CL: Madrid on red alert for Tottenham vs Liverpool final

Liverpool players take part in a training session at the Melwood Training ground in Liverpool. Pic/AFP

Spain will deploy 4,700 security personnel for Saturday's all-English Champions League final in Madrid which has been deemed "high risk", officials said Tuesday.

The security measures for the match between Liverpool and Tottenham will surpass those put in place for last year's "high risk" Copa Libertadores final between Argentine rivals River Plate and Boca Juniors in Madrid, said the director general of Spain's National Police, Francisco Pardo Piqueras. "This will probably be the biggest deployment to guarantee security which we will carry out at a sporting event," he told a news conference.

The security operation will involve over 2,000 national police officers, as well as police from other forces, firefighters and private security guards, the Spanish government said in a statement. Some 32,000 English fans are expected to watch the final at the 68,000-capacity Wanda Metropolitano Stadium.

Thousands more fans without a ticket to enter the stadium are expected to come to Madrid from Britain as well as from southern Spain and neighbouring Portugal, which have large English expat communities. Nearly 4,000 police and private security guards were deployed for the Copa Libertadores final last year at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium. The last time the Champions League final was held in the Spanish capital was in 2010, when Inter Milan defeated Bayern Munich 2-0.

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