THE Briton stabbed during the first outbreak of violence between English and Turkish football fans before last night's Uefa Cup final in Denmark said he was only an inch from death.
Arsenal fan Paul Dineen initially thought he had been punched when he was stabbed near Rosie McGee's bar, just off Radhuspladsen Square in the Danish capital of Copenhagen.
The 41-year-old father-of-three said: ''There was pandemonium going on - bottles, glasses and bicycles being thrown around - and suddenly I felt what I thought was a punch in the back.
''Then I felt liquid, blood, and fell to the ground. I was in unbearable pain as my friends helped me, and I thought I was going to die. I don't know if it hit my lung but I was told I was one inch away from death.''
Mr Dineen, from Edgware, north London, hit out at the lack of policing in Copenhagen and condemned the fans from Turkish club, Galatasaray - the same team whose fans were involved in clashes last month which resulted in two Leeds United supporters being killed.
''After what happened in Istanbul and now this, I think the Turks should be thrown out of the competition,'' he said. ''The policing was non-existent. On a high-profile occasion like this, you need firm but fair policing, with a lot of officers out and about, and I'm sure in Italy or France that would have happened.''
But the Arsenal fan last night got his wish to see the game. After he was released from hospital, Mr Dineen was taken to the hotel where club directors are staying, said an Arsenal spokesman.
''They are looking after him and taking him to the match and giving him a VIP seat,'' he added.
During the first outbreak of fighting - in which Mr Dineen and a Turkish fan were both stabbed - missiles of all kinds were thrown by Turks and returned by the English.
Bottles, glasses and bicycles flew through the night air as the battle raged.
Order was eventually re-established and for much of yesterday the two sets of supporters mingled together in the city streets. But by mid-afternoon violence erupted again with exchanges of missiles between the rival groups in Radhuspladsen Square.
The renewed violence came as the wife of one of the Leeds United fans stabbed to death in Istanbul said she wanted ''no more widows'' as a result of a football match.
Mrs Susan Speight's husband, father-of-two Kevin, 40, of Farsley, near Leeds, and Christopher Loftus, 35, of Harehills, Leeds, were killed on the eve of Leeds United's game on April 5. Five men have been charged with the two men's murders.
Mrs Speight's solicitor Philip Howell said: ''Susan has lost her husband and her two children will grow up without their father as a result of a mindless act of violence. Her earnest wish is that there be no more violence and she has asked those who are contemplating it to think of her situation and how their wives and children would feel if they were murdered by a hooligan allegedly supporting a football team. Most of all she wants no more widows as a result of a football match.''
Mr Howell said Mrs Speight also believed firmer action could have been taken by Uefa, the game's European governing body.
Shadow Culture, Media, and Sport Minister Peter Ainsworth condemned the behaviour of both sets of fans as ''utterly disgraceful''.
He added: ''The running battles in Copenhagen, in which innocent and genuine football fans and families have found themselves trapped, fuels the concerns I have over the suitability of Charleroi for the high-profile England versus Germany Euro 2000 fixture on June 17.
''Questions need to be answered as to how these hooligans were able to travel to Copenhagen in the first place. Urgent lessons need to be learnt before the first ball kicks off in Euro 2000.''
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