What a night.

Chelsea stunned Liverpool in extra time with two goals to win their place in the Champions League Cup finale and the night before Manchester United’s amazing 25-metre screamer by Paul Scholes into the top right hand corner of the net early in the first half was enough after 90 nail biting minutes to create the first all-English team finale in history of the European Cup.

So what’s the problem?

50,000 UK citizens will want to travel to Moscow for the 21 May Champions League finale.

So what’s the problem? Airlines, charter package consolidators, hotels (Russia is already the world’s most expensive hotel city) restaurants and ticket brokers should be ecstatic at the prospect of 50,000 people coming for an extended visit?

Well they’re coming from England and tensions between the two countries have been high since former KGB agent and outspoken dissident Alexander Litvinenko drank a Polonium-210 laced cocktail in a posh London hotel and died a few days later. There were fears he contaminated others and in the row, the UK demanded an axplanation of how such an assassination could take place here and the extradition of key suspect.

Russia refused and thus began a long tit-for-tit diplomatic row. Museum and Arts folks were denied visas, diplomats (i.e. spies) were expelled on both sides, Russia had a couple of bombers fly near UK airspace with the RAF scrambling Hornets to send them packing(!), you know, the usual… gulp.

That all now has the nation’s crazed football fans in an uproar. One needs a visitor’s visa to travel to Russia. Those normally take 10-working days to secure and 50,000 people want one ASAP since we are 20 days (only 14 working days) to kick-off, creates a backlog and there does not seem to be much motivation to clear it. While it looks likely that those travelling on Russian state sponsored/approved charter flights will be OK and while The Guardian reports there is movement this morning and those producing a valid ticket and hotel reservation form could move to the front of the line, a definitive agreement is still far from certain although one has been promised in 48-hours.

It is a creative and unique way to handle hooliganism and discourage those without tickets from milling about and causing trouble as English football fans have been want to do. Although much improved, one does remember the lengths other tournament officials have gone to to ban hooligans from booking transport and in countries with more porous borders it is difficult. The bigger problem is one of timing. In theory if not practice, one’s visa may not arrive until the 14th or 15th. Since most are paying in excess of £3,000 for a package with black market tickets going for £1,500 and VIP ‘oligarch’ seats for £6,000, would you pay that kind of money without a visa to hand?

So the high stakes game of “ticket chicken” continues with the only winners likely to be the Russian ticket brokers, hotel and restaurant owners that week.