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

[tommybooth]

Some bollocks one liner will come from UEFA. Along the lines that we were sad to hear some fans had some issues and we will improve for next year. CHEERS BYE.

 

[Edghill OG]

Responsibility for the actions of Turkey is firmly with UEFA. Period.

I dislike UEFA as much as the next guy but disagree. Is it UEFA's fault the taxi driver is asking for £200 to the airport instead of the £20 it would usually be? Turkey would have been asked to provide X number of shittle buses..... which in theory they did. Some of them weren't even roadworthy though and broke down. Do UEFA have to take their own mechanics over there to check each bus? None of these buses had toilets on and a number of bus drivers didn't even know where they were going. Are UEFA going to employ the bus drivers directly? Surely those providing the buses knew access to water and a toilet should have been a minimum requirement. One lass on ours threw up- presumably from heat exhaustion.

Yes 100% UEFA is to blame but so is Turkey.

 

[Son of Merv]

The Milan Board and the City board had no clue that this stadium was unsuitable either mate ;)

Money talks ehh?

This is also true. Did any of those club provided stewards not flag up what was going on,?. I had a chat with one about having water confiscated and being charged €3 for 50ml...'I know...try and enjoy yourself' is what I got as a response.
Did none of them look at the state of the car park and think 'this isn't adequate?'.
When I stumbled, dehydrated and exhausted, off the bus when it finally arrived I nearly went arse over tit on the surface. I even said to the wife, 'I'm glad I'm not on crutches or in a wheel chair', but we just assumed there would be proper drop off points for the disabled. We could see the two major issues within 5 mins of arriving, but recruited stewards were blind to the horror..

 

[Son of Merv]

I dislike UEFA as much as the next guy but disagree. Is it UEFA's fault the taxi driver is asking for £200 to the airport instead of the £20 it would usually be? Turkey would have been asked to provide X number of shittle buses..... which in theory they did. Some of them weren't even roadworthy though and broke down. Do UEFA have to take their own mechanics over there to check each bus? None of these buses had toilets on and a number of bus drivers didn't even know where they were going. Are UEFA going to employ the bus drivers directly? Surely those providing the buses knew access to water and a toilet should have been a minimum requirement. One lass on ours threw up- presumably from heat exhaustion.

Yes 100% UEFA is to blame but so is Turkey.

Blame and responsibility are two different things. Eg. fans are to blame for pitch invasions, City are responsible and therefore get fined.

 

[Gordyola]

UEFA control the whole event they dictate everything and not just for the stadium hosting the final They are therefore the ultimate responsibility for the stadium cant say they can be blamed for things external but from what I have read the stadium dint comply with their regs Section III of this lays down the requirements for spectators

https://documents.uefa.com/r/qA7fJuXrAU7K42UpVsoDGQ/o3ALtDZEWrDr6cvepx91qw

 

[Dubai Blue]

There has to be a process and system for collecting evidence and engaging with relevant stakeholders that is going to take longer than a few days. It's like when people on here get annoyed at the club for not "going on the attack" against journalists or whatever, it's not how it works and it's not a sensible approach. It might feel nice for the club's official comms to send out a tweet like "fucking disgrace what our fans went through, we demand a refund and compo" but it's just not how these things work.

They don't need to say that though, just acknowledge that they've heard the stories and will help fight our corner.

"We're aware of the reports regarding the difficulties our supporters experienced in and around the Ataturk Stadium. Please send your own accounts to xyz@mancity.com so we can investigate them thoroughly and pass on our findings to the authorities concerned."

That's all that's needed at this stage. It's basic PR.

 

[ninjamonkey]

Every part of my trip that relied on uefa organisation was a Complete and utter disgrace.

Firstly the shuttle buses to and from the Airport. We had been bumped up to an earlier flight to istanbul from antalya on the Saturday morning, meaning we got into istanbul airport around 5am, made our way to the shuttle buses pickup for the first one at 6am, there's a healthy queue by the time it reaches 6am. No bus, geto to 6.15am by this point the second bus should be here, still no bus. by 7am 4 buses haven't shown, there's no official anywhere to give updates so we're all clueless. A few start to make their own way instead via taxi's which causes an exodus, I'd say 80-90% of the now hefty queue do the same. It had gone 7.30am before any bus turned up when 2 turned up together.

That's not the end of it though, the drivers then get off, close the bus and move away. People question them but they've limited English and claim to be awaiting instructions, we are then told the buses won't leave or even start to fill up until there's enough people to fill both buses. There was easily enough people to fill 1 bus at this point and only reason there wasn't a plenty more was because they had given up waiting. Eventually we get going, lose a couple of hours waiting for the bus but it was time we had made up with an unexpected earlier flight anyway so no real loss for us and I think to myself at least that shitshow is done with now.

Fast forward to the shuttle bus to the ground. We deliberately avoided the fan hub area all day as it looked dreadful but hastily made our way back there aboit 5pm after hearing reports of several hour queues for the buses and taxis charging £100+ jumped on a bus that was completely rammed, was stood up but worse than that I had nothing to hold on to for balance. Managed to wriggle my arm through a gap to grip a pole at a very awkward angle and had to tense and brace myself to stop myself from.being thrown across the bus with every jerk forward the bus made. Was stuck in this painful position completely unable to move for 2 and a half hours.

Hand had seized up completely, leg the same, wasn't allowed water on board when I'm fairly sure I already had heatstroke from the day before and desperately needed it. I'm a reasonably fit and young-ish man, I'm used to walking for miles daily but by the time I got off that horrific bus journey I thought I could be done in so I dread to think what people in poorer health than me were like, I'm honestly shocked I didn't see a crowd of people requiring medical attention after getting off those buses.

After the match, we stayed in the ground longer than 95% of the people, made our way back to the pitch black car parks where there was one small sign and a "queue" that seemed to be inching forward but didn't seem to be actually cutting down, we couldn't see the end point of the queue and came to the conclusion the queue was just moving forward rather than loading people onto buses. Then out of nowhere everybody behind just split and started legging it through the blocked traffic in search of a available bus and it became a total free for all. Somebody claimed one of the officials just gave up trying to maintain a queue and said just do what you want which caused it, how true that is I've no idea but doesn't sound off.

We ran around with the crowd for a good 10 minutes, every bus we saw filled to the brim then we stumbled upon a corner of empty buses all with their lights off and parked up, some were empty, but many had drivers in them hiding away, asking them why they werent in operation they suggested they didn't know and didn't know their destination either but they conveniently knew which destination they wasn't going to when I asked. We had to pick an empty bus and just wait and hope when it opened the doors it would be going to where we wanted and not the 3 other destinations we didn't want as by this point everybody still without a bus was looking to go to the same place.

Eventually we got on a bus and then proceeded to take 2-3 hours (and that's genuinely no exaggeration) to get out of the stadium car park and moving.

Every aspect of the shuttle buses were a disgrace and a real danger to the fans. If we were dippers, there would have been fatalities, im certain of that, it was complete carnage. I've never seen something so poorly organised.

 

[BlueMojito]

I would like to think that Manchester City Football club takes interest in the fans who travelled to Istanbul to support them. Fans care passionately about their team. Hope to God somebody at City gives a shit about fans being treated so poorly that their welfare was in serious danger. UEFA obviously don't give a shit about fans that pay to attend. Come on City don't let us down with this. 'We'll follow you everywhere...' How about you have our back?

 

[CarlosTevez'sEnglishTutor]

I can hear you calling out my name, we're Man City and we're on the bus again. Something's happening, happening to me, spent all my money in fucking Turkey. Awooooooo, I can't afford my taxi fare.

Repeat after me now. 1, 2, 3 ,4, we all live on a yellow shuttle bus, a yellow shuttle bus, a yellow shuttle bus.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Responsibility for the actions of Turkey is firmly with UEFA. Period.

It’s with everyone involved.

Both clubs should be of the understanding well before the game that everything is risk assessed and safe for fans and, if not, they should be checking and then demanding that things are before the game takes place… maybe doing their own RAs to make sure. Knowing how bad an organisation UEFA are and how badly finals have been run in the past, we should really have been proactive with that as a club and absolutely should be in the future. No club should just assume UEFA will run something properly because they’ve shown they cannot.

I’ll bet both clubs only bothered to check how their boardrooms and teams were being looked after to a high enough standard.

The stadium operators and local government district/city council and Police/fire service should be well in control of all safety aspects and logistics of facilities so that everything runs smoothly and safely in and around the stadium and with transport.

UEFA are answerable as they are the promoters and governing body of the event - and they’re a fucking shit show of an organisation, as we’ve known for over a decade - but there are many other entities who should have input and responsibility.