Liverpool to pay visa costs for fans travelling to Russia for Champions League clash with Spartak Moscow
- Liverpool have been allocated 2,200 tickets for the match in September 26
- With visas costing £118.80 the club's gesture could cost more than £520,000
- Manchester United are doing the same for CSKA Moscow trip later this month
Liverpool will pay all visa costs for their supporters travelling to Russia for their Champions League trip to Spartak Moscow later this month.
The Reds have been allocated 2,200 tickets for the match at the Otkritie Arena on September 26.
With visas costing £118.80 the goodwill gesture from the club could cost more than £250,000.
Liverpool will pay all visa costs for their supporters travelling to Russia later this month
Away fans needing to purchase a visa must do so from the Russia consulate in Manchester and the club will then reimburse then.
Chief executive Peter Moore told the Liverpool ECHO: “When we saw the draw and how the fixtures panned out over the next few months, Sparktak became our first away game so there was a tight timeline,
“Straightaway, our team here started working out the complexities our fans would face - travel, visa requirements, cost, security - all of that came into play.
“Our operations and travel team started to talk to the Russian Embassy. The last time this happened there were only two places to get a visa, Edinburgh and London.
Chief executive Peter Moore confirmed the gesture ahead of the trip to Spartak Moscow
“Last time there was a much longer period after the draw was made to facilitate that and we were able to get the Russian Embassy to come here with a finger print machine.
"This time that wasn’t possible as the machine would only process so many people in the short period of time they’d allow it to be out of London. With Manchester now having a Russian consulate with a finger print machine there, that issue has gone away.'
Manchester United announced earlier this week that they would do the same for supporters heading for their game against CSKA Moscow on September 27.
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