Fans will need visas
The thousands of English fans travelling to Moscow for the Champions League final on May 21 will need an entry visa, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday, contradicting an earlier statement by the city's mayor, Yury Luzhkov.
However, the foreign ministry stressed the Russian embassy in London would deal with all visa applications in good time.
Manchester United, who beat Barcelona on Tuesday, will face the winners of Wednesday's match between Chelsea and Liverpool in the first final between two English clubs in the 52-year history of the European Cup and Champions League.
"The exact conditions of the entry will be announced soon after both finalists will be determined," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
"Nevertheless, we can assure the fans who want to support their side in Moscow our embassy in Britain will examine all the visa bids from the supporters in proper time.
"We would also like to stress that our visa procedures are much easier than the demands of the British embassy for the Russian fans, who want to support their squads in Britain," the statement added.
"We take our obligations seriously and will do our best to provide the fans an opportunity to visit the Champions' League final.
"We are sending more personnel to London to help our consulate solve this tough mission. We are ready to co-operate with the clubs and travel agencies."
Each club reaching the final will receive 23,500 tickets to distribute to their supporters but there had been fears the cumbersome visa application process for foreigners entering Russia could cause problems.
But Luzhkov, who had said fans "could attend the match without obtaining Russian entry visas" insisted he would do all he could to remove obstacles in the way of supporters travelling from England to Russia.
"We have resolved a great deal of problems ahead of the final and do not expect any more difficulties," he said. "I can promise that it will be a real football holiday on May 21 in Moscow."
UEFA spokesman William Gaillard said talks with the Russian authorities to ease the visa problem were making progress.
"The Russians have shown great flexibility and hopefully within the next 48 hours we will be announcing a more simplified procedure for visas to make it easier for fans to get to Moscow," he said.
"There are different possibilities but we are close to achieving what we want. We just have to make some choices, together with the Russian authorities."
Gaillard also said that Russian police made tactical planning visits to witness English forces dealing with the Liverpool against Arsenal and United against Roma quarterfinals last month.
"It is not the first time there has been such a situation for the Champions League final - we had (Italy's) AC Milan v Juventus in Manchester and (Spain's) Real Madrid v Valencia in Paris," Gaillard added.
"The main issues for us are the airport capacities and air transport capacity because there will be more than 50,000 people coming from Britain and all by air."
The potential for air travel problems would be heightened if Liverpool also reach the final as both sets of fans would then be trying to get on charter flights from Manchester Airport.
United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said although he does not really care who wins the other semifinal, he might have a slight preference for Liverpool if only to ensure more tickets for his club's fans.
Ferguson, who tasted European glory with the Red Devils in 1999, is aware the Russian roots of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich may make tickets harder to come by if the Londoners make it through.
"Maybe we will get more tickets against Liverpool because Roman Abramovich seems to have bought them all up," he said. "It would be a nice final against Liverpool but I really don't care.'"
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