Uefa to announce visa arrangement

English fans travelling to the Champions League final in Moscow will be able to take advantage of a simplified visa system.

Both finalists will be given 23,500 tickets for the match in Moscow and competition organisers Uefa are hoping to strike a deal with the Russian authorities to get round the usual visa restrictions.

Uefa's director of communications William Gaillard said: "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.

"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."

It has been suggested the system may be linked to the sale of tickets.

Gaillard has revealed high-ranking Russian police officers travelled to the quarter-final matches involving Manchester United and Liverpool to devise ways of controlling the crowds in Moscow.

He said: "The Russian police have been helped by the English police to a great extent and we do not envisage security problems in Moscow.

"In terms of size it is a similar event to two large clubs going to London for an FA Cup final.

"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.

"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."

Gaillard admitted the problems will be even more severe if Liverpool reach the final as both sets of fans would then be trying to board charter flights from Manchester Airport.

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