Thread by @staplenick

Got to respect @UEFAcom who are, as ever, absolutely committed to making the experience of being a match going fan as miserable as possible even at the @ChampionsLeague final…

2hrs on a bus from town to get to the ground with no water allowed or toilets, fanzone where they stopped serving beers 3 hrs before kick off, and in the ground, 2 stalls for 20k fans to get any food/drink. This is the queue for one of them

Oh and I forgot no portaloos/toilets in the fanzone other than some RVs with single loos in them. Good luck if you’re a female fan who’ve spent ages queuing just to use one. Pathetic @UEFAcom

Istanbul is an amazing city but an exceptionally poor choice to host an event like this given notoriously bad traffic, especially at a knackered old stadium with rubbish facilities, 26km from city centre.

75 mins in the queue for some water/food now. Mental.

Still managed to our enjoy our night 👀💙💙

Some further info on how badly organised this was:

- Shuttle bus to game took 2-3hrs, we were told not to use metro. No water, no toilets
- Once in ground, I queued 1hr 45 for water
- Buses after game non-existent, those there were didn’t get away for 3hrs due to traffic

- Saw people in wheelchairs being dragged across gravel outside stadium, totally inaccessible and inappropriate
- @JohnStapletonTV and I walked miles back to the motorway and got absolutely ripped off for a cab back to town. We had to walk through traffic on a motorway to get it

- We and those who ignored @UEFAcom advice and took metro home were best off, but wasn’t possible for everyone who needed to get to airports for example

To sum up, easily the worst major event I’ve ever attended. A total shambles and miserable at best as a fan. Scary at times

Hardly surprising though, @UEFAcom repeatedly show utter contempt for the people who make their product viable.

They’re a complete joke of an organisation and should be ashamed. And they wonder why we boo their crap song

#ChampionsLeagueFinal #ManCity

@ManCityHelp you also need to know how shambolic this was - cannot happen again. Complaints to @UEFAcom please

Last thing. I know what’ll happen now, if anything:

@UEFAcom will PR out some response saying “we regret some fans had a poor experience” and nothing changes

I think you’d struggle to find 1 City fan who thought that was a well organised/easy event to attend. It was a disgrace

Waiting to fly home this morning I got bored and did some digging…

Guess what? The same person has been UEFA’s Chief of Event Operations or similar for over a DECADE. They’ve overseen every one of the crap experiences had by fans in that time.

There is clearly ZERO accountability in an organisation where time and again, the absolute basics of organising major events are found extremely wanting. There’s no appetite for change, or restructure, or stepping up and accepting responsibility for your failures.

I would never want to see anyone lose their job - but ultimately that individual and their team are personally responsible for the utter rubbish match going fans have been put through by @UEFAcom.

When will they explain what went wrong and how they will fix it next time?