Moscow Gets Ready for the League of Champions
Russian Minister of Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy Vitaly Mutko will meet today with Moscow soccer team fan group leaders and recommend that they refrain from fighting with the English fans who will be coming to Moscow for the League of Champions final. Two English teams, Manchester United and Chelsea, will play in it on May 21 at Luzhniki Stadium. About 42,000 Britons are expected to come for the match. The Moscow police (GUVD) approved a special plan to preserve public order and avoid mass fighting at the time of the match. A total of 50,000 soccer fans will come to Moscow for the match, and relations between fans of the two English teams are not cordial.
Organizers are so concerned about their behavior that fans of each team will arrive at a different airport, with flights from Manchester landing at Domodedovo and those from London at Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo. Buses with fans will move along special lanes on routes separated by team. Other drivers will be asked to avoid those streets. The neighborhood of Luzhniki Stadium will be closed to automobile traffic and public transport from May 20 to 22. The police plans call for dividing the city into three sectors between May 20 and 24, with the first sector, encompassing Luzhniki, Moscow State University, Sparrow Hills, Frunze Embankment and environs, and the second sector, consisting of the center of the city within the Garden Ring, subject to special control.
About 300 English-speaking policemen have been found in Moscow, who will work at the stadium, in hotels and on the emergency switchboard. There are not enough English-speakers for one to be on duty in every post. Police at the stadium will not be in uniform. Order will be maintained with the help of steward, as is customary in Europe, although the Russian stewards will be plain-clothes police. A delegation of British police, including members of the soccer unit, will come to Moscow to provide informational support.
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All the Article in Russian as of May 16, 2008
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