UEFA are facing a fresh wave of criticism after supporters were left in tears, some began vomiting during three-hour bus trips and others had to cross dangerous verges after being turfed out of gridlocked taxis before Saturday’s Champions League final in Istanbul.
The governing body are yet to comment on the chaos that spoiled Manchester City ’s maiden European title for many of their 20,000 supporters with fans saying that the venue was not fit for purpose.
But the bottom line is that another series of shambolic scenes have shown they failed to learn their lessons from the dangerous issues experienced by Liverpool supporters at last year’s showpiece in Paris and Rangers’ Europa League final defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt.
City and Inter Milan fans experienced horror journeys that in some instances took three times longer than the hour UEFA had envisaged.
Buses did not have toilets on board and in some cases supporters were banned from taking water with them for the journey.
Traffic became so congested four hours before the game that some matchgoers disembarked on a dual carriageway and began running towards the stadium. Meanwhile fans who decided to take taxis, despite UEFA advising against it, were charged fares exceeding £100 when the typical cost on non-matchday is about a tenth.
As detailed exclusively by the Mirror, issues had been expected with the Turkish city’s substandard transport infrastructure, leading to UEFA urging fans to start leaving the city centre nine hours before kick off and putting on free shuttle buses.
Yet the stadium, which is 15 miles west of the centre, is accessible by only two narrow roads that were gridlocked seven hours before the match. Even City's team buses were late arriving owing to the traffic.
It is also served by a limited metro service that fans were strongly advised against using because UEFA thought it was unreliable and required at least three line changes.
Ahead of the game UEFA officials were privately concerned by the local policing, which was the only significant element out of their control. Officers had initially wanted to ban clothing items with the word ultra on them and there were doubts whether rainbow flags would be allowed in as they are banned for domestic fixtures.
Negotiations, where it was stressed that this would be an audition for Turkey as it aims to bid to host an upcoming Euros, ended with police compromising. But beyond minor issues on Saturday night – such as one City fan having his banana costume removed and a man apprehended for attempting to hang a Ukraine flag in the stadium – there were no incidents. That was helped by both sets of fans behaving impeccably, despite their horror experiences.
In an attempt to learn from last year’s problems in Paris and Seville, the former prompting a review into how major events are staged, UEFA invited Football Supporters Europe to attend site visits and provide input into the planning process.
FSE, who had staff on the ground last night in observer roles, felt before the final that the governing body was taking their recommendations on board – particularly in terms of providing basic provisions such as drinking water and facilities for those with accessibility requirements.
But the fact fans were in some instances forced to queue for more than an hour to be served water and wheelchair users needed to be pushed through gravel-covered wasteland to reach the turnstiles indicates that the recommendations were not implemented.
Work had taken place across the past four months to improve the stadium facilities and sources said that several million pounds were invested. Except there were an insufficient number of concession stands and toilets behind both goals, where the fans from both clubs were based, with a far more adequate number of both in the areas occupied by the thousands of corporate guests and VIPs.
After the game issues continued and fans said there was a lack of security staff on hand and communication around how to return to Istanbul was non-existent.
