Champions League Final
From May 20 till 22 I provided services for my client from London who came to Moscow with his friend from Poland and father-in-law from Israel to support their favorite team Chelsea against Manchester United in UEFA Champions League Final that took place in Moscow on May 20th. Upon their arrival to Moscow, they checked in to their hotel and relaxed a little a bit after flight. That evening, we went on a night tour of Moscow. I was pleased to see how much they enjoyed Moscow. They told me that they not expected Moscow to be such beautiful city because in West, they tell only negative news or even no news at all about Russia. We took several pictures on the Red Square and Sparrow Hills where you can see great panorama of the main sport stadium (sport arena) in Moscow, Russia called "Luzhniki" and with this news I will post several pictures which I took one day sharp before important game for the cup of Champions.
On May 21st it was cloudy during whole day, but it was not big problem for all fans of English teams (40-50 thousands) who made real festive atmosphere during this day walking around the city wearing t-shirts, holding flags or waving scarves of their favorite teams. The atmosphere in the city was very friendly and there were not any accidents or conflicts between fans reported by our police department. I have to admit that organization of this important sport event which took in Moscow first time was on high level - there were a lot of police, soldiers and special services everywhere. They were very well organized, polite and even friendly and I and my clients were very impressed by this fact.
I will not tell you here about the result of this game, I am sure that everybody in World who likes football (Americans call it soccer) already know the score, but I would like to tell to all fans of Chelsea - it became really good team and maybe it was some misfortune for them under pouring rain at the end of penalties (that I consider the same as lottery) and would like to wish success and victories in future. To be ambassador here, I have to greet Manchester United and their fans that proved the status of their team that became champion for the 3rd time.
Some interesting facts about this important sport event which took place in Moscow, Russia… Moscow city spent more than 30 million USD to prepare and organize what became the most important sporting event in the city since the 1980 Olympics. The UEFA and the British Embassy marked it as first class job. Authorities of sport committee and city told that not so much money will return back to the city from sold tickets and they even can't cover all renovations made in Luzhniki sport stadium which was made before by request of UEFA, but they hope that it helps to increase tourism and sport activities for Moscow in the future. The city government hopes the large investment in present will bring more money in future, but the most important - reputation for the city and Russia basically.
Symbols of Manchester United (from the left) and Chelsea (from the right) on the banners hanging of the walls of Luzhniki stadium in 23 hours before the final for the cup of Champions.
The picture I took from Sparrow Hills, from quite far distance from the stadium (about a kilometer). I have not tripod and used maximum zoom of my Nikkor 18-200 mm F/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF DX VR Lens of my new D300 camera with ISO 800.
With BEST Regards,
Arthur Lookyanov HOT News from Moscow
Last Edited: May 26th, 2008
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