Open Letter to Man City and newspaper further coverage proposed

[Dobsy]

Don't bother. It's at Wembley next year - Etihad South!
I'm surprised that you were so obviously surprised and disappointed.
No pain no gain. Be thankful you were there at all!
Let it go. Life's too short. We won the treble and you were there, you lucky bastard.

I'm sorry mate but this attitude is what they rely on for getting away with the way they treated people. "Be thankful for what you have you peasants"

They are genuinely lucky nobody collapsed in that car park. Elderly and disabled people were treated like absolute shit, it was inhumane. If people want reassurance that it won't happen again then that's a reasonable expectation.

As for the letter idea, it's creative but I don't think it's helpful.

 

[Gone for a Burton]

Who have Club officials interviewed to get their experiences from Istanbul? How have the Club communicated this evidence gathering? Has it been palmed on to City Matters?

I don’t agree with the adverts in the MUEN but it’s very difficult to hold UEFA to account without media interest.

I try to see things in a positive light but when you read about Blues falling out of wheelchairs and breaking bones, the appearance being given is that some club officials don’t care. I hope I am wrong.

Club officials were caught up in,and had first hand experience of,the dangerous car park fiasco first hand.

They gave assistance to many fans.

I gave my experience to the club and received a prompt acknowledgment and response.

City deal with these matters in a more considered way to the hysterical,compensation oriented red dippers.

FWIW.....I believe that all City fans should receive UEFA compensation !!

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

The MEN are piss taking cunts.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

Club officials were caught up in,and had first hand experience of,the dangerous car park fiasco first hand.

They gave assistance to many fans.

I gave my experience to the club and received a prompt acknowledgment and response.

City deal with these matters in a more considered way to the hysterical,compensation oriented red dippers.

FWIW.....I believe that all City fans should receive UEFA compensation !!

Fair enough mate. If you have been invited to and been able to give your evidence direct to City then I stand corrected.

There’s no need for hysteria, just decent communication to let the fans know what’s going on. That hasn’t happened. We don’t know how City deal with these things since the only other situation I can think of when our fans were really exploited by UEFA, in Moscow, resulted in no ticket refunds. I know the Club held a bit of a party for affected fans.

We will have to see what happens on compensation and hopefully that is targeted at people worst affected. I can’t see it being for everyone but I might be wrong. This forum had plenty of high points holders passing on ticket codes in the run up to the final, so I’m guessing people will need to prove they went to the game.

Credit to the City officials who helped out on the night. Less so for the ones who’ve disappeared for the last month.

 

[edinburgh123]

Just for clarity there are a lot of people who are misunderstanding the logic of the 'paid for letter' so I will put it here
> Many media (paper/TV etc.) have published stories / interviews etc. already and this has not resulted in any response from the club so further interviews alone are just local news
> The logic of 'fans have to pay for advert to converse with club because they get no response' is therefore an ideal approach to get not just the MEN but others to run with the story (which 100% will be picked up nationally) and get the club to actually respond / do something. The MEN are local and cheap - as I said initially, this is not about anybody's personalised vandetta about MEN or anything else, it is about coming up with a fresh approach to get the club to converse
> My written letter was just the 'my written letter' - if we did this it would not be that which was sent and I am sure a number of people 'together' could come up with a better letter
> If there is a better approach we have as a collective then great - but what is it and what has happened to date? All I have seen is 116 pages of moaning and no clarity on what we have done along with assumptions the club have done something. My idea was to collectively request City to respond
> It is NOT about compensation and nor about blaming City - it is about making sure City support us for when this (inevitably) happens again
> Or we do nothing, and wait until next season - boo the anthem more and get the press, manager and players questioning why we continue to do this and then we can all write another 116 pages on bluemoon on why they "don't get us" all illogically thinking the players read this forum

However
For this idea to get traction it needs an official City group to run with it. A single fan adding "and in a straw poll I think 50% of Bluemoon agree with me" is going to look like a bitter individual or nutcase (and as I said, I personally didn't have it that bad - just the return journey and at least I got a seat, others had it far worse).
If there is no official City fan group willing to take this up then fine - I will tell the MEN "no". Although I would personally say for everyone who thinks this is a bad idea then either :-
a) what is your better idea? or
b) If you are thinking is just ignore it and get on with it (which is equally an acceptable approach). Please, though, remember not to complain next time Uefa shaft you (Athens, perhaps??)

 

[horlock_was_super]

City fan says he was detained, beaten and deported from Istanbul 'for no reason'

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Labour's Deputy Leader Angela Rayner have now spoken out and are demanding answers over what happened

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

and it was open for 'comments' usual pile on by the keyboard warriors.
Says it all about that publication, anything similar regarding the red shites wouldn't have been.
The OP is done with the best of intentions but, not through that rag fanzine for me.
Maybe reach out to Martin Samuel and see if he's interested?

 

[stonerblue]

Fucks sake...
Why you think City supporters should slag off the club in the local press is beyond me.
What do you hope to achieve?

 

[KPXBLN]

I think it's a decent idea, and I certainly don't think the club should always be automatically immune from criticism or that it's wrong to criticise them publicly in the media. (I'm not saying that they deserve it with reference to Istanbul, just saying that if they did deserve it then it would be legitimate to air those grievances publicly in the right circumstances.)

However I think an open letter is the wrong way to start. I'd start with a private letter, asking for a response within a reasonable timescale, say something like a fortnight. And it would be much better if this came through organised fan bodies like the OSCs or unofficial fan groups, rather than randomly assembled groups of individual fans.

I also think that your draft should
- cut the bits about Liverpool, it's not relevant. This is about City supporting City fans
- include more detail about what the issues were in Istanbul
- change the tone so it's more like it's asking questions rather than making accusations of the club. i.e. say something like 'we are concerned that the club hasn't spoken out publicly about this: please can you reassure us that you have been making private representations with UEFA and can you us details on the nature of these discussions'
- be more future focused. Like include a bit asking if the club will be seeking input from fans about their experiences which they can pass on to UEFA so that this kind of fuck up doesn't happen again.
- as the discussion on here indicates, if you want large numbers of fans to sign on to it, the content needs to be broad enough to have mass appeal and to reassure those who are squeamish about appearing to attack the club unfairly.

I didn't go to the final and I'm not a regular matchgoer anymore for obvious geographical reasons so I won't be involved, but good luck with it.

 

[Man_City_Loyal]

Fucks sake...
Why you think City supporters should slag off the club in the local press is beyond me.
What do you hope to achieve?

mind-boggling isn't it.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

Just for clarity there are a lot of people who are misunderstanding the logic of the 'paid for letter' so I will put it here
> Many media (paper/TV etc.) have published stories / interviews etc. already and this has not resulted in any response from the club so further interviews alone are just local news
> The logic of 'fans have to pay for advert to converse with club because they get no response' is therefore an ideal approach to get not just the MEN but others to run with the story (which 100% will be picked up nationally) and get the club to actually respond / do something. The MEN are local and cheap - as I said initially, this is not about anybody's personalised vandetta about MEN or anything else, it is about coming up with a fresh approach to get the club to converse
> My written letter was just the 'my written letter' - if we did this it would not be that which was sent and I am sure a number of people 'together' could come up with a better letter
> If there is a better approach we have as a collective then great - but what is it and what has happened to date? All I have seen is 116 pages of moaning and no clarity on what we have done along with assumptions the club have done something. My idea was to collectively request City to respond
> It is NOT about compensation and nor about blaming City - it is about making sure City support us for when this (inevitably) happens again
> Or we do nothing, and wait until next season - boo the anthem more and get the press, manager and players questioning why we continue to do this and then we can all write another 116 pages on bluemoon on why they "don't get us" all illogically thinking the players read this forum

However
For this idea to get traction it needs an official City group to run with it. A single fan adding "and in a straw poll I think 50% of Bluemoon agree with me" is going to look like a bitter individual or nutcase (and as I said, I personally didn't have it that bad - just the return journey and at least I got a seat, others had it far worse).
If there is no official City fan group willing to take this up then fine - I will tell the MEN "no". Although I would personally say for everyone who thinks this is a bad idea then either :-
a) what is your better idea? or
b) If you are thinking is just ignore it and get on with it (which is equally an acceptable approach). Please, though, remember not to complain next time Uefa shaft you (Athens, perhaps??)

You make lots of valid points but the UK press has been toxic towards City for decades. An extensive social media campaign would be more effective. The MEN is not supportive of our club. Most of the media will not support us. They will write stories mocking our fanbase and calling us self-entitled. Don’t waste energy on them.
Lobbying the club internally and attacking UEFA on multiple channels (not the tabloids) is the best policy. We also have some MPs on our side. The club have been poor with their Comms again.