It is doubtful any hooliganism records will fall in Moscow today, however. But that's only because the Brits have raised the violence bar so high. On May 29, 1985, an intense riot between fans of Liverpool and Juventus of Torino erupted in Heysel Stadium in Brussels at the European Cup final. Thirty-nine fans were killed. During the 1990 World Cup in Italy, England's side and its fans were exiled to the islands of Sardinia and Sicily for the first three games. Even then, a bloody riot erupted when Dutch fans came over from the Italian mainland by boat to cheer for their booters.
Bill Conlin: Moscow welcomes football fans
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British national police keep a "Banned" file of 3,100 fans who have been involved in overseas incidents. Yesterday, 83 Manchester and 69 Chelsea fans on the list had their passports temporarily revoked.
Sounds like it will be as long a night for the pub keepers in Manchester and Chelsea as it will be for the drink police in Moscow.
Oh, yes, a few words about the ownerships: Man U is owned by the Glazer family, which also owns the NFL Tampa Bay Bucs, and Chelsea is owned by Russian oil billionaire Roman Abramovich.
By the way, when Napoleon and the Grand Armée crossed the Niemen River into Russia, there were 800,000 troops. When they recrossed after leaving a 900-mile trail of frozen human and equine corpses, there were fewer than 10,000 survivors.
The only thing tougher than the Omon is the Russian Winter. *
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