Past experience has proved to be no Turkish delight

So, sighs of relief all around. We needn't have worried about the English fans after all. Nope, there's just the prospect of second leg play-off match in Turkey to savour. Well, up at Merrion Square they were savouring it so much that within hours of yesterday's draw the FAI had suggested it might be better if Irish fans stayed at home and settled for watching the game on television.

Certainly few of those who accompanied the Irish on their previous trips to Turkey will need much encouragement to give this trip a miss. In 1990 and 1991 visiting supporters were set upon by local hooligans, the Irish being spat at, urinated upon and physically attacked.

Many of those who travelled to Istanbul for the European Championship tie there in '91 didn't even make it into the stadium. Local radio reportedly announced beforehand that a number of seats for the game would be given free of charge to Turks showing up for the match on the day and when the Irish arrived they were discouraged from pointing out that the seats in question had in fact been theirs.

Since then, supporters of the Turkish game insist that policing at games in the city has improved dramatically, a claim supported by the security presence at the Champions League match between Galatasaray and Juventus last December. With tensions running high between Turkey and Italy over the refusal of the Rome government to extradite Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan some trouble was expected at the Ali Sami Yen stadium where more than 50,000 spectators were due to attend the game.

The reaction of the local authorities was to deploy 22,000 police and troops around the ground and to have a helicopter standing by to evacuate the visiting team in the event things still got out of hand. As it happens, the match passed off without serious incident.

The same couldn't be said of Manchester United's visit to the same ground back in 1993. The fact local supporters held placards with "Welcome to hell" emblazoned across them as the United party arrived in the country hardly bode well for the game itself and in the ground there were problems when some visiting players, Eric Cantona amongst them, were attacked by police when leaving the pitch at the end of what had been a stormy encounter. But that was mild by comparison with the problems the night before at a hotel where many of the United fans were staying. The building was besieged by Galtasaray supporters who threw rocks and bottles at any of the English followers they spotted. Several of the visitors, drunk and naked, then made a grim situation grimmer by wiping their genitalia on the Turkish national flag.

When the police arrived more than 200 United fans were arrested and most spent the night in cells. 217 fans were deported the following morning. Six, never alleged to be the ones involved in the flag incident, were held for almost a month in the Bayrampasa prison, an establishment best known for its starring role in the film Midnight Express.

The problem of violence at games in Turkey isn't restricted to matches involving overseas teams. Local rivalries, particularly those between the big Istanbul teams, are strong and the atmosphere at matches is generally said to be extremely tense.

There have been a number of incidents at games over the years in which people have been seriously injured and in 1996 a 16-year-old Trabzonspor supporter was shot in the mouth and then run over in an attack widely believed to have been carried out by Fenerbahce supporters.

Ovul Tezisler, a journalist with the Turkish Radio and television Corporation said yesterday that the problem of violence in the game was no longer an issue and described claims that Irish supporters should stay at home as "rubbish".

"The supporters in Turkey are passionate but we have never seen anything like the incidents that took place when England visited Lansdowne Road. The game will be exciting and whatever happens, afterwards the Irish will be able to enjoy some beers. There will be no problems at all."

However, one Irish businessman based in the country told The Irish Times last night he would not advise Irish supporters to travel unless there are strong guarantees given in regard to security at and after the game. Even then, he said, those who go should avoid wearing jerseys or anything that would draw attention to themselves when they leave the stadium. "If the Turks win," he suggested "then I'm sure that things will be fine but if they don't then you'd want to be very, very careful indeed."