On Wednesday, a fairly momentous event takes place in Moscow which should at least be of polite cultural interest to North Americans, even if you don't join the rest of the world by watching it on TV.
It is, of course, yet another football ('soccer') match. To help you understand the headlines, I thought I would try and explain some background.
Moscow is hosting the European Champions League Cup Final. This annual event is the equivalent of the Superbowl, but bigger!
For the first time, the 2 finalists are both English, one from the north, one from the south. Yet, both these clubs, apart from being the current best in England, are possibly the most
unpopular clubs in England.
Manchester United (Man Utd) are sometimes listed as the richest sports club (in any sport) in the world. They are owned by an AMERICAN, have a Scottish manager, and are the most popular club in the world, famous for being supported by just about anyone in world, except from Manchester.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_United_F.C.
Chelsea (or Chelski) hail from Londongrad, and are owned by the RUSSIAN, Roman Abramovich, Governor of Chukotka. He is an Oligarch, and is therefore rich enough to buy a good team, mostly of foreigners. The manager is an Israeli, who follows a Portuguese into the job. Chelsea have traditionally enjoyed 'middle-class' support, as they are 'fashionable'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_F.C.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_AbramovichThe stadium on Wednesday is not great. The pitch, which must be of grass, is crap. That is good. It means that mistakes will be made!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7408082.stm A third of the seats have been sold to Man Utd fans, a third to Chelsea fans. The remainder have been sold in Russia. Chelsea are possibly the best supported team in all of Russia, and Ukraine - Ukraine's star player Shevchenko being in the team. So, for Chelsea, it should be as a home game!
Just over a week ago, Man Utd, won the English Premier League, over Chelsea!
Even as the Russian Embassy in London was considering the chaos of transporting about 50,000 football fans to Moscow WITH VISAS, FC Zenit St Petersburg won through to the UEFA Cup Final, to be against Glasgow Rangers in......Manchester! So now the British had a visa problem as well. Interestingly, and after a bit of grandstanding, Russia and the UK agreed to let the fans travel visa-free. Russia has never done anything like this before. Who knows where this might lead?
The English are associated with football crowd violence in the past. Chelsea particularly had a tradition of crowd violence coupled with extreme racism. Violence has more or less been stamped out in England, but the culture, even unto hairstyles and clothing has been exported to other countries. Italy is rough, but the Russians have really gone for it, where the racist aspect is particularly strong. In Moscow, people die, but as they are from the Caucasus or the Stans, it doesn't move the nation, and the militia claim it's just hooliganism.
The British fans do like a drink. In fact, they like a lot of drink. It is particularly associated with football. 40,000 drunk Englishmen in Red Square? The mind boggles. But the OMON are on standby, and the warnings have been issued.
In Moscow, they will take prisoners.
