UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE:MANCHESTER CITY'S prospects of lifting the Champions League at the first attempt were not helped by a tricky looking draw for the group stages in Monaco yesterday but the other English clubs look to have been handed manageable tasks.
Holders Barcelona will be confident about their prospects in a group that includes AC Milan but also sides from Belarus and the Czech Republic.
City have invested enormous resources in assembling a squad capable, it is hoped, of challenging for silverware on all fronts this year and manager Roberto Mancini said prior to the draw that he will rotate heavily in an effort to get the most out of the talent available to him.
The Italian, though, would surely have preferred that life at this early stage of the competition might have been a little more straightforward than a group that is completed by Bayern Munich, who will be aiming to qualify for a final that is to be staged at their stadium, as well as Napoli and Villarreal.
The English side will kick off their campaign against the Italians in Manchester on Wednesday, September 14th, the same night that their city rivals will be in Portugal to take on the side they beat in the 1968 final, Benfica.
Bobby Charlton, who captained the side that night at Wembley, actually made the draw for the second seeded sides and so paired the two clubs in Group C only moments after speaking with some emotion about the game in which the English champions had triumphed by four goals to one.
The Portuguese, who won the old European Cup themselves back at the start of the 1960s, may prove awkward opponents for Alex Ferguson and his side but they are nothing like the power that they were back then and neither Basel nor the latest surprise package to emerge from Romania, Otelul Galati, seemed to be causing the Scot too much concern last night.
“We’ve had great success in the competition over the years and we are looking forward to it immensely,” said United’s chief executive David Gill. “I got a text from Sir Alex and he is happy, we have a new Romanian team, congratulations to them and we look forward to going there. They are the new boys and we are happy to get that draw. We are comfortable with the draw we’ve been given.”
Chelsea kick off their latest attempt to deliver on Roman Abramovich’s dream of seeing his side win this competition with a trip to Valencia who were finalists back in 2000 and 2001 but whose current financial situation has obliged them to routinely sell their most talented players, not least Spanish winger Juan Mata who moved to Stamford Bridge only this week.
The Londoners will also face Bayer Leverkusen and Belgium’s KRC Genk during the coming months while Arsenal will take on Olympiakos, Marseille and Borussia Dortmund.
Uefa, meanwhile, went through with its decision to replace Turkish champions Fenerbahce with Trabzonspor in the draw despite objections from the club which has confirmed it is to appeal the Turkish FA’s decision to withdraw them from the competition due to match fixing allegations.
Around 30 people, including senior officials, face charges in relation to the investigation but the club denies wrongdoing and is bringing the case to arbitration in Turkey from where it could proceed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.
Fenerbahce’s legal representatives argued that they should not be punished at a point when nothing has been proven against them. There have been suggestions that Trabzonspor may themselves come under scrutiny in the investigation but prior to yesterday’s draw Uefa general secretary Gianni Infantino endorsed the decision to remove the champions when he observed that: “There is no other solution than a zero-tolerance policy in order to protect the integrity and the beauty of this wonderful competition.”
