City fans told to head to Champions League final stadium NINE HOURS before kick-off

Manchester City fans heading to Istanbul for the Champions League Final are being advised to make their way to the stadium NINE hours before kick-off. The Ataturk Stadium hosts this year's final between City and Inter Millan, but is more than an hour away from central Istanbul.

Public transport is limited and fans are being advised to prepare in advance how they will get to the stadium and to give themselves plenty of time to do so. The game kicks off at 10pm local time, however, dedicated fan zones near the stadium for each sets of fans open from 2pm.

Hundreds of shuttle busses are being put on from Istanbul and the airport to the ground from 1pm, giving fans plenty of time to reach the stadium before kick-off. The fan zones are accessible to ticket holding supporters only, with a UEFA spokesperson saying "supporters are encouraged to arrive early".

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UEFA is recommending against using taxis for getting to the stadium as traffic is expected to be extremely heavy in Istanbul on the day of the final. Instead they recommend using the shuttle bus service and giving yourself plenty of time to travel.

The travel is free for ticket holders and includes free use of the dedicated shuttle busses as well as all metro and tram services in Istanbul. The Mirror reports that there is only one metro station, ten minutes north of the stadium, so fans are therefore urged to use the buses instead. The shuttle busses will be running until 3am making it the most realistic way of getting back to the city after the game's conclusion.

City supporters are being asked to board at Yenikapi, near the fan festival run by UEFA and its commercial partners from Thursday