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

Norman kneejerk said:
My takes from the trip.
Venue chosen to keep fans away from the centre could easily have chosen one of 3 big stadia nearby.
The walk itself 4 miles or so in the sun to the buses was a health risk to older blues was wobbling myself til I got a bus.
Poor guy next to me in the buses had cancer and had to have a piss every hour or so.
Uneven surface already mentioned, rip off water prices, needed oxygen to get to back seats, no way coming back down til end of game.
How I ever found a bus I will never know finished walking down hill wrong way then turned for some reason , no signs at all , very simple to show people the way, buses haphazardly spread to different destinations.
But was best feeling to get to get back to Sultanhammey fire some beers down at 4am absolutely gagging, and take everything in as the sun came up.
Click to expand...
We’re you in The Siva Bar ?
 
Similar to everyone else’s story -

- Traffic was horrendous getting from SAW airport to Istanbul centre, circa 2 hours in a taxi .

- Trying to get to the stadium was a nightmare, we left istanbul centre about 4pm and got to the fan park around 6.30pm, taxi driver took us to basaksehir’s stadium in error, another massive detour. We agreed a price upfront so he wasnt doing to ramp up cost on the meter, he just didn’t have a clue where he was going, we had to provide sat nav on our phones for him.

- Dropped about half a mile from the stadium, had to navigate the locals trying to flog water, flares, scarves, flags etc, cut through a gap in the fence across a car park to the stadium, then up the hill to the fan park, feel sorry for anyone who wasn’t good on their feet or elderly as it was quite a stomp.

- Fan park was ok. Not enough space to get a beer easily once majority of blues rocked up. The toilets being in approx 50 converted motor homes was interesting to say the least. The motorhome toilet attendants started getting arsey about 8pm ish, they were wanting to shut up the toilets while there was still hundreds of blues trying to use the facilities, several arguments and blues being threatened to be locked in to the motorhomes was enough for us to take a stroll to the stadium.

- Getting in the stadium was a shit experience again, hundreds of blues coming from all angles meant there was a crush to get through the first checkpoint….all the blues were well behaved and respectful of each other but due to the set up and kettling effect the small narrow entrances had it was uncomfortable….shades of the scousers in Paris, although not as bad as City were all being respectful to each other and no pushing in etc.

- Stadium itself wasn’t fit for purpose. Staff were selling sandwiches and water out of boxes on the floor, was like being in the grand bazaar, shambolic. Queued for about 30 mins to try and get a drink from about 35 mins into 1st half, service at the kiosks was the worst ever experienced, card machines stopped working, the Turkish workers arguing with themselves, 2 women workers refused to work and just sat down crying in the kiosk, one staff member was trying to overcharge constantly when people were paying by cash, led to arguments and many blues just walking off without paying for their drinks as he was taking the piss.

- The worst experience was trying to get on a shuttle bus after the game, getting to the car park was a nightmare, most of the buses already completely full. Got told there was more buses deeper into the car park that were empty, cue a mad stampede from blues as everyone was fearing being left stranded, we eventually found a bus back to SAW airport & managed to squeeze on. Close to 3 hours on the bus getting to the airport, over an hour just to get off that car park. Utter chaos.

Overall another real shitshow from uefa, Who we saw exiting the stadium from a separate exit from all us plebs in their motorcade, probably back in their 5* hotels before we even found the buses…..the fans obviously mean fuck all to uefa, pretty shocking that City haven’t come out and made comment on it yet.

Thankfully we won otherwise that day would have been 10X worse.

Fuck uefa.
 
Last edited:
we are the east stand said:
Similar to everyone else’s story -

- Traffic was horrendous getting from SAW airport to Istanbul centre, circa 2 hours in a taxi .

- Trying to get to the stadium was a nightmare, we left istanbul centre about 4pm and got to the fan park around 6.30pm, taxi driver took us to basaksehir’s stadium in error, another massive detour. We agreed a price upfront so he wasnt doing to ramp up cost on the meter, he just didn’t have a clue where he was going, we had to provide sat nav on our phones for him.

- Dropped about half a mile from the stadium, had to navigate the locals trying to flog water, flares, scarves, flags etc, cut through a gap in the fence across a car park to the stadium, then up the hill to the fan park, feel sorry for anyone who wasn’t good on their feet or elderly as it was quite a stomp.

- Fan park was ok. Not enough space to get a beer easily once majority of blues rocked up. The toilets being in approx 50 converted motor homes was interesting to say the least. The motorhome toilet attendants started getting arsey about 8pm ish, they were wanting to shut up the toilets while there was still hundreds of blues trying to use the facilities, several arguments and blues being threatened to be locked in to the motorhomes was enough for us to take a stroll to the stadium.

- Getting in the stadium was a shit experience again, hundreds of blues coming from all angles meant there was a crush to get through the first checkpoint….all the blues were well behaved and respectful of each other but due to the set up and kettling effect the small narrow entrances had it was uncomfortable….shades of the scousers in Paris, although not as bad as City were all being respectful to each other and no pushing in etc.

- Stadium itself wasn’t fit for purpose. Staff were selling sandwiches and water out of boxes on the floor, was like being in the grand bazaar, shambolic. Queued for about 30 mins to try and get a drink from about 35 mins into 1st half, service at the kiosks was the worst ever experienced, card machines stopped working, the Turkish workers arguing with themselves, 2 women workers refused to work and just sat down crying in the kiosk, one staff member was trying to overcharge constantly when people were paying by cash, led to arguments and many blues just walking off without paying for their drinks as he was taking the piss.

- The worst experience was trying to get on a shuttle bus after the game, getting to the car park was a nightmare, most of the buses already completely full. Got told there was more buses deeper into the car park that were empty, cue a mad stampede from blues as everyone was fearing being left stranded, we eventually found a bus back to SAW airport & managed to squeeze on. Close to 3 hours on the bus getting to the airport, over an hour just to get off that car park. Utter chaos.

Overall another real shitshow from uefa, Who we saw exiting the stadium from a separate exit from all us plebs in their motorcade, probably back in their 5* hotels before we even found the buses…..the fans obviously mean fuck all to uefa, pretty shocking that City haven’t come out and made comment on it yet.

Thankfully we won otherwise that day would have been 10X worse.

Fuck uefa.
Click to expand...
Great summary. Think we’ll boo their jingle even louder next season. Booooooooooooooooo!
 
we are the east stand said:
Similar to everyone else’s story -

- Traffic was horrendous getting from SAW airport to Istanbul centre, circa 2 hours in a taxi .

- Trying to get to the stadium was a nightmare, we left istanbul centre about 4pm and got to the fan park around 6.30pm, taxi driver took us to basaksehir’s stadium in error, another massive detour. We agreed a price upfront so he wasnt doing to ramp up cost on the meter, he just didn’t have a clue where he was going, we had to provide sat nav on our phones for him.

- Dropped about half a mile from the stadium, had to navigate the locals trying to flog water, flares, scarves, flags etc, cut through a gap in the fence across a car park to the stadium, then up the hill to the fan park, feel sorry for anyone who wasn’t good on their feet or elderly as it was quite a stomp.

- Fan park was ok. Not enough space to get a beer easily once majority of blues rocked up. The toilets being in approx 50 converted motor homes was interesting to say the least. The motorhome toilet attendants started getting arsey about 8pm ish, they were wanting to shut up the toilets while there was still hundreds of blues trying to use the facilities, several arguments and blues being threatened to be locked in to the motorhomes was enough for us to take a stroll to the stadium.

- Getting in the stadium was a shit experience again, hundreds of blues coming from all angles meant there was a crush to get through the first checkpoint….all the blues were well behaved and respectful of each other but due to the set up and kettling effect the small narrow entrances had it was uncomfortable….shades of the scousers in Paris, although not as bad as City were all being respectful to each other and no pushing in etc.

- Stadium itself wasn’t fit for purpose. Staff were selling sandwiches and water out of boxes on the floor, was like being in the grand bazaar, shambolic. Queued for about 30 mins to try and get a drink from about 35 mins into 1st half, service at the kiosks was the worst ever experienced, card machines stopped working, the Turkish workers arguing with themselves, 2 women workers refused to work and just sat down crying in the kiosk, one staff member was trying to overcharge constantly when people were paying by cash, led to arguments and many blues just walking off without paying for their drinks as he was taking the piss.

- The worst experience was trying to get on a shuttle bus after the game, getting to the car park was a nightmare, most of the buses already completely full. Got told there was more buses deeper into the car park that were empty, cue a mad stampede from blues as everyone was fearing being left stranded, we eventually found a bus back to SAW airport & managed to squeeze on. Close to 3 hours on the bus getting to the airport, over an hour just to get off that car park. Utter chaos.

Overall another real shitshow from uefa, Who we saw exiting the stadium from a separate exit from all us plebs in their motorcade, probably back in their 5* hotels before we even found the buses…..the fans obviously mean fuck all to uefa, pretty shocking that City haven’t come out and made comment on it yet.

Thankfully we won otherwise that day would have been 10X worse.

Fuck uefa.
Click to expand...
Regarding the motor homes, they did indeed lock them early - so myself and many, many others simply turned the exterior of their motor homes into the toilets. Ridiculous we were put in that situation.
 
Two weeks on and no comment from the club, disgusting. Mind you they are probably too busy sending out emails about where we can buy treble merchandise, Gareth Taylor’s contract extension and the new store opening.
 
bluestevei said:
when the interview with the chairman, why didnt the man doing it ask about the cup final, ask if he knew the hassle of the fans and so on,
Click to expand...

Think you've answered your own question. There's a reason why people get interviewed by certain individuals as they generally don't ask the real probing questions that people want answered.

I can imagine such questions being quickly diverted anyway. Lines such as 'We're aware there were some issues in Istanbul and we are in the process of collecting as much information as possible before making any comment' etc. This comment ultimately never materialises. In Leyman's terms it's just a shrug of the shoulders and an admission that it didn't effect me so all's well.
 
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