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

You weren’t on our bus when the driver didn’t seem to know the way, when it got to half 3 in the morning and we were still driving he was getting some shit believe you me.
Our driver dropped us just outside Yenikapi, it was 8 miles and 18 minutes to our hotel in Kadikoy, first taxi quoted us €250, the metro was shut by then, eventually got one for £60 but the price went up a tenner on route. The equivalent taxi to Manchester from Ashton, a similar journey, is around £25, nearly triple the cost, those fuckers knew people didn’t have a choice.
 
You weren’t on our bus when the driver didn’t seem to know the way, when it got to half 3 in the morning and we were still driving he was getting some shit believe you me.

3/4 of ours committed mutiny and got off the one from the airport. They didn't have a clue where they were in Istanbul but still thought they'd get to the fan zone quicker than by staying on the bus. Bus driver must have been under instructions as he was clearly reluctant to let them off but tempers were beginning to flare and he obviously thought it was in his own best interests to do so.
 
Check getting on bus. Then a further check getting in the fanzone! Why?
Checks checks and more checks. Including the airports must’ve gone through about ten different checkpoints. Once through you’d have expected a land of milk and honey with flunkies wafting huge feathers whilst scantily clad nymphs dropped grapes into our mouths. Instead it was a dry wasteland of run out beer and two concession stands selling water no bigger than an egg cup full.
All in all it was a good job we won that’s all I can say on the Atatürk hell.
Couldn't agree more with this, if we had lost I think the atmosphere on that wasteland and the coaches would've been so different.
We were also dropped at the side of the motorway and had to flag taxis that were wanting ridiculous amounts to take us into the city, ended up paying £30.
 
Well, we all know that mate. Nor would hundreds of taxis be parked like Spartans in a scene from 300 be blocking the exit etc.
Didn’t our Turkish friend (Kerem?) mention that the police don’t like Erdogan? Pretty sure they did as little as possible on the day and wouldn’t surprise me if this was planned.

On a side note I was expecting a bit of chaos. I actually had a backup route planned should we have missed our charter plane because I never was confident of getting from the stadium to the airport in under 2 hours. In the end being on the club trip I was almost relaxed knowing they were holding the flight.
 
This point has been raised on here before but I think it fits. City’s help is great for helping out the odd struggling fan or hard luck case. It’s even better if you have connections into the Club. This is good but we fail when swathes of our fans are disadvantaged like in Instanbul. It would have done no harm to say we are collecting evidence of fan experiences in Istanbul and early reports suggest that disabled Blues were treated poorly.

At the risk of stating the obvious, some of our senior admin / management work their socks off during the season but turn their emails off when it comes to close season. No doubt they would still help a few personal contacts.

That said, there are good things going on close season like the free opportunities to be photo’d with the treble trophies. I also see fans in the States have been able to celebrate with the Cups.
 
I agree. Anybody that was going to provide any information will have done so already. There's no more information to gather.

They're just waiting for it to die down and we forget. Like usual!
But the club have never asked for information. City Matters have done something off their own bat, the FSA and FSE have done something, even the media have done something.

Yet zilch from the club. Not even a message to request fans to provide feedback to CM or one of the other fan groups, or that they're actively working with those groups.

I'm not part of City Matters any more so I don't know what's transpired since. But my guess is that our caring, sharing CEO has made it clear that Roel De Vries, Danny Wilson and his team aren't to waste any time on it.
 
This point has been raised on here before but I think it fits. City’s help is great for helping out the odd struggling fan or hard luck case. It’s even better if you have connections into the Club. This is good but we fail when swathes of our fans are disadvantaged like in Instanbul. It would have done no harm to say we are collecting evidence of fan experiences in Istanbul and early reports suggest that disabled Blues were treated poorly.

At the risk of stating the obvious, some of our senior admin / management work their socks off during the season but turn their emails off when it comes to close season. No doubt they would still help a few personal contacts.

That said, there are good things going on close season like the free opportunities to be photo’d with the treble trophies. I also see fans in the States have been able to celebrate with the Cups.
Jesus wept... why are people complaining about Istanbul when some 08ers in America have had a chance to have their picture taken with some cups???

Beggars belief!!!
 
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But the club have never asked for information. City Matters have done something off their own bat, the FSA and FSE have done something, even the media have done something.

Yet zilch from the club. Not even a message to request fans to provide feedback to CM or one of the other fan groups, or that they're actively working with those groups.

I'm not part of City Matters any more so I don't know what's transpired since. But my guess is that our caring, sharing CEO has made it clear that Roel De Vries, Danny Wilson and his team aren't to waste any time on it.

Yep, was fully expecting something on the club's website or emails sent out the following week asking for feedback.

Could still have been quite cordial at that point and even used that twat Ceferin's description of Istanbul. Something along the lines of "The club are hearing of reports that 'not everything was perfect' in Istanbul and are seeking accounts of those that travelled about their experiences". Even if they didn't act on it it at least looks like they care. Not mentioning it at all shows a clear contempt of our fanbase.
 
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The silence from the club is a disgrace, but I wonder what they could have done prior to the event.
UEFA weren't going to move the game to a sensible venue, one club had to have the building site end of the stadium and City could realistically expect robust transport plans to be in place as the ground has been used before and was planned to be used in 2020.
The fuck up is the combined efforts of UEFA and the transport and police authorities in Istanbul.
 
Our driver dropped us just outside Yenikapi, it was 8 miles and 18 minutes to our hotel in Kadikoy, first taxi quoted us €250, the metro was shut by then, eventually got one for £60 but the price went up a tenner on route. The equivalent taxi to Manchester from Ashton, a similar journey, is around £25, nearly triple the cost, those fuckers knew people didn’t have a choice.
We were dropped off at the same place at 3.30am
Some greasy twat quoted me €50 for a 5 mile journey.
Told him to fuck off and an honest driver quoted us 500 Lira which we gratefully accepted.
I'll be booing Uefas shitty jingle louder than ever next season
 
On this occasion the silence from our club has been deafening!!
Those who travelled to the game have massively been let down by the organisations on both sides.
Without us fans there would be no Manchester City FC.
Really not sure they care! Feel undervalued as a supporter right now.
 
These are two WhatsApps to mates back home the day after the match, one about 9:30 and one about 2pm, so they are a pretty close immediate reaction to what we went through and without discussing with other fans. Reading through this thread, the same words crop up..chaos, carnage, no organisation, dehydrated, unfinished surface, war zone. As much as I loath that kind of shit, I'd like to see a 'word cloud' of all our accounts...
 

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The silence from the club is a disgrace, but I wonder what they could have done prior to the event.
UEFA weren't going to move the game to a sensible venue, one club had to have the building site end of the stadium and City could realistically expect robust transport plans to be in place as the ground has been used before and was planned to be used in 2020.
The fuck up is the combined efforts of UEFA and the transport and police authorities in Istanbul.
I’d like to see the clubs RA compared to the reality.
 
It doesn’t surprise me that the club haven’t bothered to say anything.

I got a lovely email off them today telling me my direct debit had been cancelled (not sure why as I hadn’t cancelled it) and they had suspended my ST and would be cancelling it if u didn’t pay up within 2 weeks but with zero option to pay online. The tone of their email left a sour taste when I’ve been going for 45 years.

Who is in charge of supporter communication?
 
These are two WhatsApps to mates back home the day after the match, one about 9:30 and one about 2pm, so they are a pretty close immediate reaction to what we went through and without discussing with other fans. Reading through this thread, the same words crop up..chaos, carnage, no organisation, dehydrated, unfinished surface, war zone. As much as I loath that kind of shit, I'd like to see a 'word cloud' of all our accounts...
I’m surprised there isn’t more footage of it online to be honest. The walk across the rubble rammed car park and then down that hill to the motorway in the desperate search for transport was taken by thousands of people all desperate for any way to get back. I wish I had taken some. 2 mins before my half hearted hand went up to flag a taxi (successfully once he knew Sterling was on offer) I had resigned myself to sleeping on a grass verge or making my way back to the metro (it was now 2am).
 

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