Russian fans failed to turn up at Cardiff airport

Staff at Cardiff International Airport have been unable to contact anyone from Russian tour operators, Russian State Travel, to find out why they cancelled the two chartered flights from Moscow .

The Russian team arrived safely on Tuesday and are staying at Cardiff's Copthorne Hotel.

However, no plans have been made to reschedule the fans' flights in time for tomorrow's match and the chartered return flights in the early hours of Thursday morning have also been cancelled.

These were the only two chartered services carrying Russian fans to Cardiff. Russian State Travel have failed to provide a list of passengers who would have been travelling, so it is impossible to say exactly how many fans this has affected, although Cardiff airport say it is likely to be several hundred.

The Football Association of Wales has said that even if the Russian fans stranded in Moscow are not able to make it to Cardiff in time for the match, their tickets will not be re-sold.

The FAW made no distinction between the 500 Russian ex-pats, living in the UK, and a similar number of fans travelling from Russia itself.

Therefore, they could not ensure fans' safety if tickets held by fans stranded in Moscow were re-issued to Welsh supporters.

Meanwhile Uefa have cleared Ryan Giggs to play in the big match tomorrow after Russian allegations that he elbowed a Russian opponent.

The FAW will appeal against the decision to charge Giggs with the lesser offence of improper conduct, which is due to be heard at a UEFA hearing on December 4.

"We will obviously appeal on Ryan's behalf," said FAW international secretary Mark Evan. "We are clearly not happy that the decision seems to have been made on e-mail evidence.

"We would want UEFA to look at the whole match, certainly the incidents leading up to the clash with the Russian player."

The Russian team may have much less than the 1,000 supporters expected to turn up.

Although there is friction between Wales and Russia soccer authorities over the foul play allegations, one Russian team is trying to forge friendly links between the two countries.

Alexander Sunstov, who manages Dynamo Izhevsk, is visiting Wales on Tuesday and wants to develop players by having exchanges with Wrexham FC.

Dynamo Izhevsk currently play football in the Russian third division.

His visit coincides with the arrival of the Russian team in Wales who will play the second leg of the Euro 2004 qualifier in Cardiff on Wednesday.