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

[Gone for a Burton]

Black flags?

Great idea....who ever could've thought of sooch a thing.

Down Whitehall or outside the Foreign Office & Turkish Embassy.

I'm with you Komeradski !!

 

[how soon is now]

Expected nothing else tbh. They dont give a shit about us. Would have taken somebody dying for any kind of public acknowledgement to occur.

organisation was a genuine disgrace. I had suffered nasty Sunstroke the day before, was already feeling quite weak after barely recovering from illness in the week before flying out, none of that is uefas doing but i then got stuck on one of those buses after being told no food or drink was allowed on them for hours without water or somewhere to piss and without even being allowed off them when we decided walking would be a much better alternative. Essentially imprisoned in a sauna and left to dehydrate.

when we eventually arrived at the ground hours later, we still couldn't get access to water because everything outside the ground had sold out or stopped serving to get everybody into the ground and the horrendous facilities in the ground had hour+ at a minimum long queues. I couldn't physically stand in them and was also unwilling to miss most of the match for it.

It completely fucked me up for the game, mouth was often too dry to produce noise when trying to sing and had to regularly sit down due to bouts of dizziness and fear of passing out. Im certain the sheer joy of winning and the adrenaline of that was the only thing that got me through that day without collapsing and when I looked around, I saw loads of people who all looked equally as fucked as me. Even the atmosphere that night was one of the entire crowd, both us and inter being knackered.

It didnt ruin it for me but it did tarnish it a bit. i certainly dont have great memories of the build up as you'd likely expect from somebody watching their club win their first champions league.

I'm fortunate I'm relatively healthy, young-ish and generally in okay nick. I'm certain other more vulnerable people had it much worse than I did and God only knows how there wasn't any fatalities.

Going back, i had managed to get water after the game and we won so i didnt care one bit at the time but it was somehow even more disorganised looking back.

Pitch black with no lighting on uneven rocky floor was asking for trouble then the complete chaos with the buses had to be borderline criminal. Having people literally running around a busy car park In darkness from bus to bus looking for one that was going where you wanted and had space was like something out of a disaster movie when panic sets in.

Bus drivers parked up with engine and lights off on empty buses not knowing themselves what or where they're supposed to be going. We ended up getting on a bus because I spoke to the driver of one who told us he didn't know where he was going but then told us he wasn't going to the place we wanted to go to. I queried how he knew that he wasnt going to where we wanted to go if he didn't know where he was going, which stumped him then myself and a few others that were looking for buses going to the same place essentially told him he was going where we wanted to go and he said okay and let us all pile on before having us sit in a pitch black makeshift carpark for several hours until traffic finally started moving again.

If we had lost and experienced that same shitshow, it would not have gone well at all.

Even the buses from the airport the morning of the game were dreadful. We flew into istanbul overnight from antalya, declined the opportunity to book airport travel with our hotel to save a bit of money and uefa were heavily encouraging us to use their free coaches.

We got there before the coaches were scheduled to start so had a little wait, nobody around to tell us where exactly to go or give any information, only big signs that lead us outside. queues started to form around us, it hits the time the first coach was due, still not an official in sight, we wait, and wait, most of the people who arrived around the time we did have since given up by the time it's an hour over when they should have started and were jumping in taxi's.

two buses finally arrived together nearly 2 hours after the first one was due and should have been over half a dozen of them by now. Queues were significantly shorter now after so many gave up waiting and because there wasnt enough to completely fill both buses they refused to allow anybody on or to move until they had enough (ive no idea why) I wasn't really bothered about the wait as our flight had been bumped forward so we hadn't planned to be there that early anyway which is why we just waited but the disorganisation was pathetic and should have set alarm bells for what was to come.

I had a top trip overall, something I'll never ever forget but every single part of the uefa organised side of my trip was abysmal without exception and for them not to make a public acceptance is an insult.

All of the above apart from the transport to the airport as flew straight home with my 15 yo son and nephew.
We decided to jump in a taxi as we didn't want to risk missing our flight because of the shit show in the "carpark" taxi driver was trying to charge us 250 quid got it down to 100 quid.
For any foc on here he made Popeye Doyle look like driving miss Daisy tear arsing over a ton around the outskirts of Istanbul, we were the first blues to arrive at the airport!
We laugh about it now but would we have got in that taxi if it couldn't be helped ? Like fuck we would.

 

[East Level 2]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm fucking raging about this. The absolute shitshow we had to endure, before, during and after the match was scandalous.

The fact that we all had the time of our lives DESPITE what UEFA put us through, shouldn't mask what went on out there.

As @paulchapo says above, its a fucking good job we won. I shudder to think what would have happened if we hadn't.

Shame on you City, I hardly recognise what you've become. Family club with deep roots in the community? My fucking arse.

In all honesty I don't care that MCFC are now a business rather than a family club as the same applies to top division clubs all over Europe. And the tremendous work done by CITC shows the deep roots in the community still exist to a reasonable degree.
However I'm still annoyed about having to spend so much time on Turkish buses and while this was not City's fault I expect them to make some sort of statement criticising the choice of venue and the treatment of supporters who chose to follow UEFA's directions.
If the only ground in Turkey that meets UEFA's capacity requirements for a CL final is inaccessible then Turkey shouldn't stage the CL final. Give them the Europa League or Conference and stage it at Galatasaray or Fenebache.

 

[its a Barm]

I was there in the car park after the game used my brain and got in a taxi got back at 2pm had the best night ever I understand that most fans had a terrible experience after the game and some before, but can I ask what it is you want from any inquiry is it money you want or an apology nothing will take away the pure joy I felt after the game and still today.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

I was there in the car park after the game used my brain and got in a taxi got back at 2pm had the best night ever I understand that most fans had a terrible experience after the game and some before, but can I ask what it is you want from any inquiry is it money you want or an apology nothing will take away the pure joy I felt after the game and still today.

I think people are not gonna get what they want - a simple raising of the Uefa hand and the comment that as Uefa we can't organise a piss up in a brewery.

 

[Gray]

It only adds to the growing amount of incidents which show that we, the match going fans, count for the sum of Fuck All in the modern day game.

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

Rename City Matters to "The Spirit of Klopp" and we'll have a full groveling apology and compensation within the hour.

 

[One Fan Clapping]

Young lad fell off his bike near the Asda at City, his shopping spilled onto the road, City fans helped him up and gathered his food but he had 4 cans of beer, a Dipper picked his beers up and walked of laughing, my 4ft 11” sister chased him and said if he didn’t hand back she’d get the police, he passed them back.

I was there when this happened and helped him with his stuff and saw your sister do this.

I don’t think it’s anything to do with rivalry either.

Liverpool fans brought Paris on theirselves. All went fine in the other end…

 

[hammocity]

I was there when this happened and helped him with his stuff and saw your sister do this.

I don’t think it’s anything to do with rivalry either.

Liverpool fans brought Paris on theirselves. All went fine in the other end…

Nice one, it was a horrible thing to do, the poor lad, Polish I think, just done his shopping at Asda and those beers were just a 4 pack, I’ve never seen anything like that, people like you generally react by helping out.

 

[One Fan Clapping]

Nice one, it was a horrible thing to do, the poor lad, Polish I think, just done his shopping at Asda and those beers were just a 4 pack, I’ve never seen anything like that, people like you generally react by helping out.

I know. A meagre few beers for his Saturday night and he thought he could immediately take them whilst he was struggling. Fair play to your sister for intervening and getting them back.