First Liverpool, now Man City

Whether it’s complacency, incompetence or arrogance, fans deserve better from European football’s governing body

June 11, 2023 6:47 pm(Updated 7:10 pm)

Eighteen years ago, Liverpool supporters who attended the Champions League final at the Ataturk Stadium complained of severe disorganisation at their ability to get from the city centre to the ground and the provision of services once inside. If Uefa can claim to have been caught off guard by the issues at Paris’ Stade de France a year ago (which is no excuse for wrongly blaming Liverpool fans initially), they knew what to expect from Istanbul.

Once is never, twice is always. Swap the red shirts for blue, make everyone look a little more jaded by the state of the world and chip a little more off the Ataturk’s stark concrete corners and 2023 was a rerun of 2005. Stadiums are not awarded prestige finals based solely on their facilities, but even then the Ataturk deserves to fall short. If you can’t get supporters to the stadium without them arriving five hours before the start of the game, your bid should be a non-starter.

The problems were obvious even on the eve of the game: with one road into the north of the stadium, it was busy even in the build-up to pre-match press conferences on Friday. By Saturday, that area resembled a disaster movie where people are abandoning their cars to escape the chaos. Only this time, Manchester City fans were moving towards it.

The journey to the stadium was indeed a mess. Supporters were advised before the event by Uefa to use the official shuttle buses located at a specific point in the city for each team. For Manchester City, this was near Yenikapi Metro station but fans reported being advised against the Metro itself. Those fans were then advised that there was a two-hour queue for the shuttle buses even four hours before kick-off. When they then had to resort to expensive taxis, the blocked roads around the stadium led to them walking the last four kilometres to the stadium in the early evening heat.

But things barely improved once inside the stadium. According to the testimony of a City supporter interviewed by i, beer became sold out at all but one of the bars in the Manchester City fan zone more than three hours before kick-off. The toilet facilities were described as “massively unimpressive” for 20,000 people, while queues for food and drink in the stadium took approximately 30 minutes for those wanting water after walking to the stadium from their abandoned transport.

Given that Mastercard is one of Uefa’s highest-profile sponsors, City supporters i spoke to had been advised that the Ataturk would be a cashless stadium. However, when they went to buy a programme, a seller wearing a Mastercard t-shirt told them that he could only accept cash. Similarly, after the game there was one bar in the fan zone selling soft drinks but again fans were told that they would need to pay cash.

That’s not the worst. Post-celebrations, supporters leaving the stadium could find no information about the advised route back to the city given the shuttle bus farce on the way in. Many hundreds had to wait for up to two hours for a bus home having been unable to gain information as to whether the Metro was still open (it was, and was half-empty an hour after full-time). Even at the Metro stations, there were no tournament staff or Uefa volunteers available to assist or direct supporters. They relied on the broken English of the Turkish police.

In what world is this acceptable? If Uefa can organise a pre-match show that nobody wants with military precision to clear the pitch of staging, lighting and people in a little over three minutes, perhaps they might like to put a little more thought into the experience of the people they purport to hold dearest: fans of the game.

At best, the disorganisation of another botched Champions League final hosting led to undue worries for supporters on what should have been a purely positive occasion. At worst, it caused dangerous situations with people walking to Uefa’s showpiece event over scrubland and alongside dual carriageways to get into the stadium. When inside, the football was just about the only bit of the experience up to scratch.

Whether it’s complacency, incompetence, arrogance or a heady blend of all three, we deserve better from European football’s governing body. They are the ultimate arbiters and organisers and thus also holders of responsibility. This is the European Cup final. Nobody should be left crossing their fingers that everything works out alright.

i has contacted Uefa for comment.