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

kerem gokmen said:
i have so much to write about those issues. i am writing, and erasing immediately. dont wanna get into trouble. issues will be mostly political (police, government stuff, shitty stadium etc.)

younger-middle aged fans; you had a great experience about a 3rd world country. take it that way. but i still apologize for the problems you experienced.

but, i am really
so sorry and sad about elderly and disabled fans....i send my deepest apologies for my country. actually i forgot to think about that issue (disabled and old fans) when i started to write you. wish that issue came to my mind, maybe i could have done better. i could easely arrange some busses for them; but could not think that uefa shuttles will be that shitty. anyway, everthing has been passed. nothing i/we can do. actually i wanted to write those issues to municipality, but i am sure they will not care. anyway really sorry.

i was expecting a chaos after game. dont wanted to scare you much, as some of you know, i stopped writing negative issues about istanbul after a while.... anyway, again, it has been passed, nothing again i/we can do.

why am i writing this? dont know. just sad about the disabled fans and elderly esp. again sorry guys. so sorry. i hope you are safe and calm now.

you have experienced at least some of the stuff we are dealing with in this country...

keep in touch next time, for the ones who will come to visit again. everthing will be better. i will involve more. and 100% wear my scaremonger mask; will not care about any criticism about my pessimism.

see you later.
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You’ve nowt to apologise for, mate.

You’ve done more to help out City fans than UEFA ever have!
 
All these people and between them they can't arrange water and a shuttle bus system, they just don't care.

uefa_executive_committee_constitutive_meeting_-_47th_uefa_ordinary_congress.jpeg
 
Dubai Blue said:
I've got a mate who works high up in events over here and he's always on the front line when hosting events (some of them massive like Expo 2020) so he can learn lessons for the future. That's what he gets paid for. But it seems anyone who works for City or UEFA is completely oblivious to the issues we all faced cos once it comes to matchday, they're all treated as VIPs. It's a complete pisstake. There should be people whose job it is to go through the exact same experience as the fans so these things don't keep happening.
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Until Khaldoon and Ferran have to walk queue up for half an hour for a Met in the rain, have to use the car parks around the stadium, have a ticket in the East Stand and have to walk all the way up to the bridge just to get to ANR, have to try and get tickets for games, have utter nobodies from nowhere get priority over them for big games, have to walk through the giant puddles around the Etihad when it rains, have to experience things like the farce around the CL final… they’ll forever be oblivious to it and even if informed will never understand what it feels like.
 
BringBackSwales said:
In theory yes but have you heard one word from the club about our shitty treatment in Istanbul? Too busy fawning to dippers and uefa
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Sorry, I agree with you… I should have elaborated… the fact that they aren’t working for us to look after us as best they possibly can and aren’t always backing us to the hilt shows they aren’t always doing such a brilliant job.

They are incredible on the pitch but still ver very lacking off it in many areas.
 
Psychedelic Casual said:
Sorry, I agree with you… I should have elaborated… the fact that they aren’t working for us to look after us as best they possibly can and aren’t always backing us to the hilt shows they aren’t always doing such a brilliant job.

They are incredible on the pitch but still ver very lacking off it in many areas.
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I go to watch football with the fans and I support the fans, couldn't really care less who runs or owns it because it's fairly obvious they don't care too much about their customers or they would do something about it.

That applies to FIFA and UEFA and the FA too, all these rainbows and kisses mean fuck all at the end of the day.
 
Alex - City Matters said:
As you might have seen, I am trying to pull together something comprehensive to take the club/wherever is appropriate. Really appreciate everyone that has sent through their experiences so far.

In regard to your second question, the club did have representatives out in Istanbul before the final on a number of occasions as part of the engagement that UEFA undertake with all clubs that are in the latter stages of the competition. They raised a number of issues, such as the fan park and travel, but ultimately had to trust that UEFA and the local organising committee would rectify them.

I have asked why they haven’t raised it more publicly. In any case, part of the exercise I am undertaking will hopefully mean that they cannot ignore the plight of our supporters last weekend.
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Thanks for all your help Alex. We were on the day trip that City organised via Sportsworld. Those that were on the 3:30am return flights were always concerned that if the game went to ET and penalties that we’d struggle getting back by 2:45am when they said check-in would be closed. UEFA said on their app that the tour operators had to book a bus shuttle back to the airport AND said those buses would be waiting for us. Then, on the flight, we were given wrist straps to identify which flights we were on so we would be prioritised for the shuttles. Clearly none of this happened but I think there’s a good chance that us on these flights triggered or exacerbated the lack of queuing because we all seemed to be looking for our “reserved” coaches rather than the end of a queue.

My point is that UEFA were clearly aware that the timeframes were tight before factoring in the chaos but then didn’t do anything about it.
 
bladdered said:
https://cityxtra.co.uk/4468/motorho...ague-final-between-manchester-city-and-inter/

Good summary of the shit show.
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"Ultimately, everything boils down to two main points: The 2023 UEFA Champions League final should not have been held at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium, and that UEFA have absolutely no consideration for supporter safety and welfare."

The last point sickens me. It's only luck that meant nobody vulnerable died in that car park, it was a physical trial for me and I ran a marathon a couple of months ago.
 
We the fans that suffered this shit show need to come together to drive this,unfortunately,
The British media and radio silence from City, have buried this already!
The Daily mail ran a small article 3/4 down its sport page yesterday, that disappeared after lunchtime, Talkshite ran a five minute article about “Man City fans claims” of UEFA & the stadium not being fit for purpose.
The contrast between last year and this years media coverage is startling,
I’m afraid we’re already going to have to go it alone on this one…
 
Psychedelic Casual said:
Until Khaldoon and Ferran have to walk queue up for half an hour for a Met in the rain, have to use the car parks around the stadium, have a ticket in the East Stand and have to walk all the way up to the bridge just to get to ANR, have to try and get tickets for games, have utter nobodies from nowhere get priority over them for big games, have to walk through the giant puddles around the Etihad when it rains, have to experience things like the farce around the CL final… they’ll forever be oblivious to it and even if informed will never understand what it feels like.
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Almost everybody these days has a mobile phone. Does anyone have footage or photos of what they had to go through. Just to let the rest of us who didn't go see what the attending fans had to put up with.
 
east2 said:
We the fans that suffered this shit show need to come together to drive this,unfortunately,
The British media and radio silence from City, have buried this already!
The Daily mail ran a small article 3/4 down its sport page yesterday, that disappeared after lunchtime, Talkshite ran a five minute article about “Man City fans claims” of UEFA & the stadium not being fit for purpose.
The contrast between last year and this years media coverage is startling,
I’m afraid we’re already going to have to go it alone on this one…
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Where do you want to go it to?

Yes it was shit and there has been criticism - just do a search.
The person who did the due diligence and signed off on this venue (although I liked the feel of the stadium once in) should be sacked.
Knowing they had this event for such a long time, the Turkish authorities should have closed the roads to the ground to all but match traffic.
The very least you'd have thought they'd have done - was throw a bit of tarmac down on the car-parks and surrounds.

But let's not get too dipper about this.

There were many plus points and no trouble, the police weren't heavy handed and I assume we all made it home eventually and feeling very happy.

Chalk it down as a bad experience combined with a magical one.

Although they probably won't acknowledge it - lessons will gradually be learned.

A particular highlight was a load of blues pissing behind trees on a central reservation, only yards from the turnstiles - suddenly being chased by a herd of goats.

Life experiences - good and bad and bizarre, all in one evening.
 
Dobsy said:
"Ultimately, everything boils down to two main points: The 2023 UEFA Champions League final should not have been held at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium, and that UEFA have absolutely no consideration for supporter safety and welfare."

The last point sickens me. It's only luck that meant nobody vulnerable died in that car park, it was a physical trial for me and I ran a marathon a couple of months ago.
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Exactly this! I am an active 60 year old. I stood for 15 hours from queueing for the bus right to getting back into Istanbul. Did UEFA consider this would have to happen. I saw other fans having to sit down on the coach, having to stand on the coach because sitting down to long was hard for them. I saw some having to sit during the game because they could stand no more. All the problems were down to the two main problems above.
 
Greenandblue said:
In fairness to Sly News, this is a pretty good bit of advocacy for the fans

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It's very hard to make UEFA do anything when they quite frankly don't give a fuck about any fans, you can guarantee that the food for the great and the good and transport out of the venue was laid on.

Fans should stick together and not trust UEFA or even MCFC football club, have they commented yet even?
 
Dobsy said:
"Ultimately, everything boils down to two main points: The 2023 UEFA Champions League final should not have been held at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium, and that UEFA have absolutely no consideration for supporter safety and welfare."

The last point sickens me. It's only luck that meant nobody vulnerable died in that car park, it was a physical trial for me and I ran a marathon a couple of months ago.
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absolutely.
i dont wanna involve much, but i cant stop myself. the thing is:
turkey wants to hold european championships for years. (again probably strongest candidate for 2028, will be decided in october). anyway, again turkey was the stongest candidate for 2020 or 2024 i cant remember. then something happened behind the doors; and uefa did not gave euros to turkey. turkey is pushing too much; and uefa gave a super cup final in 2019 and a champs league final as a consolotion.
it is stupidity to push that much to hold champs league final in that shitty stadium. now,normally, they risk their chance to hold euro 2028 after those incidents happened... but i dont think UEFA cares, as you know. other lobbies (you understand what i am talking about) are important to hold those organizations. Uefa or Fifa are worse (rotten) than any government on earth.
 
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Dobsy said:
"Ultimately, everything boils down to two main points: The 2023 UEFA Champions League final should not have been held at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium, and that UEFA have absolutely no consideration for supporter safety and welfare."

The last point sickens me. It's only luck that meant nobody vulnerable died in that car park, it was a physical trial for me and I ran a marathon a couple of months ago.
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The buses slowly nudging forward jockeying for position to get out of the car park. They also had a lot of fans walking between them in a poorly lit area, it was lucky no one was crushed to death in between them. I saw the gap between two buses I was going to walk between but decided to go the long way round. Nothing will get done about what happened before and after the game unfortunately.
 
they won't give a fuck because there was nobody required to be pepper sprayed, tear gassed or walloped by a riot cop, now if we were dippers on the other hand all hell would have broke loose with the army deployed and a full inquiry followed by compo for the fans
 
Citizen of Legoland said:
Thanks for all your help Alex. We were on the day trip that City organised via Sportsworld. Those that were on the 3:30am return flights were always concerned that if the game went to ET and penalties that we’d struggle getting back by 2:45am when they said check-in would be closed. UEFA said on their app that the tour operators had to book a bus shuttle back to the airport AND said those buses would be waiting for us. Then, on the flight, we were given wrist straps to identify which flights we were on so we would be prioritised for the shuttles. Clearly none of this happened but I think there’s a good chance that us on these flights triggered or exacerbated the lack of queuing because we all seemed to be looking for our “reserved” coaches rather than the end of a queue.

My point is that UEFA were clearly aware that the timeframes were tight before factoring in the chaos but then didn’t do anything about it.
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I did wander what the point of them wristbands were. No chance we were getting on any kind of special reserved bus. I actually found myself and my lad very lucky to be passing one after wandering around for ages , and its doors suddenly opening and lighting up with IST AIRPORT wrote on. That journey was an endurance test to say the least. God help anyone with health conditions, disabled or the elderly.
 
I think throwing in matchday experience gripes at City in with the shitshow that was Istanbul is unfair and unproductive. Istanbul showed me how good we have it in Manchester, to be honest. I don't mind queuing for a shuttle bus, the problem is there wasn't a queue or discernable system. Istanbul was borderline criminal, and actively discriminating to any fan with seen or unseen disabilities, pregnant women, and older or younger fans. This is 100% on UEFA rather than City.
 
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