent home directly in the middle of the game. This guy missed a penalty kick to Belgium in the knockout round, which eventually led to Belgium losing 2-3 to Germany and being eliminated.

In addition, Roethlisberger was accused of being involved in fixing the Champions League match between Grasshoppers Zurich of Switzerland and Auxerre of France. FIFA eventually banned him for life.

In 2013, UEFA launched an investigation and announced a penalty decision against the shady Turkish football. Fenerbahçe became the focus again, and they and Besiktas were again found to have played match-fixing. Fenerbahçe was banned from European competitions for three years, and Besiktas was banned from participating in the 2013-2014 Europa League.

However, UEFA still refuses to investigate and disclose the truth about the Red Devils' victimization. The injustice suffered by the Red Devils in Türkiye is still hard to describe.

The Red Devils were eliminated in this game, which almost led to the team being overtaken in the league, losing the League Cup, and a series of other bad consequences. Ferguson and the Red Devils were not only hit in terms of competition, but also in terms of physical injuries to the players and serious financial losses to the club. Fortunately, Ferguson was strong-willed and would not shrink back because of a little setback, nor would he be discouraged by a bad whistle.

Ferguson understood this, as he had already understood it when he was in the Scottish League. When he led Aberdeen to break the monopoly of the two giants, and when he led Aberdeen to conquer Europe, he also suffered the same treatment, and finally broke through the siege with strong strength and tenacity.

Ferguson understood that if the Red Devils wanted to go further in the Champions League and truly become a strong team in European competitions, they had to make themselves stronger so that they could control their destiny in the endless battles.

Joe Gonley said: "From this game, we witnessed how Ferguson's team grew from being hit hard, eliminated early and restricted by the three foreign players rule to winning the 3 Champions League."