My experiences will be little different to the other 20k to 25k Blues that were there, such was the fucking shambles.
To get to a 90 minute game of football we had to drive to Stanstead from Manchester, fly to Istanbul, 2 nights in a hotel for the 3 of us, fly back from Istanbul to Copenhagen, Copenhagen to Edinburgh, drive from Edinburgh to Manchester. While we were there get from SAW airport to the ground via city centre and then back again, a very long way and a logistical nightmare due to how far the airport was from the city centre and the city centre to the ground. Total cost of the trip for me and my 2 sons I would guess over £3k, for 90 mins of football, hard to justify to the Mrs but she understands and we’d do it again.
However some of the shit we had to endure due to uefa’s pathetic arrangements of where they put the game and how clearly they put no proper arrangements in place -
Went on the metro to where the shuttle bus was meant to be at 4 pm, 6 hours before kick off and was told there would be a “2 to 3 hour wait at least” to get on one. So we went back to the metro station. As we got to the top of the steps at the station (I think it was Yanickapi or something) a load of Blues were shouting “pickpockets” and had surrounded 2 scrawny local lads. Next thing the 2 cunts pulled blades and started running and slashing at anyone and everyone including kids. This went on for 2 or 3 mins and not a single copper in sight. Eventually someone must have found a copper, and a bit later my youngest said he saw a copper with his arm round one of the stabbing pickpockets. It was only after about 10 mins that the coppers even took it seriously, twats, and I had a copper screaming in my face for trying to tell him what happened.
We then get on the metro and it was awful. Stop after stop more and more people piling on and not a single staff member to stop people crushing on. My youngest genuinely thought he was going to die. We had 12 stops like that, took nearly an hour. The next met journey (after we changed) wasn’t bad, and the final one (2 stops) to the ground was fine as there were staff controlling who could get through.
When we got to the stadium the security was fine but whoever decided to put the City fan zone a long way up a steep hill should have another think. When we got to the zone we decided a 30 minute queue to get in and listen to Wingman making a **** of himself just wasn’t worth it
We decided to go into the ground but what was noticeable was the huge police presence with armoured water cannons, machine guns and riot shields, mainly sat on the grass as they had fuck all to do - where were a few of those fuckers at the main metro station?
Getting into the ground was ok, 4 different frisks but I quite enjoyed that! However once inside the ground we needed water, we had been about 4 hours just to get from city centre to ground on a hot afternoon, we were fucking exhausted and dehydrated. Queued for an hour, got to the front and was given 3 water containers less than half the size of the kiora you used to get at the cinema and was told “7 euros 50”. I told him I didn’t have euros and said how much was it in Turkish lira given we were in Turkey, he said euros only, I said I need to give my kids some water and he just shrugged his shoulders the ****. To the Blue who said (and did), “I’ll get that for you pal”, go my undying thanks.
After the game and the celebrations we asked more than a dozen stewards which was the way to the shuttle buses and not a single one of them even knew, so what the point of them even being there was beyond me. One of the cunts even shoved me and it took a lot of self control not to whack him, but the number of machine guns in the vicinity caused me to see sense. We walked up the hill everyone else was going up and it was chaos, we walked around for an hour and saw in that time one bus that had SAW on it (the airport near where we were staying) which was obviously full, thank fuck no buses were moving as we had to continually squeeze between buses and couldn’t find any other SAW buses. Amazingly there wasn’t a single staff person there to assist, the only ones who were there were City ones for the official trips and sports world. After an hour I said to the boys fuck this let’s walk to the metro - so back down the hill, past the stadium (where all the dignitaries had been getting vip minibuses with no delays) and to the metro, another 30 minutes. At the metro there was nobody who could or would tell us which train to get and as far as we knew it was 4 changes and maybe 70+ miles to SAW. The first metro we got on went on for ages and stopped at somewhere not on the map we had, so we got off it. Fortunately there were 5 students who helped us (a Palestinian, a lad from Jordan, one from Egypt one from Yemen and one from Morocco) who didn’t have great English but did have great hearts - they said it’s a long way and at least 4 changes but they were going some of the way and come with them, which sorted 2 of the changes), belting lads. At the second change they took us to our line and said get on here and off at Mamaris or something like that. When we did and got to the other line the uefa travel passes no longer worked and the guy wouldn’t let us through. He spoke English but wouldn’t help us buy tickets so we couldn’t get through. We tried to work out what tickets we needed but 4 local youths kept coming up saying give us your money and we’ll get them for you, fuck off didn’t work so I said to my lads fuck this we’ll get a taxi. Went out of the station, not much around and certainly no taxi rank, so we had to hang around 20 mins and got one to stop, told him where we wanted to go, he said what sounded like that’s ursa (I now think he said Asia), that’s 100 euros, we said no way it’s that much and he just fucked off. Second one we stopped said 100 euros, we managed to get him to 70 euros and agreed 1500 Turkish lira. To be fair it was a long way, about 45 mins doing about 80 mph, no seat belts in the back though, scary. When we stopped his meter showed less than 400 trl but he wasn’t accepting less than 1500.
Near our shitty hotel was a petrol station so we get some drinks, it was gone 4 am and the only liquid we’d had since 3:30 pm was the tiny container at the ground paid for by a kind Blue.
Despite all this, which is nothing special considering what other Blues will have endured, I’d do the same again. But I don’t think an FOC like me (64) and a 14 and 16 year old should have to go through shite like that just to watch a football match. Any decent organisation hosting an event for nearly 80k people would do a proper risk assessment months in advance -
How many coaches?
Where is quickly available water?
How many trains?
How many train staff?
Are you deploying police at the key stations etc (or in fact just at the stadium and where Blues are drinking?)
Etc
Etc
Uefa will have done none of this as they simply don’t fucking care. I’ll be asking City what steps they took to make sure the proper safeguards were in place - but the reality is that City clearly didn’t do a proper risk assessment, and may say they are bothered but I doubt they really are. It’s fucking disgusting how we were treated.
Some positives as it was still a positive overall experience -
City won a champions league, that will hurt uefa a lot
To be there, particularly the roar when that goal went in, sends shivers down my back that I will never forget
The Inter fans were great - we ended up in the metros twice (to and from the stadium) and not one problem (apart from one who mentioned City’s spending - I tried to explain the 5 year net spend table to him but the language barrier prevented this), but I though the Inter fans were a credit to their club - they stayed at the end to acknowledge their team, they were great with us, I wouldn’t necessarily expect that from Italian fans, and by staying at the end they did something the rag twats couldnt
Those 5 Arab lads, top notch
And to be fair the Turks who weren’t trying to stab us, scam us in taxis or at train stations, or kill us on the roads, were generally ok
Overriding experience great, well done City, exhausted but happy. However anything uefa touch is fucking shit and corrupt, and Pep you beautiful bald bastard, I love you unconditionally, but please don’t ever ask me again not to boo the cunts.
