Chelsea and Manchester United fans were trying to offload spare tickets openly on the streets of Moscow last night as Uefa faced up to the reality that its showpiece final would not be played in front of a capacity crowd.

Local touts had long given up on trying to extract hugely inflated prices from the Moscow public as thousands of English supporters flooded in on specially chartered flights. Many of them carried with them the tickets that friends had handed over because the cost of getting to the Russian capital had been prohibitive. The hope was that they could recoup their ticket money with a small profit, but there were few takers as fans from both clubs milled around Red Square.

As the fans headed off to the Luzhniki Stadium they faced a massive police security operation. Others were taken directly to the stadium from Moscow's airports on hundreds of special buses, while roads around the Luzhniki were closed to other traffic. Fans arriving on Moscow's underground system had to pass through successive security cordons of police, who conducted searches and checked tickets repeatedly on the approach to the ground.

Moscow's authorities opted for a huge show of force to deter troublemakers. About 7,000 police and members of riot squads formed a ring of steel around the stadium before Moscow's most important sporting event since the 1980 Olympic Games.

The ugly side of English football showed itself briefly on the eve of the final yards from the British Embassy. Bystanders watched as a group of Chelsea fans did Nazi salutes, shouted "sieg heil" and sang "kill the Jews" as staff looked on at the Tinkoff bar.

chanting

The bar opposite the embassy had been designated as the headquarters of visiting Chelsea fans and was decked out with the team's colours. The chanting was apparently aimed at Tottenham Hotspur, but fans appeared ignorant of the fact that Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea owner, and Avram Grant, the first-team coach, are Jewish.

Fighting broke out outside the bar, according to the Interfax news agency, which said that a group of Russians had attacked English fans. There were no reported arrests.

The incident was the only sour note before a remarkably good-humoured day as up to 50,000 fans poured into the city. Supporters of both teams mingled happily at the Uefa fans' village in Red Square as Russians sought them out to pose for photographs.

Fans in red and blue wearing Russian fur hats filled terrace cafes by the square, drinking and singing team songs. Repeated rain showers later in the day dampened enthusiasm for wandering around and most passed the early evening in Moscow's bars. But the mood remained cheerful. Chris Fry, from Cumbria in England, had arrived on a flight from Manchester in a Chelsea shirt with his friends, all United supporters. "I was the only Chelsea fan on an official United trip," he said. "There were 300 United supporters on the plane and me with my mates. The Russians don't smile much, but everyone has been very friendly."

Dean Sewell, a United fan also from Cumbria, said: "It's not about Chelsea or Man United, but English football. Everybody's behaving themselves."

But Russian officials were taking no chances after the mayhem that scarred last week's Uefa Cup final in Manchester. They refused to broadcast the match on outdoor big screens for fans without tickets and banned consumption of alcohol in the streets.

Copyright: The Times, London