euro-spy: Turks veto crusade for fair play

Uefa's efforts to promote fair play were lost on Turkey's football reporters, who have slammed the defender Alpay Ozalan for not stopping Croatia's Goran Vlaovic run from the half-way line to score a late winner at the City Ground on Tuesday.

Newspapers said Alpay, praised by European football's governing body for his "gentlemanly conduct" in not fouling his opponent, should have had no qualms about using underhand methods to stop Vlaovic's solo run. "He could have hung on to his waist and prevented the goal," the newspaper Hurriyet said. "It might have been a bit ugly but he could even have tripped him up from behind. At least we would have won a point."

Sabah, a rival paper, went even further: "No team made up of professionals would have lost a goal like that."