European football's governing body have been in talks with the Russians about a simplified procedure for supporters to obtain visas, probably linked to when the clubs issue the tickets for the Champions League final.

Each club - Manchester United and either Liverpool or Chelsea - will have 23,500 tickets to distribute to supporters.

UEFA also believe that security problems in Moscow will not be a problem for the all-English final - but that logistical problems could be faced at the England end in terms of flying all the fans to the Russian capital.

UEFA communications director William Gaillard said: "The Russians have shown great flexibility and hopefully within the next 48 hours we will be announcing a more simplified procedure for visas to make it easier for fans to get to Moscow.

"There are different possibilities but we are close to achieving what we want. We just have to make some choices, together with the Russian authorities."

Gaillard insisted it was not late in the day for UEFA to be making these arrangements.

"If we had reached a conclusion earlier we may not have been able to obtain as good an agreement as we hope to have now," he added.

Russian police made tactical planning visits to witness English forces dealing with the Liverpool v Arsenal and Manchester v Roma quarter-finals last month.

Gaillard said: "The Russian police have been helped by the English police to a great extent and we do not envisage security problems in Moscow - in terms of size it is a similar event to two large clubs going to London for an FA Cup final.

"It is not the first time there has been such a situation for the Champions League final - we had AC Milan v Juventus in Manchester and Real Madrid v Valencia in Paris.

"The main issues for us are the airport capacities and air transport capacity because there will be more than 50,000 people coming from Britain and all by air."

Gaillard said the problems would be even more acute if Liverpool also made the final as both sets of fans would then be trying to get on charter flights from Manchester Airport.

British fans will need a visa for the final on May 21, Russia's Foreign Ministry insisted today, contradicting an earlier statement from Moscow's mayor Yury Luzhkov.

"Visas will be issued by the Russian Embassy in London on the production of a valid passport, completed application form and a copy of the match ticket," the ministry said, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.