The Premier League could write to Uefa to request that football’s European governing body considers moving the venue for the Champions League final in advance of the prospect of an all-English showdown, The Times understands.
Manchester United will join Liverpool and Chelsea in the last four of the competition should they see off the challenge of AS Roma in their quarter-final, second leg at Old Trafford this evening.
There are fears that an all-English final, particularly one that thrusts together Liverpool and United in Moscow on May 21, could be marred by serious crowd violence.
It is an almost identical situation to last season when Liverpool and Chelsea were paired in one semi-final and United and AC Milan in the other. United’s 3-0 defeat by Milan in the second leg at the San Siro averted the mouth-watering but daunting prospect of a final against Liverpool in Athens, but the Premier League are thought to be keen to guard against such a possibility arising this season.
Uefa dismissed as a non-starter the possibility of switching last season’s final from Athens to Wembley in the event of Liverpool or Chelsea and United reaching the final, but that would not necessarily prevent the Premier League from making a similar request this time around.
It is believed that the Premier League could recommend the game be played at a neutral venue in England, with Wembley the obvious candidate, or at a stadium in Scotland, such as Hampden Park or Ibrox.
The Premier League are mindful that Moscow has been planning and preparing for the Champions League final for many months and that to change the venue at the eleventh hour - however unlikely - would cost the Russian capital millions in revenue and also set a dangerous precedent, but there are genuine fears that European football’s showpiece occasion could be blighted by violence, especially if United and Liverpool, arguably English football’s fiercest rivals, are paired together.
Uefa, nonetheless, are likely to give short shrift to such an idea, and point to the 2000 final between Real Madrid and Valencia, the Spanish clubs, in Paris and the all-Italian encounter between Milan and Juventus at Old Trafford, both of which passed off peacefully, as evidence that trouble is far from guaranteed and that Moscow could successfully welcome 100,000 English supporters.
Uefa would almost certainly seek talks with British police to deal with the anticipated logistical nightmare should the final be an all-English affair.
There was widespread relief among the police forces of Merseyside and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) that a United-Liverpool final was avoided last season and they will undoubtedly like to see such a scenario averted again this term.
One senior police figure at GMP told The Times that a United-Liverpool final would represent “the worst scenario imaginable” and both forces would almost certainly welcome a venue change.
Aside from the obvious threat of trouble in Moscow, there would be concerns about flight arrangements to and from the Russian capital, with fans of both clubs just as liable to travel from Manchester and Liverpool airports.
The potential problem of masses of rival fans descending on Moscow en masse, feasibly on unsegregated planes, would just be one of several other issues to resolve.
Although relations between United and Liverpool at a boardroom level were strained over the Gabriel Heinze transfer saga last summer, Rick Parry, the Liverpool chief executive, and David Gill, his United counterpart, are on good terms and, like the police, would doubtless back any attempts by the Premier League to have the venue switched.
