MOSCOW 21 May 2008 Russia hosts Champaions League soccer final for first time

Moscow hosts the first all-English final in the history of soccer's Champions League, and is gearing up for the arrival of some 50,000 fans from England. And it is the first time the final of football's most prestigious event -- after the FIFA World Cup -- will be played in Moscow. It is the farthest East the cup final has ever been played. The visa system could be designed to weed out England's infamous football hooligans so Russia only has its own to worry about.

According to London's Times, with political tensions between the Kremlin and Downing Street at their worst since the Cold War, Moscow is about the least desirable venue for an all-English final for the Champions League. Russian multimillionaire Roman Abramovich owns the Chelsea team. Large numbers of Russian hooligans are likely to be drawn by the prospect of seeing Chelski win the Champions League for the first time in what is already the biggest match Moscow has staged for decades.

Manchester United will play either Chelsea or Liverpool at Luzhniki Stadium, which hosted the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

The English fans will need a pre-arranged entry visa, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry on April 30. The announcement contradicted an earlier statement by the city's mayor, Yury Luzhkov, which said they wouldn't. The ministry gave logistics as the reason, but the insistance on visas is likely to be interpreted as a filter system and a way of limiting the number of English fans.

The Times paints a worst case scenario of as many as 100,000 English fans invading the Russian capital and roaming the streets, many of them ticketless and drunk on cheap vodka. They will have all day to pass the time in Moscow’s bars before heading for the match in the evening. Apr/08

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Moscow offers a warm welcome with a price (Times 21 Apr 2008)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/european_football/article3790594.ece