Emmet Maloneon the peculiar symmetries entailed in tonight's final and why the losers may feel destiny has let them down
FATE HAS been a recurring theme in the build-up to this final. United point to the 50 years that have passed since Munich and the 40 since their first European triumph at Wembley as evidence that this will be their year. Chelsea reckon the fact the match venue is in the homeland of their owner suggests a favourable outcome for them.
But fate, as we know only too well, does not always hold what we want or even expect - just ask the members of the True Russian Orthodox Church, a doomsday cult founded by one Pyotr Kuznetsov, who crawled out of a cave at a place called Penza in the Urals last Friday.
The nine who emerged were the last of a group of more than 30 who excavated then occupied the hole several months ago in anticipation of the world's end. Most of the others had come out in April when, it is said, they had become "sick and tired" of living in a cave.
Curiously, Kuznetsov did not actually go down the cave; he lived in a nearby house, from which he was taken to hospital last month after hitting himself over the head with a stick in what was taken to have been a suicide attempt.
He survived but two female cult members died in the cave and it was their deaths that drove the remaining nine to emerge.
All were close to starving and gratefully accepted food until told what day it was.
"They said their religious beliefs don't allow them to take food on Wednesdays or Fridays," said a policeman.
All of which goes to prove that sometimes, when it's not your day, you simply have to accept the fact and get on with it.
Alex Ferguson said again yesterday this match was, "very, very evenly balanced", and few neutrals have been prepared to call it with any confidence.
That these clubs should meet in the competition's all-English final here at the Luzhniki is strangely fitting, though. Perhaps, indeed, it really is fate.
Chelsea, after all, should have been their country's first participants in the tournament way back in 1955 but caved into demands from the league that they ignore the competition.
United under Matt Busby, whose vision Ferguson paid tribute to yesterday, defied similar pressure a year later to compete.
The event was the result of an initiative by Gabriel Hanot, an intriguing character who, having been capped 12 times by France went on to manage his national team while also editing both L'Équipe and France Football.
That experiment (reminiscent of one conducted by our own Johnny Watterson while a hockey international and correspondent for the Tribune) ended when the French were trounced 5-1 at home by Spain and Hanot wrote a report slamming the performance of his players. The next day he wrote an unsigned editorial calling for the manager to go, and 24 hours later he resigned.
By 1954 he had already played a key part in the professionalisation of the French club game and the establishment of the still coveted Golden Boot award but a trip to England to see Wolves play two friendly games against continental opposition (the second of them against Spartak Moscow, who play their home games at tonight's venue, the Luzhniki stadium) persuaded him a Europe-wide club competition was needed after the Daily Mail greeted the home side's two victories with a headline, "Hail Wolves, champions of the world now".
With the backing of his employers, Hanot wrote to leading clubs across Europe inviting them to Paris for a meeting where the proposal could be discussed. In all, representatives of 15 travelled, including one from England, Chelsea's club secretary John Battersby.
With the likes of Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu particularly enthusiastic about what was initially intended to be a league competition (until Anderlecht's suggestion of a midweek knockout was adopted) preparations were made to launch the tournament the following autumn under the auspices of Uefa.
Though the competition was not restricted to domestic title winners at first, Chelsea, who won the league that year, were to be England's first representatives. But the club's league representative and part owner, Joe Mears, caved in to pressure back at home to ignore something that was viewed with suspicion by leading officials within the English game.
It would be 44 years before the Londoners were in a position to compete again, while Busby's insistence on United participating the following season played a significant part eventually in raising the club's profile internationally.
European tragedy and triumph both later contributed to a huge expansion in United's foreign popularity, the Munich disaster in 1958 bringing a wave of sympathy and that victory over Benfica at Wembley 10 years later widespread admiration for the way the team played its football.
Occupants of the red corner reckon their international base is in for another boost tomorrow.
In these parts, though, most observers - apart from the ones hiding away from the sky somewhere - have been interpreting the signs from above a little differently.
