Soccer
All-English final proves strength of Premier League
By DPA
Apr 30, 2008, 12:02 GMT

London - There has been an all-Spanish final and an all-Italian final, and now there will be an all-English final of the European Champions League.

Manchester United's victory over Barcelona on Tuesday ensured that the only clubs booking flights to Moscow for the final on May 21 will be English, with the winner of Wednesday's match between Chelsea and Liverpool set to join them.

It is, perhaps, only fitting, because in recent years, the English Premier League has been considered by most observers to have usurped Italy and Spain as Europe's top league.

Real Madrid's 3-0 win over Valencia in 2000 and AC Milan's penalty triumph over Juventus in 2003 already seem an age ago.

And the words of Frank Rijkaard, the beaten Barcelona manager, after his side's loss at Old Trafford on Tuesday night, will have been music to the administrators of the English Premier League.

'The level of English teams is high,' he said. 'It is very difficult to beat them because they are very strong. They are very organised and all get behind the ball. It is very tough to beat an English team.

'The type of football they play is only in the Premier League. They defend as though their lives depend on it. And they are very successful.'

Though it is the first time Manchester United have reached the final since the most recent of their two European Cup triumphs, in 1999, Liverpool won their fifth European Cup in 2005 and were also runners-up last year.

With Arsenal, quarter-finalists this time, losing out to Barcelona in the 2004 final, there has been an English team in the final of Europe's premier competition for each of the past five years. No other country can match that.

'If they has not played each other, there could easily have been four English teams in the semi-finals,' Rijkaard said.

The only disappointment for fans of the two clubs in the final - whoever of Chelsea and Liverpool make it there - is the fact that it is to be played in Moscow.

English newspaper The Daily Mail called for the continental body UEFA to introduce a rule when two teams from the same country play each other in the final - move it to their own country.

'An all-English final must be at the home of English football and the mother country of the global sport. The Champions League Final has to be played at Wembley,' the Mail railed.

Not only is Moscow a long way for fans to travel, with flights and accommodation to be increased in price by the tour companies, it is also a logistical nightmare, especially in terms of security.

In normal circumstances, visitors to Russia require a visa, which can take a long time to process, but UEFA spokesman William Gaillard said they were working with the Russian government to expedite the system.

'We are finalising an express way to get visas,' Gaillard said. 'We've had extreme goodwill from the Russian government to make it easy for fans. It will be a major breakthrough.'

The only thing that is certain, at this stage, is that the champions of Europe will be an English club.