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The 2023 UEFA Champions League Final between Premier League giant Manchester City and historic Italian club Inter Milan takes place on Saturday afternoon in Istanbul.
The Champions League Final is largely considered the biggest club soccer game of the year, and a victory would be absolutely massive for either side.
Manchester City, which won the Premier League and FA Cup, is hoping to win its first Champion League crown. Inter Milan, meanwhile, has won the competition three times. But it’s been since 2010 that the Nerazurri last lifted Europe’s biggest prize.
So, understandably, both fan bases flocked to Istanbul full of excitement.
But they’ve since run into some problems.
the official UEFA shuttle bus has just dropped us off on a dirt road here. You can see the stadium in the background 😂 pic.twitter.com/4pGpTR4ETN
— niko 🇧🇼 (@nik0_mcr) June 10, 2023
Take, for instance, the UEFA-run shuttle bus meant to drop fans off at the stadium prior to the game. Instead, one fan claims it dropped them off more than a mile from the destination.
Situation in Istanbul. 4+ hours until kick-off… #UCLFinal pic.twitter.com/DowVOjIEOu
— Adriano Del Monte (@adriandelmonte) June 10, 2023
And they weren’t alone.
Traffic in Istanbul around the stadium was so bad that thousands and thousands of fans walked for miles along the highway to try to get to the game on time.
Sadly, this isn’t a new issue for UEFA. The governing body had similar issues prior to the 2022 Champions League Final in Paris when delays entering the stadium led to a dangerous compaction of fans.
It is, by now, quite apparent that UEFA is no longer capable of staging its own signature games:
2021 Euro final: security overrun
2022 Champs Lg final: dangerous crushes and roving robbers
2023 Champs Lg final: fans can’t even get to the stadium https://t.co/hnmI4Oi5ql— Leander “same handle *elsewhere*” Schaerlaeckens (@LeanderAlphabet) June 10, 2023
During the 2021 UEFA EURO finals at Wembley Stadium in London, fans overrun the stadium security and began pouring into the stadium with or without tickets.
Fans have long-realized the issues. Though they’re doubtful anything will change.
“Nothing will ever change when it comes to CL Final logistics. UEFA have no incentive change. Hosting bids will always be huge, TV rights are always lucrative, fans will (obviously) always sell out ticket allocations. €€€ keep rolling, so pre-match chaos means nothing to UEFA,” Twitter user @JChatfield94 said.
https://twitter.com/JChatfield94/status/1667559888757596160
Thankfully, kick off was still hours away when tweets about crowds began. But it could yet be hours before people arrive at the stadium.