Turkish international Tugay today denied making death threats to David Beckham and Rio Ferdinand during the fiery European Championship qualifier on Wednesday.
According to a report Tugay warned that the players would suffer when they travelled to Turkey for the final game of Group Seven in October.
The report claimed Tugay said to an England player during Wednesday's match that "when Beckham and Ferdinand come to Istanbul they are going to die. You cannot imagine how horrible the things will be that will happen to you".
However, the Blackburn midfielder spoke to his club manager Graeme Souness about the allegation this morning and has insisted he made no such remark.
Souness said: "I have spoken to the player and he said he did not say anything like that at all to David Beckham or any other player. I believe him and I would ask the public to believe him as well.
"There were things said and some non-playing officials from Turkey saying things in that fashion but Tugay denies he said anything like that".
Souness does not believe Tugay will become a marked man as a result, saying: "I think the British public are aware that on occasion you cannot believe everything you read".
The Blackburn boss, formerly manager of Turkey's leading club Galatasaray, was at the game at the Stadium of Light as one of Sky Sports' panel of experts.
"It was a great game of football - frantic and played like a cup-tie. It was a great game for England - they would have wanted to be confronted by a team that wanted to win in an aggressive fashion," he said.
PA