|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NADS Roving ReportMSK Zilina v Chelsea, Pod Dubnon Stadion 15.09.10
I was at home when the draw took place for the group stages of this seasons’ Champions League. My Czech PA (Ivana) was with me at the time. We were both delighted when Chelsea were drawn to play MSK Zilina of Slovakia because I’d never been there before and Slovakia borders Ivana’s home country the Czech Republic. These two countries had been the same country (Czechoslovakia) only in 1993. Later that night the matchdays were announced and MSK Zilina v Chelsea was on Matchday 1, in just three weeks time. This needed sorting now! The first step was to find a PA. Ivana got one and a half days leave from work the very next week so now it was down to me.
The first thing to do was find out from Zilina if they had wheelchair facilities which I did the next day. Chelsea had not been allocated enough tickets for the match even to cover all UEFA away scheme members. However, my ticket, being a wheelchair one, would not be part of this allocation so I emailed ThomasCook Sport (TCS) to explain and ask if I could be accepted on the trip.
A positive reply came a few days later so I booked the trip for £489.95 for the two of us. No charge would be made for my match ticket as it was not in the official allocation. I then had to just await my day trip itinerary from TCS before arranging the parking at Gatwick airport South Terminal.
TCS then got to work by arranging my transport from the airport in Slovakia to the Stadium as I can’t board a standard coach like everyone else. I soon received a confirmation that the transfers had been arranged.
5am Wednesday 15th September soon arrived and Ivana arrived at my house. We were at Gatwick at 6am. The pre-booked parking spaces had all been taken as I attempted booking at such short notice so I decided to book the valet parking service rather than take the risk of having no-where to park. So we proceeded to Red car-park Valet Parking on level 2 in the short-term multi-story (£35.10).
In Gatwick Airport there are approximately 700 aircraft movements per day. Contrast this to our destination: Piestany Airport, Slovakia. We were the only plane they saw all day and the size of our Boing 737-300 was such that it used every spare inch of runway space at the airport. When we landed we were greeted with a group of 30-40 people lining the runway taking photos and waving at us. I felt more like a player than a fan. The players however had flown to Zilina airport the day before. This airport is even smaller than Piestany and the club was forced to take two planes as their usual one was too big for the landing strip.
As is always the case, I am last off the plane. There was no such luxury as a walkway here to connect the inside of the airport with the plane. A staircase was instead driven out for everyone to walk down. However, wheelchairs don’t do staircases! "I don’t imagine Piestany airport has an ambi-lift" I thought.
Enter a forklift truck onto the tarmac (see left) with a man basket attached to the carriage. They raised it to the same level as the doorway and it drove until it was touching the plane.
I was man-handled from my aircraft seat in Row 4 to my wheelchair (the wheelchair is placed in the luggage hold for the flight). No Health & Safety (H&S) regulations here, so no aisle chair; but the whole transfer was done in about a tenth of the time. Hence I would elect this method every time if I had the choice. Anyway, safely back in my chair it was time so sample the delights of the forklift truck.
It all went smoothly and again it showed me that the use of an ambi-lift is only so that the assistance crews are following the strict H&S requirements we have in the UK; Using a forklift truck is a much quicker option. The photo below shows the ambi-lift used at Gatwick for our flight (it is attached to the door of the plane – on the right of photo).
We were through the airport and into a waiting standard car in minutes with no fuss. There were 3 coaches waiting with my car to ferry all the supporters 80 miles north-east to the town of Zilina.
Zilina (pronounced Shilina; so says Ivana) is the 4th largest City in Slovakia with a population of 85,000. It lies close to the border with Czech Republic in the North West of the country. It is situated very close to the river Vah and is surrounded by five castles. On our journey from Piestany airport to Zilina Ivana was translating a conversation she was having with the drivers companion [his father] who I assume was someone concerned with arranging the transport. He was telling her the names of the various mountains along the route and each one seemed to have its own castle.
The coaches and my our car dropped us right outside the stadium. We all made our way from here through the pedestrian tunnel underneath the railway lines and to the town centre. It is possible to walk from one side of the town to the other in a few minutes. Ivana and I soon found ourselves admiring the wonderful view of the Church of the Holy Trinity. This is situated close to Andrej Hlinka Square which is dominated by the singing fountain. It was in this square where we found a local tourist information stall. As well as giving us maps and leaflets I noticed they also sold souvenirs.
It was a bank holiday in Slovakia on this day and so many of the shops that would have sold souvenirs were closed. The lady who ran the stall on the Square worked for the tourist information board. She had opened the stall today specifically for Chelsea’s fans. When she didn’t have the key ring I required she lead us across the square to her tourist information office where she climbed a flight of stairs to bring down a selection of key rings. I bought a suitable one and was very impressed by the efforts she had gone to.
When at the stall looking for souvenirs I was tapped on the shoulder by a rather official looking gentleman with a clip board. “Could I just ask you a few questions about your experience today in our town” he asked in an Eastern European accent but perfect English. “Yes, sure” I replied. I then noticed a camera recording me from a few meters away. I remember only a few of his questions. One was about the ticket price: “Were you happy to pay €500 for your match ticket?” I think ticket prices have been a hot issue in Slovakia. The other one I remember was “What do you think the score will be tonight” “3-0 Chelsea” I said with confidence “Goals from Sturridge, Anelka and Malouda”
Ivana’s Czech friend receives Czech TV into her house in England. She spoke with Ivana on her mobile phone a few hours later and said that we were on their lunchtime news programme. They must have liked the answers I gave.
We then found ourselves in the historic heart of Zilina. St Mary’s Square is about 100m x 100m and there is a baroque statue of the Virgin Mary situated directly in the middle. It is surrounded by restaurants, bars and cafes and we took this opportunity to grab something to eat. The menu was large with fish, meat, pizza and pasta dishes. I chose duck with vegetables with a side order of chips. All for €10 which I thought was very reasonable. It was very tasty too.
My biggest problem on these trips is always finding a disabled toilet. In every other City I have been to in the world (except Moscow) I have been fortunate enough to find a suitable one. However, try as we might, and with Ivana with me the language was for once no obstacle, we drew a blank. I was thus forced to carry out exercise ‘urine bottle’ in a suitable restaurant bathroom. I have to say I hate doing this. I’m sure you can understand that going to toilet sat in a chair using a bottle is not easy. I can never relax sufficiently either and no matter how long I sit there, there is always some that doesn’t come out! Too much information? I’ll move on.
We continued looking around the town. I was feeling 100% confident in UEFA having granted Zilina Champions League status (ie they must have disabled toilets at the stadium) so I felt slightly more ‘free’ in my liquid consumption. We stopped for coffee and a cake in a café and found a pleasant benched area to snack on some of the chocolate Ivana had purchased in the local Tescos store earlier in the day.
I was soon regretting having the coffee and we decided to go straight to the stadium for our next toilet search. Ivana told the steward that we did not want to enter for the match but just to use the disabled toilet. We were shown in and were taken along the concourse behind one of the stands at the side of the pitch. The steward looked in every toilet room he could see but there was not one disabled toilet.
He then led us round to the brand new stand opposite. This stand had recently been constructed and had all the disabled facilities. In this stand we found three large wheelchair friendly toilets. I was thrilled at being able to use a toilet for the first time since leaving Gatwick. However, on closer inspection I noticed there were no hand rails. This makes it impossible for me to transfer from wheelchair to toilet. So it was exercise ‘urine bottle’ time again!
There were two hours remaining ‘till kick-off and so once outside the stadium again we didn’t think it was worth heading for the City. Instead we entered the stadium as we had done 45 minutes beforehand but this time as ‘away supporters’. We entered the ground through a few iron gates and were shown into a ‘pen’ of seating. I assumed this was just a ‘way in’ to the disabled viewing but then the steward left us and I began to believe this was our viewing area. There was an iron fence directly in front of us and a smaller black fence in front of that and mesh netting beyond that. I could see the far goal but no lines on the near half of the pitch due to the high advertising boards around it. See opposite.
As we sat there I spotted Chelsea’s safety officer approaching me. She could see the problem I had in that I couldn’t see the pitch. I spoke with her and she asked if I would like to be moved. Obviously I liked the idea and she went off to see what she could do. She said she would speak to the club and be back before long.
Disabled supporters often get free entry in to football matches and this was also the case today. I’ve never really been happy about this as it tends to give the club an easy ‘get out clause’ in providing adequate disabled viewing. ie: it makes it too easy for the club to say ‘well, you didn’t pay so what do you expect?’. I would much rather pay and have good sightlines to the pitch.
As we were waiting for the security officer to return I was approached by a gentleman in a suit [I assume a Zilina club official] who suggested that I may like to sit over there. Pointing over at the new stand (the one with the 3 disabled toilet cubicles at the back). ‘Yes please’ I replied with enthusiasm.
He told us to follow him. So we did; behind the goal, around the corner flag and part way down the opposite touchline. The view was greatly improved. Just one static cameraman with large swivel camera and during the match; a mobile cameraman, a ball-boy (who was told after ten minutes to remain seated) and the assistant referee [yet another reason for video technology My Blatter!!] were the only obstructions. See pictures below:
On speaking to the security officer since our day in Zilina she has told me, and I quote “I would suggest that Zilina were very much ‘on the ball’ as you might say!” I’d like to pass on my sincere thanks to them and especially to the official who changed my viewing position. Without their help the whole purpose of the day would have been totally unsatisfactory.
Five minutes before the end of a comfortable Anelka inspired 4-1 victory the Zilina official returned to me and lead us back to the away supporters’ pen. If we had waited ‘till after the game the route would have been blocked by home fans. It was apparent that, when watching the closing moments from there, I had been very fortunate to be moved. I would have gained no enjoyment and seen little of the game had I remained there throughout.
We had been told that all Chelsea fans would be required to remain behind for twenty minutes after the game. This was not the case for me however as the gate was opened immediately and I was pushed through and to the waiting coaches and car. All the other Chelsea fans followed in a few minutes [don’t know why we were told twenty] and we were driven back to Piestany airport.
I needed to use the toilet again but with three coaches full of Chelsea fans waiting to go to the airport I didn’t feel like keeping them all waiting and besides the disabled toilets at the stadium were far from ideal. I asked the TCS co-ordinator if our car could leave before the coaches so I could use the toilet at the airport before the coaches arrived but was told the convoy had to stay together for security reasons.
The TCS co-ordinator (Scott) went out of his way on returning to the airport to tell me it would take a long while to get everyone through security and onto the plane and that I would be boarding last. “Take your time doing what you’ve got to do” he said. This made me feel relaxed and was very much appreciated. So our third toilet search of the day began. Unlike the others it was a very short search because the disabled toilet was next to the others. Rails too! so I was delighted at being able to transfer and use the toilet properly for the first time in the day.
Our flight left at a little after 1.15 am and with the time difference, we landed at 2.20 at Gatwick. I was helped off the plane ‘health&safetily’ [takes ages but follows the UK’s strict H&S regulations]. Ivana dropped me home at 4.20 before driving back to her home in Camberley ready for her work at midday. I was in bed at 4.53 (23 hours and 53 minutes after having been picked up) I woke up at midday.
Cost (inc PA)
Travel - TCS Daytrip Carparking at Gatwick Comfort Food/Drink View Access Toilets Stewarding