Climate of fear and a pitch battle are Platini's final insult

To gain access to the ugly, uncomfortable Luzhniki Stadium, it now appears fans will have to run the gauntlet of no fewer than four security perimeters, all manned by unpleasant Russian paramilitary police, with a propensity for violence.

There's no evidence UEFA president Platini has required the Russian authorities to clean up their act, and sign up to a proper code of conduct toward visiting fans. And the air in Moscow has been thick with braggart blusterings from the police about how they intend to deal with anyone who steps out of line. On their definition of course.

Things are likely to be as bad as they were at England's ill-fated game at the Luzhniki last year, after which one fans' organisation suggested that as many as one in three visitors were violated in some way, either by the police, or local criminals.

Once inside the stadium there's little in the way of creature comforts, and the pitch, according to the groundsman, is "like a badly fitting carpet", with "dead patches that look like dozens of cricket batting strips in a green outfield".

In a civilised country he could easily have got replacement turf in hours, but this is Russia and it's impossible. Isn't this something else Platini and his team should have foreseen, given they knew a plastic pitch had to be replaced at short notice?

Platini was elected by UEFA's outsiders, mainly the Eastern Europeans who felt disenfranchised under his Swedish predecessor Lennart Johansson, so pandering to them has become a full-time preoccupation. Which means not doing enough to combat the racism that afflicts most fans from those parts, and, for instance, prevents UEFA Cup winners Zenit St Petersburg from signing a black player.

Perversely, the lousy pitch may help Chelsea, because they have a bigger, more physical squad, and the bobbling surface which the groundsman predicts, will inhibit Cristiano Ronaldo more than Frank Lampard or Michael Ballack. On this analysis, 1-0 to Chelsea looks about right.

Barring a miracle, the conditions will preclude a final worthy of UEFA's biggest showpiece, and that's especially why Platini deserves all the flak he will get or the metaphorical guillotine if his nation prefers.

It was always going to be difficult, given the tensions, to lay on a great final without playing it on a piece of waste ground in one of Europe's most uncivilised and dangerous cities at 10.45pm.

Redknapp's Cup win is a tribute to sensible shopping at Pompey

If you take Greg Dyke's advice, and cut the crap, Saturday's FA Cup Final was a pretty dismal affair on the pitch, wasn't it?

It was a different matter in the stands but you don't pay to watch thrilled people who never expected to be there. And shouldn't have been, of course.

But let's cut out the bile as well as the crap and doff our caps to Harry Redknapp. He and I don't really get on since I criticised his foreign policy at West Ham (more than 50 foreign players in half-a-dozen years) on FiveLive's 606 phone-in.

He said I knew nothing about football, and he's not alone in thinking that. But it's time to kiss and make up.

On not a lot, Harry's done a great job at Portsmouth. Signing players with something to prove is a dangerous game, because a lot of them can't be bothered, but David James and Sol Campbell, all the time, and Kanu, some of the time, have proved him right.

A special word of appreciation to Campbell. George Graham said a year or two back that for him the most depressing thing about Premier League football was the number of players happy to sit in the stands seeing out lucrative contracts. And with £100,000-a-week for three years still to come, Sol could have done that at Arsenal.

But he is a proud man, with indeed a lot to prove, and Harry helped him do it. Hats off to both of them.

Harry also taught Arsene Wenger a lesson on Saturday, and not just about the virtues of winning the Cup. Wenger thought Lassana Diarra was surplus to requirements. After a masterly display by the young Frenchman, I bet Wenger wished he still had him at Arsenal.

I've taken a dim view of Lord's

Amazing isn't it, in this age of instant, speedy mass entertainment, you can still have a five-day Test match without a winner.

Rain can't be helped but bad light can and the absurd spectacle of the umpires fiddling with their meters and stopping play no fewer than five times last Friday is something the game has to do without if it is to remain a compelling public spectacle. I know the traditionalists will say Lord's was sold out, at least for the first three days, but they need to ask, why? And the answer is, socialising. For many spectators, a Lord's Test against New Zealand is just an excuse for a good drink with a few mates, on a par with Henley or the University boat race.

h3>Macduff

Steve McClaren may be going to FC Twente. Not far enough away, I hear you say. But it's worse than that.

This bloke was England manager on £2.5million a year, yet the best offer he can get is from a Dutch club most people have never heard of.

So what does that tell you about the international standing of the England team?

Dwain sideshow isn't real issue

Our old friend Dwain Chambers is back in the news, now his excursion into rugby league has turned out to be as brief as predicted.

He says he will sue if he doesn't get the Olympic place Lords Moynihan and Coe are determined to deny him.

Good on them, is the response of most people. Yes, except for two things. Firstly, it is daft he can run for Britain in the World Championships but not in the Olympics. Secondly, Dwain is irrelevant to the real doping issue. As the Trevor Graham trial is about to make clear, it is the Americans who are doing it most and they are the ones winning all the medals.

Moynihan and Coe should be forcing the International Olympic Committee and the IAAF to bring the Yanks to heel. Dwain's fate is a sideshow.