Standing in puddles in a dark concrete alleyway by the malfunctioning turnstiles of Galatasaray’s RAMS Park Stadium, the Manchester United supporters were relieved when a decision was taken to open a small door to the side. It didn’t feel particularly safe to funnel 500 people through such a tight space but at least it meant they may finally get in to see the game. Inside the stadium last Wednesday, their team were already two goals up.
At full-time, meanwhile, a decision was taken to hold those same United supporters inside for 80 minutes. By the time they left on a wet night, it was late and the handful of shuttle buses provided for the 10 mile journey to central Istanbul were filling up fast. Some tried hitching lifts by the motorway. Others found taxis asking for $US100.
And this is often what it’s like when you travel in the Champions League. Europe’s flagship tournament treats its corporate guests and sponsors well. No shortage of transport, signage and canapes for those in the padded seats. The regular supporters? Not so much. Increasingly, UEFA and their pals don’t much seem to care about how the paying public get there and even less about how they get home.
So on the top of much-publicised incidents at Paris for the 2022 final and yet again, on a lesser but still disturbing scale, at a different Istanbul stadium for the following year’s showpiece, come stories like this, stories of fans left at the mercy of inadequate stadiums, pitiful organisation and rank bad stewarding and policing just to try and watch a football match. It’s shameful and as football continues to put money first and supporters nowhere the worse it is allowed to get.
United fan Matt Ford was in Istanbul and told me: ‘We got to the ground in
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