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Chelsea fans face 10 hours in Russian holding camp
Will Smith in Moscow and Nigel Rosser, Evening Standard16 May 2008
Chelsea fans will be ferried into holding camps for up to 10 hours ahead of the Champions League Final in Moscow to prevent fighting with Manchester United supporters.
The vast, fenced areas will have one entrance each, be guarded by Moscow police and will not sell alcohol.
United fans will be placed in their own designated camps.
The supporters will be expected to remain in them before kick-off and will be transported back to the airports following the game on Wednesday. The majority of English supporters are expected to fly in and out of Moscow within 24 hours to save on the high cost of hotel rooms.
Russian authorities are expecting 40,000 to 50,000 fans to travel to Moscow on 300 separate flights. In an attempt to keep fans apart, United fans will mainly arrive at Domodedovo airport to the south of the city while planes with Chelsea supporters are going to land mostly in Vnukovo, in the southwest, and in Sheremetyevo, to the north.
On arrival, fans will be "firmly encouraged" to enter the two guarded camps and not to wander off into the Russian capital "for their own safety", according to police sources in Moscow.
Moscow's deputy mayor Valeri Vinogradov said: "At the airports we'll put them on 700 buses in their teams colours and take to Luzhniki which will open at noon.
"There'll be two camps for fans with all the facilities: places to eat, toilets and even places to have a rest, since the fans will have to do without proper sleep for more than 24 hours."
Match tickets will be scanned at the entrance, making it "technically impossible" to then leave and re-enter the camp or the stadium at a later stage. Some fans could be in the fenced areas for up to 10 hours. Soft drinks, food and souvenirs will be available.
Police sources said: "We don't want people without visas wandering off around Moscow and getting drunk and missing their flights home."
After the game, losing fans will be put on buses to the airport. The winning supporters will be kept back for 30 minutes before also being taken to their point of departure.
Major Igor Konovalov, Moscow police public safety department chief, said: "It's a normal practice. We use them [camps] in our country and the fans call them 'settling tanks'."
In Russian football "settling tanks" are controversial. In one instance 5,000 fans were provided with only two toilets and surrounded for over three hours without food or drink.
Travelling British police will help Russian officers monitor the event. Chelsea are even hiring bilingual Russian-speaking stewards to accompany their fans and the mayor's office is drafting in English-speaking volunteers to help.
But Maj Konovalov warned that Russian police would crack down on any fighting.
He said: "It doesn't matter who comes here - even a bunch of Penguins. If our laws are violated we'll take full measures allowed by our law to clampdown. We will not differentiate."
Reader views (9)
The Russians simply will not tolerate legions of intimidating, drunken fans marauding around their cities, as we in the UK do. The Chelsea and Utd fans whining about their rights etc should bear in mind this is a problem of their own making.
The Russians simply take the view that if you behave like drunken animals, you should be treated as such.
- M, London, 19/05/2008 09:58
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Why worry. They're only thinking of the fans safety. I can't see a mob of drunk English football fans lasting long on the streets of Moscow. There would be bodies and the Russians are preventing it. Their football hooligans are a different breed, like the Polish fans. It would only need one idiot to spark it off, and every Englishman would be targeted by their worse nightmare in a virtually lawless city ... which includes innocent ones like it always does.
- A, London, 18/05/2008 18:54
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I'm glad that the Russians will show to all uncivilised supporters what it means respect for other people and for the town host. A camp for all hooligans will be suitable in UK too. Great idea.
- Junior, London UK, 18/05/2008 13:58
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Normally, being the appointed City for the finals would like to reap some economic benefit from hosting the Final. Obviously, there will be no economic benefit to Moscow as both sets of visiting fans will be imprisoned before and after the game with armed escorts both ways. This makes me wonder, why did they want to host the final in the first place and why has EUFA allowed such outrageous conditions to prevail.
- George Reilly, Bloomsbury, London, 18/05/2008 13:34
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So much for being treated like civilised people, this must be some infringement of human rights, then again we are football fans we have no rights.
- Chelsea, London England, 17/05/2008 23:26
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Russia should never have been allowed to host the champions league final if they can't deal with the minority who cause problems at football matches
- Paxton, N17, 17/05/2008 09:15
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The lunatics are certainly not running the asylum in
Moscow,totally unlike the u.k.
- Michael Bell, basingstoke england, 16/05/2008 19:21
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Since when have Manchester or Chelsea fought each other? The Russian seem to have assumed that because SCOTTISH fans rioted in Manchester that somehow Manchester United fans are responsible. I sincerely hope this is the last time Russia gets to host an international event like this, they don't have the facilities and are treating the fans like animals.
If I was a fan of either side I'd save myself the money and stay at home.
- Peter, Battersea, 16/05/2008 17:11
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Good for them. English fans - albeit the small majority embarrass themselves when abroad. You can't blame Russia for making sure that there is a smooth entry and exit. If any of them don't like it well they don't have to go.
- Jk, London, 16/05/2008 13:53
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