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

Our match day experience wasn't pretty,(myself and wife ) I'd lost my phone the night before so decided to get to the Yenikapi fan zone early to get the shuttle bus to the stadium to sort out my ticket ..now I walk with a stick and can't walk any great distances without my legs giving up on me so it didn't help when the taxi driver dropped us off quite a long way from the shuttle buses, thankfully we were allowed to skip the queue and were given a seat on the bus.. journey to the stadium took a very hot and sweaty near 2 hours .. when we got there was amazed at the state of the terrain , rough as hell and not easy to walk on with a stick .
Had now to get to the ticket office, was directed to a minibus to shuttle disabled people up to the stadium, bit of a trek to get to him but fair enough he took us up towards the stadium, when he dropped us off we asked directions to the ticket office and was directed about half a mile across a massive car park to get there .. by this time I'm frazzled and legs are knackered.
Ticket office were magnificent, so helpful, sorted my ticket in no time and gave me a chair to sit on in the shade and gave me some water. We then decided to ask a uefa person if it was possible to get some assistance to get to the stadium entrance ,they said no problem and send for me a wheelchair, an hour later no wheelchair ,and a couple of members of the City staff came and assisted me and we decided to walk to the entrance, they were brilliant!! When we got to the entrance I did get a wheelchair to take me through and admitted into the stadium, this was now around 6.30pm. ,I asked if the wheelchair would be available after the game to get back to the shuttle and was assured it would be there , of course it wasn't ! So after the game we were like lost souls trying to figure out how we were going to get back to the main shuttle buses. Eventually someone directed us to the edge of a car park where about 15 or 20 disabled people in wheelchairs or on sticks were waiting for a minibus to take us to the shuttle. Over an hour later we eventually got taken back to where the shuttle buses were , absolute bedlam, no information, nobody to ask ,there were people being dragged backwards in wheelchairs through the rubble as it was impossible to push them . We hobbled about for over an hour and a half trying to find a bus back to Yenikapi by this time my legs had just about given up on me .. eventually people started running towards a bus, not me ! I had to ask 2 City fans if they would help virtually carry me towards the bus , by the time we got there it was full, but luckily there was another and they helped me on .
We must of been one of the last groups of people to get a bus ,then an hours queuing in the bus to get off the car park ..we eventually got back to Yenikapi at about 4.30am then got charged £26 for a five minute taxi ride back to our hotel.
Thanks Uefa for ruining what should have been experience never to forget... it was , but for the wrong reasons. :(
P.s. we made up for it on Sunday and celebrated like hell !!!
 
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Sportsworld have just sent a letter to everyone on the organised trips. I'm glad they have recognised the issues (which were largely out of their control). This bit about the transport chaos ...

Transport The overall transport and traffic management in Istanbul was challenging and that is probably being generous to the organisers. Generally, traffic is bad in Istanbul, but this was compounded by the single entry point to the stadium for all supporters. We are aware it took some guests up to 5hrs to access the stadium from the city centre. Not having privately organised transfers on match day - Not having supporter transfers on the match day was following discussions with UEFA. The rationale was based on trying to reduce the overall cost of the already expensive travel package, and due to UEFA promising a smooth free transport shuttle bus plan for the final. The post-match transport can only be described as unmanaged chaos. There was no visible resource provided by the organisers to manage the flow of supporters into the free shuttle bus area and to compound this, unpermitted small vehicles had been able to gain access to the parking area blocking the exit roads. This resulted in a bottleneck at the shuttle area which was totally unacceptable and distressing for everyone involved. Sportsworld had staff in this area to help our guests, but they soon became overwhelmed by the 20,000 supporters. We did manage to move some vulnerable guests to private vehicles but were unfortunately completely let down by UEFA and the local organisers on the night. Whilst the above information provided does not change the facts around the challenges you may have faced and the difficulty of operating such a high-volume one-off event, we hope it gives some context to why you may have queued longer, been delayed or felt the service level was lower than expected.
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Get Pollock On said:
Our match day experience wasn't pretty,(myself and wife ) I'd lost my phone the night before so decided to get to the Yenikapi fan zone early to get the shuttle bus to the stadium to sort out my ticket ..now I walk with a stick and can't walk any great distances without my legs giving up on me so it didn't help when the taxi driver dropped us off quite a long way from the shuttle buses, thankfully we were allowed to skip the queue and were given a seat on the bus.. journey to the stadium took a very hot and sweaty near 2 hours .. when we got there was amazed at the state of the terrain , rough as hell and not easy to walk on with a stick .
Had now to get to the ticket office, was directed to a minibus to shuttle disabled people up to the stadium, bit of a trek to get to him but fair enough he took us up towards the stadium, when he dropped us off we asked directions to the ticket office and was directed about half a mile across a massive car park to get there .. by this time I'm frazzled and legs are knackered.
Ticket office were magnificent, so helpful, sorted my ticket in no time and gave me a chair to sit on in the shade and gave me some water. We then decided to ask a uefa person if it was possible to get some assistance to get to the stadium entrance ,they said no problem and send for me a wheelchair, an hour later no wheelchair ,and a couple of members of the City staff came and assisted me and we decided to walk to the entrance, they were brilliant!! When we got to the entrance I did get a wheelchair to take me through and admitted into the stadium, this was now around 6.30pm. ,I asked if the wheelchair would be available after the game to get back to the shuttle and was assured it would be there , of course it wasn't ! So after the game we were like lost souls trying to figure out how we were going to get back to the main shuttle buses. Eventually someone directed us to the edge of a car park where about 15 or 20 disabled people in wheelchairs or on sticks were waiting for a minibus to take us to the shuttle. Over an hour later we eventually got taken back to where the shuttle buses were , absolute bedlam, no information, nobody to ask ,there were people being dragged backwards in wheelchairs through the rubble as it was impossible to push them . We hobbled about for over an hour and a half trying to find a bus back to Yenikapi by this time my legs had just about given up on me .. eventually people started running towards a bus, not me ! I had to ask 2 City fans if they would help virtually carry me towards the bus , by the time we got there it was full, but luckily there was another and they helped me on .
We must of been one of the last groups of people to get a bus ,then an hours queuing in the bus to get off the car park ..we eventually got back to Yenikapi at about 4.30am then got charged £26 for a five minute taxi ride back to our hotel.
Thanks Eufa for ruining what should have been experience never to forget... it was , but for the wrong reasons. :(
P.s. we made up for it on Sunday and celebrated like hell !!!
Click to expand...

Really sad reading this mate. Pretty much everybody had a shit time of it but it was always at the back of the mind I'm fairly youthful and of an above average level of fitness. Numerous times I was thinking how an earth those less fortunate were coping.

Glad you came out the other side and at least had a more enjoyable Sunday. Despite the ordeal you can say you were there when that team from Moss Side finally got its mitts on their first European Cup.
 
City have responded to my email. Not in any detail, but state they are collating fans experiences and will take them to UEFA so that “learnings can be taken forward and improvements made for future”
 
levets said:
City have responded to my email. Not in any detail, but state they are collating fans experiences and will take them to UEFA so that “learnings can be taken forward and improvements made for future”
Click to expand...
I thought that is what they were supposed to have done last year? Nothing will change and the club won't back us.
 
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