Book description
Bin Laden-funded terrorist cells dotted around France had been
prepared to mount assaults calculated to cause mayhem, outrage and
horror. Their targets were the United States Embassy in Paris, a
nuclear power station (into which they planned to crash a civilian
airliner in a chilling foretaste of later events) and the United
States football team in their hotel.
Finally, before a live television audience expected to number
upwards of 300 million, Bin Laden's Algerian cohorts planned an
audacious on-pitch assault against the stars of the England team
during their first group match against Tunisia in Marseilles.
Terror on the Pitch reveals startling documentation of the
planning of these four horrific attacks and details an astonishing hit
list, ordered by Al Qaeda's commander-in-chief, identifying which
England players were to be singled out by his terrorists inside
Stade-Vélodrome. Posing as stewards, the men would use grenades,
handguns and TNT to attack the England team and fans. Had the plan
succeeded, it would have surpassed the tragedy that befell the Israeli
team at the 1972 Munich Olympics as the sporting world's worst-ever
atrocity.
Amazingly, this true story has remained largely unreported for four
years and only now is the extent of the plot revealed - and how close
the terrorists came to succeeding.
Adam Robinson is based in the Middle East and is a regular
contributor to newspapers in the Arab world and also to the British
media. He is the author of numerous books on the region, including
Bin Laden: Behind the Mask of the Terrorist
.
