San Siro Is Iconic But English Away Fans Deserve Better From Experience 

Here's Gooner Fanzine print writer Charlie Ashmore on his latest visit to the San Siro when Arsenal beat Inter 3-1 

Let’s start with the positives about the San Siro. 

The approach to the stadium is incredible. It looks otherworldly as you walk towards this amazing monolith of a structure, lit up from every opening with red angels wings sprouting for each corner of the roof. 

And then…….well, let’s just say it makes you appreciate the progress made domestically with our stadia and generally with how football fans are treated at home.

Four thousand away fans directed through a car park and funnelled into a narrow stretch of barriers, at the end of which humourless stewards check passport against ticket, before you move into the next funnel, where only one of three gates is open to let the fans through in batches. 

Then the search, then finally the turnstiles, then the ten minute climb of one of the towers which resembles an entry/exit spiral from a multi storey car park, before finally arriving in the top block where plastic bucket seats are bolted onto concrete, leaving no room for anyone to pass, so that you have to stand on the seat to let someone get to their seat inside you. 

The view interrupted by the usual netting and a glass barrier with metal railings which obscured the view of the nearest penalty area.  Then the usual nonsense at the end – kept in for ages, then released in stages – down the tower, stop, towards the car park, stop, then out to the metro and a free for all of a crush before finally making it back to the city. 

I love watching Arsenal abroad – the experiences and sights and sounds of another country, the food and drink, and of course watching the Arsenal, but in Italy in particular the match-going experience remains a grim throwback to how we used to be treated in England, essentially like livestock.

Read Gooner Fanzine columnist Charlie Ashmore in every print issue. Buy our current edition here 

You can also read popular Charie's hard-hitting digital take after every Arsenal game. Here's his Forest 0-0 Arsenal piece