GERRY BRAIDEN and DAVID LEASK

It is all, the official admitted, completely unprecedented. Vicky Rosin, assistant chief executive of Manchester City Council, knows her town has never faced such logistical challenges. Not in peacetime, at any rate.

The football-mad Northern City is today at least a fifth bigger than usual. Its health, transport, policing and cleansing services are under pressure like never before. "We are confident we can cope," said Ms Rosin. "We have been planning for months."

At stake is a huge financial boost for Manchester. Original estimates of a £5m bonanza are being revised up almost hourly. So too are the city's initial reckoning on how much money it will have to spend on the 100,000 men, women and children, most of them Scots, who have descended upon it.

Ms Rosin said the economic benefits would be substantially higher than expected. The Chamber of Commerce said they would double. Rangers making it into the final has, the business group said, pushed all other estimates "into the stratosphere".

Licensed premises are expected to sell up to four million pints of beer. In return, pubs and clubs have agreed to open their toilets to all-comers, amid concerns that 300 or so Portaloos won't cope. "This is the nearest we will get to the world cup," said a spokesman for the Manchester Pub and Club Network.

Hospitals are on standby, agency workers brought in to replace sick or absent colleagues. One hospital has been set for fans of each club. Trouble isn't expected, though. Rangers fans are determined to self-police. Zenit supporters too. Gerry Donnellan, the chief superintendent who will police the game, stressed he had "sufficient" numbers, including specialist undercover spotters out looking for hooligans.