AADAM PATEL: UEFA showed their disregard for fans AGAIN by choosing a venue that is arduously tough to get to for the Champions League final

Perhaps the miracle of Istanbul 2005 disguised the problems that the fans had in getting to the Ataturk Stadium.

Istanbul is a wonderful city full of soul and history but yet again, UEFA showed their disregard for fans in choosing a venue that is arduously tough to get to.

The Ataturk is 15 miles outside of Istanbul with only one accessible road leading to the ground from Istanbul and it took most supporters at least two to three hours to make the journey to the stadium.

Some came in taxis, while other left their cabs and walked the final few miles to avoid the notorious Istanbul traffic.

Others took the metro while many used the free shuttle buses provided from the centre as fans were told to arrive at the ground as early as 2pm for a game that kicked off at 10pm local time.

From as early as around 7pm, three-hours before kick-off, bottlenecks started to form outside the stadium with security at each turnstile carrying out lengthy ticket checks, including ID checks.

At Gate R outside the Man City end of the ground, the Man City stewards admitted that it was chaos as fans tried to get inside, with many spending hours alone in the queue waiting to get inside the stadium.

Istanbul has been waiting for this final since 2020 when it was cancelled due to Covid and it would be unfair for UEFA to take it off them but this is a venue that certainly requires more infrastructure to host such a major occasion.

Unlike the French authorities in Paris last season however, the Turkish authorities had invited the British to offer support in a purely advisory capacity which helped as City fans in their thousands made the journey to the outskirts of Istanbul in their hopes of seeing their side complete a historic treble.

Yet fans were still made to struggle and endure difficulty in simply trying to access a football match - and for what is their showpiece occasion, it was another damning indictment of UEFA’s inability to learn lessons from previous occasions.