I've just started writing up my Athens experience to send to our local MP, and I thought it might highlight how the ticket checking system worked for those who weren't there. It's a long, long, read though, so apologies if I bore anyone! It's entirely up to you whether you read it though, so no complaining!
The journey started at Liverpool John Lennon airport at 11:30pm, and in keeping with the whole experience, there began the problems of ineffective organisation and the degrading experience of being treated like cattle. We were called to our boarding gate, as the plane was apparently "boarding". At this point, we were herded into a corridor without ventilation or air conditioning and forced to stand in claustrophobic conditions for around half an hour as the buses were not yet available to take us from the gate to our aircraft.
Finally we were taken on board our boeing 747 for the flight to Athens. It was taking a long time for everyone to board and find a seat (as the seating was unreserved), and so people were in and out of the toilets for comfort breaks. Then three people wearing luminous jackets and worried faces came on board to talk to the senior cabin attendant, who happened to be stood next to us. "We have a problem" they said, "578 people checked-in, we issued 578 boarding cards, 578 people passed through the security checkpoint near the gate, but you have 581 on board". So under the current security climate you can't take liquids on a flight because of the terrorist risk, but apparently it is entirely possible for 3 people to by-pass all of that security and sneak on board an international flight! After 10 minutes of headcounts and searches for the extra three passengers, one of the people in luminous jackets walked onto the plane again and announced "you're going to miss your slot if you wait any longer, so you may as well just go"! And ten minutes later we were rattling down the runway with three extra passengers
On arrival in Greece, the tour company had done us proud, and the buses were waiting within yards of the terminal building to take us to our resort. We arrived early Tuesday morning and had a fantastic day and night. Similarly, the next morning the buses arrived on time at 11:00am to take us into Athens. The tour company we went with couldn't be faulted, and were the only ones with any organisational capacity that we encountered!
En route to Athens, we were stopped twice by police, who seemed to want to delay our journey for reasons that were never quite clear (they never boarded the bus, spoke to the driver, or carried out any checks - just flagged us down, made us sit in a layby for 10 minutes, then waved us on again). But despite the annoyance, we arrived near the stadium at about 1pm. We decided that rather than wait for 8 and three quarter hours around a stadium with no entertainment, no bars, and no refreshments (other than stands alongside the road) we would head into Athens, see the Acropolis, and soak up some of the pre-match atmosphere. This we did, and the atmosphere around Sytagma square was great. Even better, just down the road near the acropolis metro station, we found a bar in an area where Milan fans were being picked up and dropped off, and we had a fantastic couple of hours with their fans, singing songs, taking photographs and swapping opinions on how the game would go. Both sets of fans were impeccably behaved here, and it was probably the highlight of the day.
At around 5pm we decided to head back to the ground via the metro and this is where the real problems began. We had with us a couple of mates without tickets, who wanted to stay with us (for understandable reasons) for as long as possible. So we thought we would be able to go to the stadium and have a couple of beers, and who knows, they might even pick up a ticket from a tout. Getting off the metro the trouble started. The first cordon of riot police were at the bottom of the steps checking tickets. We spent about 10 minutes trying to decide what to do - we didn't want to part company nearly 5 hours before kick-off, but those of us with tickets didn't want to head back away from the stadium either as we could see the crowds building already. After some lengthy deliberation, I really needed a pee, and went looking for a toilet. There wasn't one, but there was a wall to the left that people seemed to be using as an unofficial gents so I went there. I soon noticed that there were no police at all between the "gents" and the stadium concourse though, so I returned to our group armed with this knowledge - one group visit to the toilet we all made it through the first cordon with no problems.
One barrier passed, no ticket check at all, no intentions of sneaking someone in on our part, we just wanted to stick together for a bit longer before kick-off.
The next line of police was about 70 metres past the first one. Our plan now was to have a beer, see if anyone was selling tickets, and maybe get something to eat. But there were no refreshments available in this area at all, and more and more people seemed to be coming through. Before too long it was getting really busy and we thought we would have to part company with our ticketless mates and head into the ground. Just as we were saying our goodbyes, someone was handing out photocopies of tickets though, saying that these would allow us to get through the next cordon. No charge for them, as they were blatant fakes. They were printed on paper, not card. There was nothing printed on the back, no hologram, and they all had the same numbers on them! We didn't think there was a chance that they would get in the ground with them, but if it was true that they would get you through the next barrier then we thought at least we would be able to stick together for a bit longer. The time now was probably around 6:15pm - three and a half hours before kick-off. We went to the cordon and queued. And queued. And then a slight crush started to develop. The rate at which the police was letting people through was nowhere near the rate at which people were joining the queue from the metro station. The slight crush started to intensify, and then over to the right a group burst through the cordon towards the gate that was about 20 yards beyond. Whether this was because of the crush or because of a deliberate attempt to storm the gate I can't say, but there were no calls to charge like you would expect if it was an organised attempt to rush in. Maybe a few were trying it on, and the others were carried through. The police responded by battering people round the head and back with their batons, and people started to get worried and upset in the queue. One of my mates without a ticket decided that he had seen enough, said goodbye and went to find a telly to watch the game on. Things were getting a bit ugly, and lots of people were worried. The crush was still intensifying (though it was more uncomfortable and claustrophobic than genuinely threatening - like the mosh pit at a big gig about 5 mins before the headline act comes on), the police were shouting at us now in the queue, and some people were starting to get a little hysterical with thoughts of Hillsborough in their heads. To be honest, while the crush was deeply annoying, people were never going to get crushed to death at this barrier, as the only barrier was a line of police and not a solid fence. My worry was more that the weight of people would overwhelm the police and we would be forced through the cordon, at which point I was more worried about getting cracked round the head by the police than I was worried about the effects of crushing. They started to let people through again, and thankfully at a faster rate than before. Their main aim seemed to be to control the flow of people though, rather than check tickets. We all waved our tickets at them, and my mate his photocopy, and we were through.
Two barriers passed, no ticket check at all, still no real intentions of sneaking someone in on our part, though the thought was by now growing fast that my mate actually might be able to get in with his photocopy rather than just soak up the atmosphere. We were by now very frustrated at being herded from one group of aggressive riot police to the next though.
The next check was immediately through this barrier, and there were polite stewards using infrared pens to see if tickets were genuine. But, it was completely random! About one in three were getting checked, and the stewards were approaching people like bored students handing out nightclub flyers. If you walked past them waving your ticket they weren't bothered at all. About half of our lot were checked, but we all made it through no problem, including the lad with the photocopy.
Three barriers passed, one pathetic attempt at a ticket check made, and by now we were convinced that our mate would make it into the game.
We were then into a wide open space with fountains etc. There were some dancing girls and a couple of advertising stands. The atmosphere was OK in here.The next check was just ahead though, where the police had parked two vans to funnel people in. All we had to do was shuffle past waving tickets in the air at riot police and we were through. This again was not a ticket check, it was a way of controlling the flow of people into the ground area.
Four barriers passed, still just that one pathetic attempt to check tickets, and now we just wanted to get into the stadium.
So, to the final barrier - a lightweight fence being manned by stewards that led into the stadium itself. Again no-one checked the tickets properly and we all got in with no problem. The seats were quite roomy, and as no-one sat for any of the game anyway (too busy standing up and singing), my mate with the photocopy was able to stand next to us without disturbing anyone on either side of our group. The possibilities for getting past the last barrier were endless. As the stadium was lower than the concourse, people were able to shin up a farily low wall to climb into the stadium. To get to the toilets you had to go back out of the gate (there were none in the stadium), so other people were taking their mates tickets out to others who were outside without tickets. Some people were just showing bus passes, or UEFA leaflets about the stadium to the stewards and were getting in. It was a joke. A complete joke.
Five barriers passed, still just the one pathetic attempt to check tickets, and we were all in the ground.
Of course, word was by now getting round to people outside that you could get in without a ticket, and more and more were arriving. Despite this, the stadium was not "full" as the police apparrently said later, at least, not in our area. There was quite a lot of space around us, and although there were more people than seats, it was not dangerous. Nowhere near as dangerous as being outside with the police anyway!
The upshot of all of this is that I passed through five supposed checks, and not one person looked at my ticket properly. With a simple turnstile, with a bloke tearing off the perforated strip, they could have avoided all of the problems. Even better, they could have used a barcode system like they use at the nou camp. Because they used line after line of aggressive riot police, who were more intent on herding people than checking whether they were entitled to be there, they were virtually encouraging people to sneak in. I mean, my mate had no intention at all of sneaking in when we came of the metro, and had resigned himself to watching it in a bar. But when you are that big a fan, and you find out that all you have to do is walk through lines of police calmly waving a photocopy in the air, it is one hell of a temptation. Some proper turnstiles and he would never have bothered.
The stadium was the wrong choice, the ticket allocation was appalling, but the system put in place to check tickets was an absolute disgrace. No amount of blame shifting from UEFA can disguise that fact, and they really ought to look at the organisational capacity of the countries that they award major finals to. On the evidence of Istanbul and Athens, Turkey and Greece seemingly can't organise the proverbial night-out in a brewery. All those riot police antagonising people are really not necessary. Just one proper barrier, with turnstiles manned by lots of people checking tickets methodically and speedily would have avoided all of the problems.
The journey started at Liverpool John Lennon airport at 11:30pm, and in keeping with the whole experience, there began the problems of ineffective organisation and the degrading experience of being treated like cattle. We were called to our boarding gate, as the plane was apparently "boarding". At this point, we were herded into a corridor without ventilation or air conditioning and forced to stand in claustrophobic conditions for around half an hour as the buses were not yet available to take us from the gate to our aircraft.
Finally we were taken on board our boeing 747 for the flight to Athens. It was taking a long time for everyone to board and find a seat (as the seating was unreserved), and so people were in and out of the toilets for comfort breaks. Then three people wearing luminous jackets and worried faces came on board to talk to the senior cabin attendant, who happened to be stood next to us. "We have a problem" they said, "578 people checked-in, we issued 578 boarding cards, 578 people passed through the security checkpoint near the gate, but you have 581 on board". So under the current security climate you can't take liquids on a flight because of the terrorist risk, but apparently it is entirely possible for 3 people to by-pass all of that security and sneak on board an international flight! After 10 minutes of headcounts and searches for the extra three passengers, one of the people in luminous jackets walked onto the plane again and announced "you're going to miss your slot if you wait any longer, so you may as well just go"! And ten minutes later we were rattling down the runway with three extra passengers
On arrival in Greece, the tour company had done us proud, and the buses were waiting within yards of the terminal building to take us to our resort. We arrived early Tuesday morning and had a fantastic day and night. Similarly, the next morning the buses arrived on time at 11:00am to take us into Athens. The tour company we went with couldn't be faulted, and were the only ones with any organisational capacity that we encountered!
En route to Athens, we were stopped twice by police, who seemed to want to delay our journey for reasons that were never quite clear (they never boarded the bus, spoke to the driver, or carried out any checks - just flagged us down, made us sit in a layby for 10 minutes, then waved us on again). But despite the annoyance, we arrived near the stadium at about 1pm. We decided that rather than wait for 8 and three quarter hours around a stadium with no entertainment, no bars, and no refreshments (other than stands alongside the road) we would head into Athens, see the Acropolis, and soak up some of the pre-match atmosphere. This we did, and the atmosphere around Sytagma square was great. Even better, just down the road near the acropolis metro station, we found a bar in an area where Milan fans were being picked up and dropped off, and we had a fantastic couple of hours with their fans, singing songs, taking photographs and swapping opinions on how the game would go. Both sets of fans were impeccably behaved here, and it was probably the highlight of the day.
At around 5pm we decided to head back to the ground via the metro and this is where the real problems began. We had with us a couple of mates without tickets, who wanted to stay with us (for understandable reasons) for as long as possible. So we thought we would be able to go to the stadium and have a couple of beers, and who knows, they might even pick up a ticket from a tout. Getting off the metro the trouble started. The first cordon of riot police were at the bottom of the steps checking tickets. We spent about 10 minutes trying to decide what to do - we didn't want to part company nearly 5 hours before kick-off, but those of us with tickets didn't want to head back away from the stadium either as we could see the crowds building already. After some lengthy deliberation, I really needed a pee, and went looking for a toilet. There wasn't one, but there was a wall to the left that people seemed to be using as an unofficial gents so I went there. I soon noticed that there were no police at all between the "gents" and the stadium concourse though, so I returned to our group armed with this knowledge - one group visit to the toilet we all made it through the first cordon with no problems.
One barrier passed, no ticket check at all, no intentions of sneaking someone in on our part, we just wanted to stick together for a bit longer before kick-off.
The next line of police was about 70 metres past the first one. Our plan now was to have a beer, see if anyone was selling tickets, and maybe get something to eat. But there were no refreshments available in this area at all, and more and more people seemed to be coming through. Before too long it was getting really busy and we thought we would have to part company with our ticketless mates and head into the ground. Just as we were saying our goodbyes, someone was handing out photocopies of tickets though, saying that these would allow us to get through the next cordon. No charge for them, as they were blatant fakes. They were printed on paper, not card. There was nothing printed on the back, no hologram, and they all had the same numbers on them! We didn't think there was a chance that they would get in the ground with them, but if it was true that they would get you through the next barrier then we thought at least we would be able to stick together for a bit longer. The time now was probably around 6:15pm - three and a half hours before kick-off. We went to the cordon and queued. And queued. And then a slight crush started to develop. The rate at which the police was letting people through was nowhere near the rate at which people were joining the queue from the metro station. The slight crush started to intensify, and then over to the right a group burst through the cordon towards the gate that was about 20 yards beyond. Whether this was because of the crush or because of a deliberate attempt to storm the gate I can't say, but there were no calls to charge like you would expect if it was an organised attempt to rush in. Maybe a few were trying it on, and the others were carried through. The police responded by battering people round the head and back with their batons, and people started to get worried and upset in the queue. One of my mates without a ticket decided that he had seen enough, said goodbye and went to find a telly to watch the game on. Things were getting a bit ugly, and lots of people were worried. The crush was still intensifying (though it was more uncomfortable and claustrophobic than genuinely threatening - like the mosh pit at a big gig about 5 mins before the headline act comes on), the police were shouting at us now in the queue, and some people were starting to get a little hysterical with thoughts of Hillsborough in their heads. To be honest, while the crush was deeply annoying, people were never going to get crushed to death at this barrier, as the only barrier was a line of police and not a solid fence. My worry was more that the weight of people would overwhelm the police and we would be forced through the cordon, at which point I was more worried about getting cracked round the head by the police than I was worried about the effects of crushing. They started to let people through again, and thankfully at a faster rate than before. Their main aim seemed to be to control the flow of people though, rather than check tickets. We all waved our tickets at them, and my mate his photocopy, and we were through.
Two barriers passed, no ticket check at all, still no real intentions of sneaking someone in on our part, though the thought was by now growing fast that my mate actually might be able to get in with his photocopy rather than just soak up the atmosphere. We were by now very frustrated at being herded from one group of aggressive riot police to the next though.
The next check was immediately through this barrier, and there were polite stewards using infrared pens to see if tickets were genuine. But, it was completely random! About one in three were getting checked, and the stewards were approaching people like bored students handing out nightclub flyers. If you walked past them waving your ticket they weren't bothered at all. About half of our lot were checked, but we all made it through no problem, including the lad with the photocopy.
Three barriers passed, one pathetic attempt at a ticket check made, and by now we were convinced that our mate would make it into the game.
We were then into a wide open space with fountains etc. There were some dancing girls and a couple of advertising stands. The atmosphere was OK in here.The next check was just ahead though, where the police had parked two vans to funnel people in. All we had to do was shuffle past waving tickets in the air at riot police and we were through. This again was not a ticket check, it was a way of controlling the flow of people into the ground area.
Four barriers passed, still just that one pathetic attempt to check tickets, and now we just wanted to get into the stadium.
So, to the final barrier - a lightweight fence being manned by stewards that led into the stadium itself. Again no-one checked the tickets properly and we all got in with no problem. The seats were quite roomy, and as no-one sat for any of the game anyway (too busy standing up and singing), my mate with the photocopy was able to stand next to us without disturbing anyone on either side of our group. The possibilities for getting past the last barrier were endless. As the stadium was lower than the concourse, people were able to shin up a farily low wall to climb into the stadium. To get to the toilets you had to go back out of the gate (there were none in the stadium), so other people were taking their mates tickets out to others who were outside without tickets. Some people were just showing bus passes, or UEFA leaflets about the stadium to the stewards and were getting in. It was a joke. A complete joke.
Five barriers passed, still just the one pathetic attempt to check tickets, and we were all in the ground.
Of course, word was by now getting round to people outside that you could get in without a ticket, and more and more were arriving. Despite this, the stadium was not "full" as the police apparrently said later, at least, not in our area. There was quite a lot of space around us, and although there were more people than seats, it was not dangerous. Nowhere near as dangerous as being outside with the police anyway!
The upshot of all of this is that I passed through five supposed checks, and not one person looked at my ticket properly. With a simple turnstile, with a bloke tearing off the perforated strip, they could have avoided all of the problems. Even better, they could have used a barcode system like they use at the nou camp. Because they used line after line of aggressive riot police, who were more intent on herding people than checking whether they were entitled to be there, they were virtually encouraging people to sneak in. I mean, my mate had no intention at all of sneaking in when we came of the metro, and had resigned himself to watching it in a bar. But when you are that big a fan, and you find out that all you have to do is walk through lines of police calmly waving a photocopy in the air, it is one hell of a temptation. Some proper turnstiles and he would never have bothered.
The stadium was the wrong choice, the ticket allocation was appalling, but the system put in place to check tickets was an absolute disgrace. No amount of blame shifting from UEFA can disguise that fact, and they really ought to look at the organisational capacity of the countries that they award major finals to. On the evidence of Istanbul and Athens, Turkey and Greece seemingly can't organise the proverbial night-out in a brewery. All those riot police antagonising people are really not necessary. Just one proper barrier, with turnstiles manned by lots of people checking tickets methodically and speedily would have avoided all of the problems.
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