Istanbul CL Final chaos | City Matters statement (p 133)

30 minutes? We queued for 2 hours for the only available food option.

The fan park at the stadium was split 80/20 in terms of beer and food respectively.

Absolutely no queues for beer all day, leading them to sell out at 6pm.

2 hour queues all day for food and soft drinks, absolutely ideal for kids in the sweltering heat!

I’m sure that 80/20 split had absolutely nothing to do with Heineken being a major UEFA sponsor.

How UEFA get these events so diabolically wrong time and time again is just utterly mindblowing.
Basically someone in an office somewhere miles from these events takes a backhander of about 100,000 pounds. He writes a contract stating in simple terms that everything will work perfectly for every match going fan. However it will be worded in a gobbledygook language that no sane person could ever make sense off. It will be an official signed document but if anyone ever tried to trace the companys/people responsible for facilitating these events they would end up in a maze of incompetence. It happens at all major events and these charlatans are reaping in the cash and laughing at the thousands who spend their hard earned cash to be ripped off time and again.
 
Did anyone witness a blue go down in the crowd loads were screaming for help the so called stewards were fucking useless it took ages for anyone to come and help if they’d had a heart attack they’d be toast. I hope they were ok, I said to my mate in the coach if something happens we are fucked there was no one around to help anyone. The press need to push this like the Liverpool thing last year because it could’ve been a lot worse had anything gone wrong.
 
They shut the bars at 7 so again UEFA not quite doing what they communicated to fans.
I’d like to know how the street sellers were allowed inside the stadium to sell their wares (including alcohol and flares which were banned by UEFA)’at full time despite us all having to go through stringent security checks

It literally was like “the games over we couldn’t give a flying f**k about you lot - sort it out amongst yourselves and here’s 20 coaches”
 
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All the locals working at the stadium were really pleasant and helpful., unfortunately the unfit for purpose UEFA hadn't given them the adequate tools.
As great a night as it was, whoever did the due diligence on this - should be sacked, if not have a civil case brought against them.
Utter incompetence.
Any other set of fans (you know who), and it could have turned nasty.
 
I don't think the shuttle buses were a bad idea.
It makes sense to split the fans up to reduce the risk of trouble.
If they were organises much better it would have been fine. They needed more buses to reduce the numbers on them and some sort of bus lane that stopped them getting stuck with all the other traffic and it would have been fine.
In a city like Istanbul the shuttle bus idea was absolutely stupid.

Whoever came up with that idea wouldn't have been using them that's for sure.
 
Did anyone witness a blue go down in the crowd loads were screaming for help the so called stewards were fucking useless it took ages for anyone to come and help if they’d had a heart attack they’d be toast. I hope they were ok, I said to my mate in the coach if something happens we are fucked there was no one around to help anyone. The press need to push this like the Liverpool thing last year because it could’ve been a lot worse had anything gone wrong.
A bloke on the row behind me lost consciousness. Loads of blues screaming for medical assistance and the stewards and other stadium staff and police on the running track area were all just looking over but not doing much.

Took a fair while for any medical staff in the stadium to get to the bloke.

A few blues who were either nurses or doctors tried to assist. Thankfully he regained consciousness once administered oxygen and he was put in a medical chair to be carried up the steps for further attention. They nearly dropped the poor bloke too.

He reappeared for the 2nd half to claps from all the blues around him and saw us win the European Cup so it all ended well but the speed at which the officials reacted was pretty poor.

One young blue was particularly good at getting the attention of the stewards and was rightly very angry at their response.
 
I always like to give every foreign city I visit a chance, but I won’t be coming back to Istanbul again. Bar the general chaos, traffic, size of the city, etc, the theft and ripping people off has left a sour taste in my mouth. I’ve spent endless time checking my pockets to make sure my phone, money and passport haven’t been stolen. Not to mention being over charged for almost everything, taxi, beer, food, etc. I shouldn’t tar the whole city or the Istanbul people in general as many of them have been very friendly, and it’s obviously the way of life in Istanbul, but the trip hasn’t been great in that respect.

Its a failed state at the moment, I used to holiday in Turkey every year. A pint of Efes was 4 Lira, a massive steak 16 Lira about 12 years ago which shows you how bad the inflation is. UEFA should never have held the final there at the moment. Erdogan has gone power mad and is destroying the country.

Turks are a brilliant people but I imagine a lot of them are really struggling atm which obviously breeds more theft and crime.
 
So....what is to be done about all this,and who's going to do it ?

UEFA don't read BM and our media are unlikely to campaign on our behalf.

UEFA must be held to account for ALL their failings,dereliction of duty, duty of care,breach of contract etc.

Could the good Dr Garry act as our spokesman ?.....this must not be allowed to fade away, because next time we could be reporting on deaths !!
 
I’m still here and it’s been a fab six days and I don’t want to write a down post but the events on the stadium spoiled things.
I’m by the mosques wandered to fan zone was told to ditch all water.
Ques for more so I got bus up which was ok 1 hour 30.
Tented areas all full folk trying to grab any shade water £3 a small pot with no cap so had to drink at once.
No sunscreen anywhere I’d packed a 50ml others had larger bottles binned.
Mad bottleneck to get in.
Catering inside well we just didn’t bother until I thought better get water early second half and missed goal.
Couldn’t find shuttle bus went to the road it was chaos ended sharing a cab with two blues and €200 to taksin and he then wanted €120 more to go over the river so we got out middle of nowhere and walked the two miles.Scary but with Google managed it.
How did folk in wheelchairs manage to get through that surface in the car parks?
Most of these problems could have been avoided with a five minute meeting by some with 1/4 of a brain and a tiny bit of organisational flair.
It was like going back 40 years and credit to the blues there as I never saw one instance of bad behaviour all night or week.
Stadium aside the place is clean,safe and welcoming and I’d be back in an instant.
 
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A bloke on the row behind me lost consciousness. Loads of blues screaming for medical assistance and the stewards and other stadium staff and police on the running track area were all just looking over but not doing much.

Took a fair while for any medical staff in the stadium to get to the bloke.

A few blues who were either nurses or doctors tried to assist. Thankfully he regained consciousness once administered oxygen and he was put in a medical chair to be carried up the steps for further attention. They nearly dropped the poor bloke too.

He reappeared for the 2nd half to claps from all the blues around him and saw us win the European Cup so it all ended well but the speed at which the officials reacted was pretty poor.

One young blue was particularly good at getting the attention of the stewards and was rightly very angry at their response.
That’s the one glad to here they were ok
 
So....what is to be done about all this,and who's going to do it ?

UEFA don't read BM and our media are unlikely to campaign on our behalf.

UEFA must be held to account for ALL their failings,dereliction of duty, duty of care,breach of contract etc.

Could the good Dr Garry act as our spokesman ?.....this must not be allowed to fade away, because next time we could be reporting on deaths !!
I totally agree with this now the euphoria has worn off and the full horror has sunk in a bit. I feel like reporting Ceferin for attempted murder. He has 4 club matches a year to organise, has had 3 extra years to ensure Istanbul is fit for purpose and was very probably more worried about his dinner menu than fans. 2 years on the bounce he has endangered supporters at the showpiece event he is responsible for. It is beginning to look deliberate and him, a psychopath as nobody could surely be that incompetent?
 
We all know nothing will happen, the powers that be will say what a wonderful event ??
i didnt understand why we had water taken off us before we jumped on the buses at Yenikapi,
2 hours stood on a bus roasting hot,
we legged it to get on the bus at the stadium as soon as the trophy lift happened, probably got on one of the first 2 or 3 buses, 2 hours to get out the carpark watching people outside scrambling everywhere through the traffic,
how no one was seriously hurt or worse must be a minor miracle, saw one lad pushed up between 2 buses as the back end of one swung round luckily he was nimble enough to just and i mean just get out the way,
absolute shambles, back to hotel in Taksim for 3.30am.
 
A bloke on the row behind me lost consciousness. Loads of blues screaming for medical assistance and the stewards and other stadium staff and police on the running track area were all just looking over but not doing much.

Took a fair while for any medical staff in the stadium to get to the bloke.

A few blues who were either nurses or doctors tried to assist. Thankfully he regained consciousness once administered oxygen and he was put in a medical chair to be carried up the steps for further attention. They nearly dropped the poor bloke too.

He reappeared for the 2nd half to claps from all the blues around him and saw us win the European Cup so it all ended well but the speed at which the officials reacted was pretty poor.

One young blue was particularly good at getting the attention of the stewards and was rightly very angry at their response.
Saw that from above, it was astonishing how long nothing happened, a bloke in a dark suit on a phone for ages, dunno who he was calling but why he didn’t just send a paramedic up is pathetic. Anything uefa touch turns to absolute shit
 

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