I nodded.
‘Then according to UEFA a match which has begun must be completed as soon as possible. UEFA rules also forbid domestic games taking place in Europe on the same night as the Champions League or Europa League games. Tomorrow night is also a Champions League night. There are no domestic games anywhere else. From a scheduling standpoint it would seem to make sense that we complete this match at the earliest available opportunity that is convenient to both teams.’
‘You mean tomorrow,’ I said.
‘I do mean tomorrow, Mr Manson.’ He sighed. ‘Come what may.’
I knew exactly what Verhofstadt meant by that. He meant that we would have to play the game even if Bekim Develi died; but I hardly wanted to admit out loud that this was a possibility, even though I knew in my heart of hearts that this felt like something much more than just possible.
‘Come what may. That also makes sense. It’s not like we had many travelling fans here tonight. I think most of our supporters were already here on holiday.’ I nodded. ‘I mean, we’re all here in Greece. If we don’t play tomorrow then it’s hard to imagine when we are going to be able to play this cup tie. We’ve got Chelsea on Saturday, and then we’re supposed to have the home match of this cup tie, next week.’ I glanced at Gary Ferguson. ‘It’s either that or we withdraw from the competition. What do you think, Gary?’
‘We can’t withdraw,’ he said firmly. ‘No, boss. If we have to play we have to play. I don’t know of any circumstances under which Bekim would want us to withdraw from the Champions League — not on his account, anyway. Especially not now we’re a goal up.’ He took a superhuman drag on the cigarette and then used it to reinforce the point he was now making. ‘Look, I don’t know how to say this, boss, except to mention an old movie I once saw, with Charlton Heston. Bekim Develi is your El Cid kind of guy. I mean, dead or alive, he’d want us to be there tomorrow. To play, you know?’ He shrugged. ‘Just for the record, I’d feel the same way. My club, do or die, okay?’
Verhofstadt looked at Trikoupis.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I agree. We can play tomorrow, as well.’
‘Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you all for being so accommodating in an extremely difficult and tragic situation.’
I shook hands with Hristos Trikoupis and then with Mr Verhofstadt.
‘Then that’s settled,’ he said. ‘This match will be postponed until tomorrow.’
As Gary and I left the officials’ room, Trikoupis drew me aside.
‘I didn’t want to say this in front of the UEFA guy,’ he said, suddenly much less amicable. ‘After all, you’re a big boy now, Scott. But do you really know what the fuck you’re doing? I don’t think so. You think it was tough out there tonight? That was nothing compared to how it will be tomorrow. Don’t think that we’re going to go easy on you just because you have a player who had a heart attack. A player, I might add, who was not much loved after what he said about this country at the press conference the other night.’
‘Like I said earlier, I don’t think we have any other choice but to play.’
‘If you like. But you can depend on this. Tomorrow night, we’re going to fuck you in the ass. We’re going to comprehensively destroy you all. And then we’re going to tie your bodies to our chariots and drag you around the walls of this stadium in triumph. And however bad you feel now you will certainly feel worse tomorrow. My advice to you is this. Go home now. While you still can.’
I was still feeling too numb about what had happened to Bekim otherwise I might have told Hristos Trikoupis to go and fuck himself, especially after what he’d said about me in the newspapers. But things were quite bad enough without me starting a fight with another manager under the eyes of the local police. So I turned away without another word and went back to the dressing room where I told the players of what had been decided.
Not long after that Simon Page returned with the news that several of us had expected and all of us were dreading: Bekim Develi was dead.
It took me several moments before I could respond. When I finally did, I said:
‘We’ll leave it to the people in the media to idealise the man and enlarge him in death beyond what he was in life. That’s what they like to do but it’s not what Bekim would have wanted. I know that because last night, after that disastrous press conference, I asked him why he’d said what he said. And he replied: “The truth is the truth. I say it when I see it and that’s just the way I am.” Those of us who loved Bekim Develi, for who he really was, we’ll just leave it at this: we will remember him as a man who always tried, as a man who never gave up, as a man who defended fair play for all, but above all we will remember him as a truly great sportsman. When one of your team mates dies like this, I don’t know — this is about as bad as it gets. But tomorrow we’ll have the opportunity then as a team to show him how much we valued the time we had with him.’
I stood up. ‘Come on, lads. Have a shower and let’s get on that coach.’
18
Of course I’d never wanted Bekim Develi at the club. It had been Viktor’s idea to buy him from Dynamo St Petersburg. But Bekim had quickly impressed us all with his discipline and absolute commitment to the football club, not to mention his enormous technical ability. More importantly, he’d been lucky for us, which is to say he’d scored goals, more than a dozen goals in less than four months, important goals that had enabled us to finish fourth in the table behind Chelsea, Man City and Arsenal; if I had to single out one player who had helped us to qualify for Europe it would have been Bekim Develi. Yes, there had been times when I could have wished for him to be less outspoken but that was the red devil for you: mischief was hard-wired into his DNA. It was a part of him, like the red beard on his face.
Now that he was gone I wondered which of us — me or Viktor Sokolnikov — was going to telephone Bekim’s girlfriend, Alex, back in London and tell her the bad news. Vik had already spoken to her several times to assure her that everything that could be done was being done. The fact was Vik had known them both for longer than I had and, much to my relief, he volunteered to make the call himself. I’ll say one thing for our Ukrainian proprietor: he never shirked a difficult job.
‘Besides,’ he said, ‘she’s Russian and she ought to hear this terrible thing in her own language. Bad news is always less kind in translation.’ Vik shook his head. ‘Please, excuse me. Help yourself to a drink and make yourself comfortable. I may be a while.’
He went away and was gone for almost forty minutes.
We were on Vik’s yacht, The Lady Ruslana. His helicopter had flown me from the landing pad in front of the hotel onto the ship soon after my arrival back in Vouliagmeni from the Karaiskakis Stadium. He’d offered me dinner on-board, which I declined. I had no appetite for food although the same could not be said of his other guests on the yacht — Phil Hobday, Kojo Ironsi, flicking mosquitoes away with one of those African fly-whisks, Cooper Lybrand wearing an immaculate white linen suit that made him look like Gatsby, a couple of Greek businessmen who had lost their razors, and several pretty girls — who even now were loudly tucking in to dinner on the outside deck that would not have disgraced the table of a minor Roman emperor. Even close to the death of someone I was sure he had cared a lot about, Vik lived well; perhaps that’s the only way to be: with an eye not to the future, or the past but only on the present. Tempus fugit and all that.
The yacht’s red ensign flag at half-mast was a nice touch but I could have done without Kojo’s big, booming laugh; or the fireworks and lightshow on another yacht — bigger than the Vatican State and just as opulent — moored about a hundred metres away.