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

[bladdered]

What amazes me is that we are about to take part in another UEFA organised final next week and City have still not even acknowledged that there were problems in Istanbul.

Well done to Alex and all who contributed to his report. Makes shocking reading and it's a disgrace that the club have made no public response to it. Shame on them if any of those issues are repeated next week.

Unfortunately, I just get the feeling that City are following an arse licking strategy with UEFA to try to get back into their grubby cartel.

 

[MadchesterCity]

The thing is , that is exactly what we should expect. As far as I’m concerned is nothing to do with the hosting country. Accountability for what happened in Istanbul lies solely with UEFA. They MUST have known that the travel infrastructure to and from the Ataturk stadium was not fit for purpose. I still can’t get my head round nothing being done about the way we were treated getting to and from that game. It was utterly inhumane.

I stand by the belief that had we lost it would have been absolute chaos (it was already) and would have got very violent, there would have been significant loss of life and huge amount of injuries to both fans and Turkish bus staff and stewards. The whole situation was an absolute disgrace, Every fan (who had their life put at risk) there should be compensated, I’d never trust UEFA again

 

[Ellenbrook_blue]

I think due to the fact nobody had a beer since maybe 1800 hrs played a part of “no reaction” to bus chaos. Think there were many so subdued kicking off never entered heads.

 

[MadchesterCity]

I think due to the fact nobody had a beer since maybe 1800 hrs played a part of “no reaction” to bus chaos. Think there were many so subdued kicking off never entered heads.

I don’t think it was that, most folks were just so elated, it would have been very nasty if we had lost. As much as it pains me blue on blue fighting and blues attacking the idiots running the shit show. Was a bloody disgrace the way we were treated

 

[chaddblue]

I don’t think it was that, most folks were just so elated, it would have been very nasty if we had lost. As much as it pains me blue on blue fighting and blues attacking the idiots running the shit show. Was a bloody disgrace the way we were treated

This.... at the time it was said several times within our group in the middle of the chaos... "its a good job we won"

 

[dickie davies]

Just heading back from Stadium Australia having watched the Australian Women’s Team knock out the Danish.
Took all of 10 minutes from leaving the 75784 crowd to getting into the bus queue and another 5 to get on the bus back into Sydney town centre.
Lighting everywhere, loads of stewards, all clued up , shouting out where the buses are going, where to queue up along low level fencing, level solid concrete surfacing, counting how many people got on, sending the buses straight off in dedicated lanes once they are full, and then dealing with the next set of supporters in the queue.
No chaos no carnage no leaving the most vulnerable to their own devices.

That UEFA is how you organise a safe and secure exit from a major sporting event so maybe take some lessons from the way the Aussies organise this stuff and stop telling us you will learn lessons from your own corrupt inept self serving pious and impotent set of numpties.

Doesn't even happen in this country mate
Try leaving the Etihad at the end of a game to get on a bus or tram to the city centre. And they have around 25 go's a season to get it right

 

[GOULDYBOBS]

We were staying at Taskim Square. The fan zone was the equivalent of driving to Liverpool and the stadium was like driving to Leeds. Shite

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Doesn't even happen in this country mate
Try leaving the Etihad at the end of a game to get on a bus or tram to the city centre. And they have around 25 go's a season to get it right

It’s a good job the Etihad is only a mile and a half from Town. If it was further out, it’d be a nightmare to get back to Town because the frequency of Mets is pathetic (can take 45 minutes to get on one), there are hardly any buses and the ones there are have to drive through a sea of people walking in the road as well as cars, official car parking close to the ground is very expensive and hard to get out from, there’s going to be a ban on parking around the local area and there is no other form of transport other than walking which is actually still - 20 years after moving there - the quickest way to get back to Town from the ground (but it’s not ideal when it’s raining, cold or for anyone with mobility issues).

For two decades the club have put little in place to improve this. Maybe they think it’s already good enough (how would they know, none of them have to use the Mets, buses, car parks or walk from the ground), maybe they don’t care?

 

[East Level 2]

It’s a good job the Etihad is only a mile and a half from Town. If it was further out, it’d be a nightmare to get back to Town because the frequency of Mets is pathetic (can take 45 minutes to get on one), there are hardly any buses and the ones there are have to drive through a sea of people walking in the road as well as cars, official car parking close to the ground is very expensive and hard to get out from, there’s going to be a ban on parking around the local area and there is no other form of transport other than walking which is actually still - 20 years after moving there - the quickest way to get back to Town from the ground (but it’s not ideal when it’s raining, cold or for anyone with mobility issues).

For two decades the club have put little in place to improve this. Maybe they think it’s already good enough (how would they know, none of them have to use the Mets, buses, car parks or walk from the ground), maybe they don’t care?

The club could be in for a shock when the fucking idiots on the council implement tighter parking restrictions either this season or next.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

The club could be in for a shock when the fucking idiots on the council implement tighter parking restrictions either this season or next.

Going to be chaos at the Toon game, what little bit of street parking that is left will be taken by the stewards who arrive earlier than 99% of fans.

The car parks will be full early on.....parking tickets everywhere.

 

[Gray]

It’s a good job the Etihad is only a mile and a half from Town. If it was further out, it’d be a nightmare to get back to Town because the frequency of Mets is pathetic (can take 45 minutes to get on one), there are hardly any buses and the ones there are have to drive through a sea of people walking in the road as well as cars, official car parking close to the ground is very expensive and hard to get out from, there’s going to be a ban on parking around the local area and there is no other form of transport other than walking which is actually still - 20 years after moving there - the quickest way to get back to Town from the ground (but it’s not ideal when it’s raining, cold or for anyone with mobility issues).

For two decades the club have put little in place to improve this. Maybe they think it’s already good enough (how would they know, none of them have to use the Mets, buses, car parks or walk from the ground), maybe they don’t care?

The Club do not care, they have failed to respond to any of my emails on the subject.

 

[OneTonyHenry]

Doesn't even happen in this country mate
Try leaving the Etihad at the end of a game to get on a bus or tram to the city centre. And they have around 25 go's a season to get it right

Must admit Bayern at home I was cold and soaked through and gave up on the trams and walked back into town. We could learn at lot from the Sydney set up.

 

[dickie davies]

Going to be chaos at the Toon game, what little bit of street parking that is left will be taken by the stewards who arrive earlier than 99% of fans.

The car parks will be full early on.....parking tickets everywhere.

I had a drive round last Friday and I don't think anything new has been implemented yet

 

[blue b4 the moon]

I had a drive round last Friday and I don't think anything new has been implemented yet

Hmmm do we all risk it or go to our plan B options?

Think I'll do plan B and see if/what carnage there is after the game as I'll be walking past where I usually park to get to the tram stop.

 

[BringBackSwales]

Manchester City Council are a disgrace. They are happy to take all the money that City bring in, happy to lap up all the regeneration, and they just take us for granted and won’t let us park within walking distance of the ground. Cunts

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Going to be chaos at the Toon game, what little bit of street parking that is left will be taken by the stewards who arrive earlier than 99% of fans.

The car parks will be full early on.....parking tickets everywhere.

How much is the fine if paid early?

 

[blue b4 the moon]

How much is the fine if paid early?

No idea but it'll be more than the tram fare.

 

[citydad]

Just heading back from Stadium Australia having watched the Australian Women’s Team knock out the Danish.
Took all of 10 minutes from leaving the 75784 crowd to getting into the bus queue and another 5 to get on the bus back into Sydney town centre.
Lighting everywhere, loads of stewards, all clued up , shouting out where the buses are going, where to queue up along low level fencing, level solid concrete surfacing, counting how many people got on, sending the buses straight off in dedicated lanes once they are full, and then dealing with the next set of supporters in the queue.
No chaos no carnage no leaving the most vulnerable to their own devices.

That UEFA is how you organise a safe and secure exit from a major sporting event so maybe take some lessons from the way the Aussies organise this stuff and stop telling us you will learn lessons from your own corrupt inept self serving pious and impotent set of numpties.

Sounds like they communicated with those in charge at last year's World Cup in Qatar re transport.
Was polar opposite to Istanbul, maybe Fifa do their homework and Uefa definitely don't.

 

[Gray]

Just heading back from Stadium Australia having watched the Australian Women’s Team knock out the Danish.
Took all of 10 minutes from leaving the 75784 crowd to getting into the bus queue and another 5 to get on the bus back into Sydney town centre.
Lighting everywhere, loads of stewards, all clued up , shouting out where the buses are going, where to queue up along low level fencing, level solid concrete surfacing, counting how many people got on, sending the buses straight off in dedicated lanes once they are full, and then dealing with the next set of supporters in the queue.
No chaos no carnage no leaving the most vulnerable to their own devices.

That UEFA is how you organise a safe and secure exit from a major sporting event so maybe take some lessons from the way the Aussies organise this stuff and stop telling us you will learn lessons from your own corrupt inept self serving pious and impotent set of numpties.

The Commonwealth Games in Manchester employed an Australian who had helped in the Sydney Olympic Games. He got the transport spot on for that.

 

[Alex - Not City Matters]

@Alex - City Matters can you shed any light on this mate?

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Weirdly enough, I lost access to my City Matters account shortly after I posted it publicly. Only just sorted it.

The club came back to me with a somewhat positive reply to the report, without really addressing the parts that related to themselves. We are meeting with them tomorrow (a wider meeting, touching upon the group's governance for example) and we have reiterated that we would like them to comment publicly and improve the areas that related to the club. We would also like to see the evidence that they submitted to the UEFA independent of my report. Presuming that doesn't happen (and I don't hold out much hope), then we will start to ramp up some of the other avenues that we have used to publicise the issues faced in Istanbul and the report.

One of the positive aspects from the club is that they passed on the report to UEFA. As reported in the MEN, UEFA have agreed to meet with the club over the issues. I think that at least me and the City Matters chair will be attending that meeting.

As some have mentioned on here, I am in the process of asking local politicians to raise the matter. I would have done this sooner had it not been for my technology issues recently. Having experience of local and national politics myself, I will probably be able to liaise with Lucy Powell as my MP (quite helpfully she is Shadow Secretary of Culture, Media and Sports) but I may need others to do so with other local politicians.

In short, that was a long way of saying that there has been some limited progress with this. To be honest, that isn't unexpected given the limited standing of City Matters and the approach to fan welfare by too many of the governing bodies. However, having been in Istanbul and hearing so much from supporters, this isn't something I intend to let just wither away.