San Siro crowd control

[Project1]

In no way am I defending the actions of the Italian Police and Stewards but I also think some City fans need to understand that European stadiums operate in a totally different manner than English ones and our fans need to adapt a little to this as well.
I have been to loads of Citys always in Europe from the 70's and found that if you get there early and relatively sober the chances of having issues with foriegn police and steward are definitely minimized.
After the game I expected to be kept I much longer than we actually were and half expected no transport back to Milan central station but we actually arrived back In Milan just as the team bus arrived at the hotel.

Excellent post whp and agree with everything said. I have always gauged my arrival times on our expected turn out if we are taking 3,000 get there minimum 1.5 hours before. Though I did find the entrance at 10 very odd in that it became a cross roads for home and away fans which caused the hold up when queuing

 

[whp.blue]

We got there 50 mins before the game which I believe is in good time. No details on the ticket regarding which gate to use. Asked a local steward who informed us it was number 10. Arrived at number 10 40 mins before kick off only to be told to walk around a great big car park to queue up further away From gate 10! This took 20 mins to get to. Got pushed and shoved around for no reason and missed our goal!
Decent people are going to leave these games alone.

Are you implying anyone who got at the gate a couple of hours before kick off aren't decent people?

 

[Danamy]

The head scratcher for me was the amount of wasteland leading up to the away entrance could've been used a lot better. All that was needed was two rows of barriers halfway into that area to break the crowd into two sections, this simple step wouldn't have caused the pinch point where people were crushed.
It would also had been a good idea to have someone at the Metro exit even if it was someone from City to direct supporters in the direction of the away entrance rather than walking up to the ground only to find out we had to walk all the way back past the Metro exit and go the other way from where we just come from, ridiculous set of events that a couple of simple things like I've mentioned above could've been avoided?

 

[mike1923]

The biggest single reason English fans abroad are treated this way is our own england fans, and how the behave away from home. Almost everywhere they go there seems to be trouble from too much booze (and the rest), so other countries police forces and stewards think that club fans are the same (a few are I suppose), as we're english, we must all be england fans, so we deserve it. Luckily the German police seem to have a far more relaxed attitude, at least until it kicks off, and generally there are no real issues in Germany with the police.

Agree with the bit about the German police, very reasonable and laid back the times I’ve been.let us know we were there if they needed us and left us to it by and large

 

[gkmcfc]

I arrived at half time :)

 

[cptaidan88]

Thought this was fairly decent in comparison to some. Fairly quick out at the end. Only just recovered from the climb up the spirals. The searches were OTT but that is usual. The "crossroads" were stupid and no one is disputing that. A design flaw of an old stadium.

However, the stewarding didn't directly cause the crush. Late arriving City fans were the ones pushing from the back. I've heard no reports of stewards or police pushing forwards from the back.

Get there earlier, then there's no problems.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

The head scratcher for me was the amount of wasteland leading up to the away entrance could've been used a lot better. All that was needed was two rows of barriers halfway into that area to break the crowd into two sections, this simple step wouldn't have caused the pinch point where people were crushed.
It would also had been a good idea to have someone at the Metro exit even if it was someone from City to direct supporters in the direction of the away entrance rather than walking up to the ground only to find out we had to walk all the way back past the Metro exit and go the other way from where we just come from, ridiculous set of events that a couple of simple things like I've mentioned above could've been avoided?

It all falls under the they couldn't give a fuck banner.

Euro aways are always a messy trip in more ways than one.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

Thought this was fairly decent in comparison to some. Fairly quick out at the end. Only just recovered from the climb up the spirals. The searches were OTT but that is usual. The "crossroads" were stupid and no one is disputing that. A design flaw of an old stadium.

However, the stewarding didn't directly cause the crush. Late arriving City fans were the ones pushing from the back. I've heard no reports of stewards or police pushing forwards from the back.

Get there earlier, then there's no problems.

That wasn’t really the case.. The affect of dividing the queue meant that the Blues towards the front had to fit into a smaller space. I think there was a bit of pushing when the queue was split but not much. People at the back were mainly relaxed, buying cans from street sellers etc, albeit a bit frustrated about the length of the queues.

How did you experience OTT searches and claim there were loads of Blues arriving late and pushing?
Other Blues who said they were checked thoroughly, say they got into the ground early.

 

[the plasterer]

Thought this was fairly decent in comparison to some. Fairly quick out at the end. Only just recovered from the climb up the spirals. The searches were OTT but that is usual. The "crossroads" were stupid and no one is disputing that. A design flaw of an old stadium.

However, the stewarding didn't directly cause the crush. Late arriving City fans were the ones pushing from the back. I've heard no reports of stewards or police pushing forwards from the back.

Get there earlier, then there's no problems.

Bollox, we were at the back and certainly were not pushing, stewards and police caused the bottleneck and caused the bit of a crush, not the city supporters, when they let us through it was fine, why not do that in the first place

 

[M18CTID]

I wasn't going to post in this thread, however, I feel some balance appears to be needed.
Four of us arrived at the ground and wandered around the home end bars and food stalls drinking and chatting with the home fans for about an hour.
We had absolutely no problems.
We entered the City part through the side gates before they were closed, they then formed part of the fencing from the car park to the entrance, strangely we were then asked to go back Into the carpark with the rest of the queuing City fans.
Bizarrely we had to show our passports to get in the City queue.
When the gates opened we were in the first fifty or so and apart from the fact they removed my lighter but allowed me to keep my cigarettes we had absolutely no issues at all.
It would appear to me that the Police and Stewards wanted everyone in the ground as early as possible and in Europe this is actually is the norm and most non English fans love being in the ground hours before.
If I had not had my grandson with me I probably would have had a few more beers and been later getting into the gate.
The Police and Stewards appeared to have become more frustrated and aggressive the nearer it got to kick off.
I genuinely think that foreign Police and Stewards do not understand English fans and that we go to these away games mainly for a good piss up and a laugh and see the fact that some of us think it is a bit like a City home game where we can roll up just before kick off and get in the ground quickly, this happens every week at the Etihad especially in south stand where I sit, and they seem to think we are just taking the piss getting there late.

In no way am I defending the actions of the Italian Police and Stewards but I also think some City fans need to understand that European stadiums operate in a totally different manner than English ones and our fans need to adapt a little to this as well.
I have been to loads of Citys always in Europe from the 70's and found that if you get there early and relatively sober the chances of having issues with foriegn police and steward are definitely minimized.
After the game I expected to be kept I much longer than we actually were and half expected no transport back to Milan central station but we actually arrived back In Milan just as the team bus arrived at the hotel.

You know we as a group take any allegations of mistreatment of fans very seriously but there is a lot of commonsense in that. Having not witnessed the worst of the behaviour towards our fans, it does sound like it was a case of bad organisation which in turn led to the police losing it as opposed to something much more premeditated which is the default position of those fascist ****s masquerading as the Madrid police. Those fuckers would find any excuse to attack fans regardless of whether they arrived 3 hours before kick-off or 10 minutes before half-time.

We can definitely do our own bit by making our way to the ground earlier than we would for a domestic away. I’m as guilty as anyone for wanting to cram an extra pint in before kick-off but I think it is better to get on your toes a lot earlier for European aways. Lyon away last year - we started making our way to the ground from the city centre about 3 hours before KO and as we both know, it was a good job we did with it being a hell of a trek just to get to the tram stop, which already had a huge queue, and then there was the 20 mile or so journey to the ground.

As much of a ballache as the holdback is, this is for our own safety. I too thought the journey back to the city centre went far smoother than expected.