Death threat player retires from international football

Northern Ireland's Catholic captain Neil Lennon, who withdrew from Northern Ireland's match against Cyprus in Belfast last night after his family received paramilitary death threats, today announced his retirement from international football.

Lennon announced his decision before returning to Glasgow whwere he plays for Celtic. He said he took it because he "could not keep putting myself and my family through this".

The 31-year-old player praised the support he had received from the Irish Football Association, his manager and the "real" Northern Ireland fans. He had enjoyed playing for the team, but he was confident his decision was right for himself and the team, he added.

Hours before the player was due to lead the team on to the pitch at Windsor Park, in a Protestant district of Belfast, the IFA announced that he would not be playing. Lennon, a midfield player withh Celtic, had been due to captain his country and win his 41st cap.

It was not the first time the 31-year-old footballer has had to face threats to his safety and that of his family. He almost quit international football when his family received death threats before a match against Norway last year and has been booed whenever he touches the ball by a minority of Northern Ireland fans during previous appearances.

"After close consultation with the footballing authorities and the Police Service of Northern Ireland, I will not be participating in this evening's international game," Lennon said last night.

"I am very disappointed that my desire to play for my country, on my first opportunity to captain my team, has been taken away from me."

Jim Boyce, the president of the Irish Football Association, said: "No one knows if this is serious or a crank but at the end of the day I have to respect the player's views.

"It is a terrible blight once again on society in Northern Ireland, especially when you think of the efforts made by the Irish Football Association to stamp this sort of thing out."

Last night's incident is the latest in a long and sorry litany in which sectarian divisions have overflowed into Northern Ireland sport in general and football in particular.

The level of hostility and hatred at Windsor Park towards Catholic players is almost legendary. Some of the more extreme supporters of the most polarised clubs appear to regard football as a battle rather than a game.

On more than one occasion sectarian football rivalry has turned to terrorist violence, such as an occasion in the 1990s when a loyalist threw a hand grenade into part of a ground occupied by Catholic supporters and 20 years earlier when four members of a junior Belfast club, which was religiously mixed, were assassinated in a year. Last night's threats of terrorist violence were reportedly issued by the Loyalist Volunteer Force, a hardline group whose stronghold is in Portadown and Lurgan. The organisation was once headed by Billy Wright, who was assassinated in the Maze Prison in December 1997 months before the Good Friday Agreement was forged.