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A trip to Greece that was anything but a Tragedy

MCDSA Vice Chairman Bryan Hince made history when watching City in Europe. As he explains:

Once I knew we were playing Salonika Aris, I emailed them to ask how many wheelchair spaces they had and the cost of tickets for the away game.
I received an email back from the secretary of Salonika saying that they don't have any wheelchair places in the away section of their stadium because they have never had any away disabled fans in their stadium. The stadium in Salonika was built in 1951 so it’s quite an old stadium by most standards.
I emailed Salonika back saying that we don't mind sitting with the Aris fans because that is where we usually end up on our trips into Europe, they could even put us on the track around the pitch if they wanted!
Just after Christmas I received another email informing me that Aris Salonika intended to build a brand new disabled platform that will hold 22 away wheelchairs; I was also told that we would be their VIP guest for the game.
I did not realise at this time just how much work Aris had to do in their stadium to build the platform and when we arrived at the ground Mark Todd and myself were taken to the entrance for the VIP guests where we were met by Emmy the Secretary of Aris Salonika whom I had been emailing since December 21st.
Emmy handed us our VIP passes and we had our own security staff from both Aris and City (thanks for all your help on the night Jill the City steward). We got to the wheelchair platform and saw for the first time what the club had done for us, it was a perfect view because Aris had taken out two rows of seats to accommodate the platform.
Clubs in this country could learn from Aris just how to build a perfect platform if only they had the will to do so.
Don't forget also that this stadium is nearly 60 years old; in this country we have brand new stadiums that don't give a view anything like we had in Salonika. Mark and I made history that night as first disabled away fans ever in the Aris stadium, the platform will be used by many away fans from now on.
I would like to send a massive personal thank you to Emmy for all her help and a big thank you to Aris Salonika for their wonderful hospitality on the night and their efforts ahead of the match.
After the game Mark and I made our way out of the ground where we saw Garry Cook, Mike Summerbee, Brian Marwood and we were talking to them when a few Salonika fans came over to take pictures so Mark and I moved out of the way. The funny thing was it was us two that they wanted to take pictures of, the Salonika fans were very excited to see two away disabled fans; something they had never seen before.