Russia lifts visa barrier for Champions League fans
MOSCOW (AFP) — Thousands of English football fans travelling to Moscow for the Champions League final on May 21 will be able to enter the country without a visa, Moscow mayor Yury Lyzhkov said on Wednesday.
The showcase game is certain to oppose two sides from England following Manchester United's 1-0 win over Barcelona on Tuesday night. The other semi-final, which will be decided later on Wednesday, sees Liverpool and Chelsea level 1-1 after the first leg.
Each club reaching the final will have 23,500 tickets to distribute to supporters, but there had been fears that the cumbersome visa application process for foreigners to enter Russia could be a potential minefield.
Luzhkov said this would not now be the case.
"The UEFA chief Michel Platini asked us for maximum support in obtaining Russian visas for the fans of the Champions' league finalists," he said.
"We decided that the supporters of each club playing in the final could attend the match without obtaining Russian entry visas."
Luzhkov said that a passport and a ticket for the final would give fans the right to enter 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 confirmed that talks were progressing well with the Russian authorities to ease the visa problem and that had a deal would shortly be announced.
"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 v Arsenal and Manchester v Roma quarter-finals last month.
"It is not the first time there has been such a situation for the Champions League final - we had AC Milan v Juventus in Manchester and Real Madrid v Valencia in Paris," he said.
"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.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said although he does not really care who wins the other semi-final, 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."
