Inter fans who were present at the Estadio do Dragao on Tuesday but denied entry into the stadium for the Nerazzurri’s Champions League match against Porto have provided some first-hand accounts of the situation.
This is reported in today’s print edition of Turin-based newspaper Tuttosport, via FCInterNews, who share some of the testimony of Inter supporters who were “trapped” outside the stadium in the chaos.
What is clear is that on Tuesday there were several hundred Inter fans who showed up to the Estadio do Dragao having purchased tickets to the match against Porto, but who were barred from entering the stadium.
The exact reasons for why this happened will be the subject of an investigation.
As the witness accounts reported on by Tuttosport illustrate, the Inter fans who were denied entry to the stadium were not simply left out unable to watch the match, but also faced potentially dangerous conditions amid the chaos.
The testimony of one fan in particular named Francesco Rosito, reads as follows:
“I understood that the day was off to a bad start as soon as I landed at the airport after about two hours of travel, from London.”
“I didn’t even have enough time to switch my phone out of airplane mode, and then I started receiving some worrying messages regarding the situation at the stadium.”
“Fans who had purchased their tickets through normal channels were having their tickets rejected at the turnstiles, with ‘error’ messages.”
“That’s when I started to have some worry regarding the situation.”
“Then when I got to gate 19, it was clear, there would be no getting in to watch the match.”
“So many of us were left out of the stadium, at least a thousand, if not more.”
“The section they sent us to was already sold out, so there was simply no possible way for us to get in there.”
“I feared for my life,” Rosito states.
“We were put into a situation of an extremely dangerous bottleneck, we were in this position since 18:45, we didn’t move forward an inch.”
“The area was absolutely not safe, we were all crowded together.”
“In this bottleneck, people were pushing, even if they didn’t want to.”
“Despite the extremely dangerous and tense situation, nothing serious happened in the end.”
“But the truth is that we were trapped, I can’t think of any other words to described it.”
“There were also children present, elderly people, people using crutches.”
“Where did I watch the game?” Rosito explains. “On my cell phone.”
“I left towards the end of the first half.”
“When you’re taking time off work, spending on travel and hotels in addition to the tickets, the expense is not insignificant.”
