Huge Victory for Moscow ... and Man U
Moscow police keep the peace as 50,000 British soccer fans descend on the city.
MOSCOW, May 22, 2008 — -- For the last week, Moscow had been buzzing ahead of the arrival of 50,000 British soccer fans.
They were coming to town to watch Wednesday's European Champions Cup final between two venerable British teams: Manchester United and Chelsea.
It was the first time the finals would be an all-English affair.
Every cafe I went into I heard the same fearful conversations between locals, petrified that British hooligans were going to turn their city into a bloodbath.
Two weeks earlier Scottish fans of the Glasgow Rangers rioted in Manchester at a preliminary round match with the Russian team Zenit St. Petersburg.
A Russian fan ended up in the hospital after reportedly being stabbed by a Rangers fan. Other fans clashed with police after a giant outdoor closed-circuit TV screen broke down.
So the Russian media were filled with alarmist pieces on the imminent British invasion.
On a selfish level, I was more worried about the British invasion that was going to take place in my flat.
Suddenly, I was getting phone calls from people I hadn't seen since school, eager to avoid sky-high hotel prices by crashing on my sofa. I had visions of fielding phone calls from drunken and confused Brits trying to read Cyrillic street signs at five in the morning.
I was also concerned that there was going to be terrible traffic, price gouging and street fights. In other words, I assumed that there would be pandemonium.
Maxim, a Russian financier based in London, had no such worries.
"Trust me," he said with a knowing look, "it's all going to go very smoothly, the Russians will make sure of that."
He wasn't kidding.
As I walked into Luzhnicki stadium Wednesday night, it was clear that the Russians were not leaving anything to chance.
The roads around the stadium were completely shut off and there was absolutely no alcohol sold on or near the premises.
At the entrances, so-called "drink police" checked people's bags for contraband and kept an eye out for fans who may have already had too much vodka.
More than 7,000 special-forces police, or "omon" as they are known, lined the roads around the stadium, some in full riot gear. They were cordial and helpful but the message behind their presence was clear, "do not even think about starting trouble here because we will pulverize you."
At the end of the match -- a dramatic 6-5 overtime shootout win by Manchester United -- fans were only allowed to leave the stadium in batches, to avoid congestion and also potential scrapping between the winners and losers.
There were clear signposts outside the stadium, in English no less, leading people to the thousands of buses that would take them back to the airport.
Related Stories
ABC News Live