Visa issue on agenda for United chief in Moscow

MANCHESTER United chief executive David Gill flies to Moscow to meet UEFA officials today, with the matter of visas high on the agenda ahead of the Champions League final.

According to Gill, United will be allocated just over 21,000 tickets for the showpiece event on May 21.

There remain concerns about visas for fans — but he hopes the situation will be clarified in the next few days.

Gill explained: “The visa issue has been there for a while. We had discussions with UEFA and the local organising committee along with the other semi-finalists.

“If you are on an organised trip, your ticket will be your visa. The actual specifics will be addressed in the next day or so and then we will communicate with the fans.

“Everyone in UEFA from Michel Platini to the local organising committee recognise in order for it to be a showcase, which it clearly will be, you have to ease entry into the country while not totally doing away with what the Russian authorities require.”

communications director 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.”

In Moscow, Gill will also be involved in a number of routine planning meetings for the final.

He said: “As you can imagine for something like this, to get it right takes a lot of effort and time. Luckily we are quite experienced in getting to finals and I am sure we will cope.”

Russian police made tactical planning visits to witness English forces dealing with the Liverpool v Arsenal and Manchester v Roma quarter-finals last month.

Gaillard 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.”

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