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

[Impeccable One]

dont understand how there was any transportation problems, they managed to get a piano in the stadium

DUH ! It was delivered before construction started and the stadium was built around it ! there's no way they wheeled it in over that surface !

 

[bladdered]

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 !!!

This was what I found so shocking on the night. I'm big enough and ugly enough to put up with any old shite but watching elderly and disabled Blues struggling was heart breaking.

I thought we had a City Matters rep responsible for looking out for disabled fans? Would be interesting to hear their views. Even though if was a UEFA shit show, City still have a duty of care.

 

[Get Pollock On]

This was what I found so shocking on the night. I'm big enough and ugly enough to put up with any old shite but watching elderly and disabled Blues struggling was heart breaking.

I thought we had a City Matters rep responsible for looking out for disabled fans? Would be interesting to hear their views. Even though if was a UEFA shit show, City still have a duty of care.

The City people in the ticket office at the stadium were lovely and as helpful as possible, but after the game it was complete carnage, no directions or assistance available.. horrible experience

 

[Bucko]

 

[Edghill OG]

View attachment 83650View attachment 83651View attachment 83652

Feel for those that went on that ridiculously priced one day trip. At least I had a few days either side of the clusterfuck.

I've just read through most of the thread and fuming at the guy commenting that the UEFA lot were already on the freebies in town by 1.30 due to using a different exit. Totally oblivious and unmoved about the chaos only just beginning to unfold outside the stadium. Fucking wankers.

 

[Citizen of Legoland]

Feel for those that went on that ridiculously priced one day trip. At least I had a few days either side of the clusterfuck.

I've just read through most of the thread and fuming at the guy commenting that the UEFA lot were already on the freebies in town by 1.30 due to using a different exit. Totally oblivious and unmoved about the chaos only just beginning to unfold outside the stadium. Fucking wankers.

The one day trip was fine, it was convenient for me. Expensive yes but I doubt I’ll get tickets for me and my two kids for another CL final due to our points situations. Well worth it in the end.

 

[Edghill OG]

The one day trip was fine, it was convenient for me. Expensive yes but I doubt I’ll get tickets for me and my two kids for another CL final due to our points situations. Well worth it in the end.

I guess the flights from Manchester to Turkey were of similar duration to the length of some of those shuttle buses.

The calluses on your arse were probably the ideal preparation for what was to come.

 

[levets]

That rubble on the car park. I suggested it had only been done recently as we saw the diggers, excavators and dumper trucks parked up. Below is a photo of the stadium used by ‘CAFE’ https://www.cafefootball.eu/ advertising for accessibility monitors for the final, (the post is dated 24th May) the closing date for applications being 5th June. Have a look at the photo, it shows it was a field less than 2 weeks ago ffs. No wonder it wasn’t completely compacted. Rush job!

 

[Son of Merv]

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That rubble on the car park. I suggested it had only been done recently as we saw the diggers, excavators and dumper trucks parked up. Below is a photo of the stadium used by ‘CAFE’ https://www.cafefootball.eu/ advertising for accessibility monitors for the final, (the post is dated 24th May) the closing date for applications being 5th June. Have a look at the photo, it shows it was a field les than weeks ago ffs. No wonder it was completely compacted. Rush job!View attachment 83663

This is the satellite view on Google maps and seems to show the car park being "built".

 

[mainestand]

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This is the satellite view on Google maps and seems to show the car park being "built".

The area that you can see and was used, is in fact a storage area for all of istanbuls snow ploughs and gritters, bin wagons and other highway machinery, and all waste material from any roadworks is just dumped there and bulldozed out flat but not rolled to make compact. Liverpool mate who was there 2005 said it was exactly the same back then and caused the exact same problems then, so nothing’s been changed since the.