Have fun Porty - don't forget the pics

I'm gonna try and make it up to Celtic Park when Milan go to Scotland. Ryanair are doing 2p flights to Glasgow at the moment!

(from the club website)

Here are the dates of Milan's group stage games:

Milan-Benfica: 18 settembre 2007
Celtic Glasgow-Milan: 3 ottobre 2007
Milan-Shakhtar Donetsk: 24 ottobre2007
Shakhtar Donetsk-Milan: 6 novembre 2007
Benfica-Milan: 28 novembre 2007
Milan-Celtic: 4 dicembre 2007

Good to see two of the first three games at home. A good start is always the key.

The game in Glasgow is just a week after my birthday, I'll try and persuade my dad to get me a ticket as a present or something!

oooooh... i like it! it'll be an exciting group... i can't wait

Something I forgot to mention; just how cool are those suits of our players!!!? So awesome, so classy...

hehe for me there CL days, they start at 2:45pm here so i normally have to skip my last class and rush home all pumped up... good times

Well yeah... I forgot about time difference!

Utter crap. Chelsea did jack again in the CL and Cech was out for nearly half of the season due to injury. What the hell was UEFA's crackpot criteria for the award, anyway?

He dis played all the important games for Chelsea in the CL (after group stage). Chelsea was eliminated only on penalties in the semi final (so it's not like they were eliminated early). And if you judge footballing skills, Cech is clearly better (for me anyway).

Dida doubtful for SuperCup with a shoulder injury - Goal.com

I wouldn't say making the Semi-Final again is nothing. But I wouldn't have given it to Cech.. I'd have given it to Reina myself..

Would have been very nice to have all 5 awards won by Milan players though, to show our true dominance in last years latter stages.

Reina "only" saved two penalties against Chelsea... I mean... he didn't do much other than that.

In my view it was Cech then Dida then Reina.

Like kurtie, I'd give it to Reina without a doubt.

Without a doubt!!???! I think you're exaggerating there... if Reina took them to the final, Dida secured we'd win it when he stopped Gerrard's one-on-one!

Dida could have done better vs. Bayern (San Siro) and in the first goal vs. United in Old Trafford.

Yes but Reina was not tested...

From the club website. Here's the list of Milan players registered to play during the group stage of the Champions League.

PORTIERI: Dida, Kalac, Fiori;
DIFENSORI: Cafu, Maldini, Kaladze, Nesta, Simic, Jankulovski, Favalli, Bonera, Serginho, Darmian, Oddo;
CENTROCAMPISTI: Ambrosini, Brocchi, Emerson, Gattuso, Gourcuff, Pirlo, Seedorf;
ATTACCANTI: Gilardino, Inzaghi, Kakà, Ronaldo.

Adriano is dropped from merda's CL list... guess he'll be leaving in January...!!

Why r u shoked ?!

It was bound to happen .. If he wants to win any trophies, he better move out

La merda, only the merda would do such a thing

PLUS ... That is what u get for overspending and not consentrating on a compact side (eg Milan)

Adriano's new "club".

@porty..

this is an example of how much depth they have up front. they can afford to not even include adriano on the squad list. in the end if he leaves and does well sumwhere else they still have suazo who is a speed demon, crespo one of the best finishers out there and cruz who is a super sub and ibra who is the best SS in the world (i watched him today and he's stunning, he constantly setting up his teammates or creating chances for himself).

they got chivu and suazo, thats overspending?ur clearly suffering from galliani syndrome what were the supposed to do with adriano??he's a drunken bum who he hasnt done in the past year and a half so they wanted sumone who will hopefully perform (suazo).

Who said anything about Chivu

I wasn't refering to Adriano being "drunk" ... And I don't think it is fair for u to draw conclusions like that.

What I meant was this is what happens when u have 6 forwards and can only play 2. This is what happens when u overspend.

I mean look at Milan, Silvio Berlusconi could bring in 12 strikers if he wants ... But where would that leave Gila This my example of Milan, which is supposed to explain the difference between the two sides

Go Darmian!!

Hey, I've seen Darmian play. He's quite good, especially given his youth.

Anyway, snippet of news for the CL group phase: Chelsea has left Michael Ballack off their list for the Group Stage games.

I think Ballack's time at Chelsea is as good as over, when you have Mikel being picked in front of you, things aren't good.

The 32nd team was decided. Sevilla won the first leg 2-0 at home.

AEK Athens 1-4 Sevilla
31' [0 - 1] L. Fabiano (pen.)
41' [0 - 2] S. Keita
45' [0 - 3] L. Fabiano
53' [0 - 4] A. Kerzhakov
81' [1 - 4] Rivaldo

I'm totally against it. I'm with ManUtd in this one.

What is it exactly that they want to do?

Me too!


On September 27 the federation will sit at Istanbul to discuss several matters. Platini wants to put forward the changes he wants to make in the Champions League (maybe he will decide to do it later on if he sees he doesn't have the backing...) and he's going to have his first real argument since he became President of the UEFA. These changes are for the 2009-2012 period. There are many ideas he wants to dish up, some of them are radical some are bloodless (for the G14 members)!

(The bloodless ones:) One of the measures he will propose will see the 75% of the UCL Final tickets go to the hands of fans and not sponsors and other... "engagements"! That is a good one... Moreover he wants the Final to be held only at 75+K capacity stadiums, a thought that will exclude most of Europe's stadia (and cities) but I think is right cause the Final should be played at a stadium as big as possible! Another one of these plain measures (and a weird one) is that he wishes the Final to be played on Saturday evening rather than Wednesday evening... he sees Saturday as a more... "family day"... or whatever!

But there are also big changes he has in mind and those will run into the G14 and the big federations! Platini's plan is not to cut the number of teams the big countries have in the competition but to make it harder for them to get into it and so to give bigger chances to other Champions to enter... the Champions League (In the draw a fortnight ago only 13 of the 32 teams were champions in their countries)! Platini wants the domestic Cup winners to be given a place in the CL too. Until now, 24 leagues oppose to this measure. English, and rightly so, are the greatest polemicists to this as the dynamic of the Premier League and the enormous TV contracts are threatened if the 4th League place does not mean a chance to enter to the CL! Some say the FA would like to see this measure be applied but they don't have the power to come against the Premiership administrators (?).

The strategy committee, in which the UEFA vice-presidents, the clubs, leagues and players take part, led by Şenes Erzik, will work up these thoughts and will propose their own measures to the executive committee on September 27. A proposal made by Umberto Gandini (Milan's representative and Organizational Manager) was to decrease the number of automatic qualifications spots to 20 and leave the other 12 spots up for grabs but Platini does not want to tail off the auto qual. spots!

To conclude, Platini, in the two days' congress at Istanbul will have to start the first big fight against a board he created himself and the committee that already blindsided him on the Euro 2012 issue...

I don't think it's a good idea, cuz in Italy the Moratti cup shouldn't be given any extra privileges.

At least it will make the Coppa more interesting. Big teams will go for it, especially if they are having a bad season in the league, like we had last year.

I think it's a decent idea.

And finally UEFA has a president with balls, for way too long the giants of European football have been protected. I personally don't see how a team that finishes 4th and wins nothing deserves something more than a team that wins a trophy.

But when you really look at the big picture, will this really change anything? Not in England and Italy at least, recently it's been Roma/Inter and the big 4 in England winning the Cup competition anyways, and how often do they finish outside the top 4? Hardly ever.

My overall opinion is that it will make each Cup competition bigger, as it will increase competitiveness with the bigger teams going for it.

Question is: Will G-14 allow Platini to do that?

Rhetorical...

The G14 don't have any influence in UEFA. They are just an organization that works from within ...

They might voice their opinions, but that is as far as it goes ... IMO, Platini wont change much, and if he did, it wont change Milan's targets in any way

Are you serious?

Yes, why ?

I mean the G14 involve the biggest European clubs around, and they usually have a higher voice than the not so big clubs ... They try to rally things to their benefit, but in the end (what I'm trying to say..) UEFA aren't waiting for the G14 to agree with them

Oh, OK... just remember what happened the last time they threatened they'd create their own league!

Platini is helpless before those guys!

If ur referring to the super league thing ... It wont work unless UEFA agrees, which then makes it a legitimate league. Has UEFA agreed

Anyways, the G14 do have a voice, but t ain't as influential as it is believed it to be.

Why won't it work unless UEFA agrees!?? They can't force them to do it under their rules... I just asked you to remember what happened. In case you don't, UEFA backed out and that says is all...

We just don't agree so there's no point arguing anymore since both of us have made our opinions clear.

No, no ... I don't mean that I should be right or u should be right

I used to be of the opinion that the G14 is the sh1t ... But just recently, I have come to learn that they need UEFA's approval if they want that Super League. Why UEFA's agreement ? Because if UEFA don't approve, all their matches won't be recorded (there wont be any record for their teams nor their players at FIFA). That is what I understood just recently ... Talk to me 3 months ago and I would have had the exact opinion that u have

Now whether I am sure 100% about this, I am not. In fact I am not sure about what u claim ... But again, this is why we are in a forum


Why am I giving UEFA the image that it is BIGGER than G14 .. Because Kuwait has a problem with it's FA. We don't have a president for the FA nor do we have board members (Corruption) In simple English, the league has halted. And FIFA was brought in to intervene ... The whole issue is being worked at as I am typing ...

Hope now u understand where I got my assumption from.

That's true... but the G-14 wouldn't care that much. UEFA have many more things to lose than records that's why I'm saying the G-14 have true power over them.


I don't get it... what does this have to do with the G-14!??

Well, I tried to sum it up ... But u had no clue in the first place

Okay, with all the chaos that is going on ... The newspapers keep us up to date, and there are several articles on what is going on etc ... a couple of months ago, 3 I think, an article was published about if the Kuwaitis don't reach an agreement with the AFC (or better yet FIFA), the league and national team would loose out status in the world of FIFA. The people behind the chaos are 4 people (who formed a coalition), each a president of his own club and they wanted to have at least one of them as an FA member. In this they gave an example of the G14 in Europe and the UEFA, and that if the G14 (with all its prestigious clubs) can't over rule UEFA then the 4 Kuwaitis need to back off from their demands (what I said above, that was what was written in the article).

Again, I am not here to assert anything on u, neither r u on me ... Rather, I want to understand so this is my contribution to help us understand

But the chasm is big here... The G-14 ARE the CL... the competition won't survive without them!

Yeah they might have the power in terms of the best players in the world and the most decorated clubs around, u have a point there .. Other than that, UEFA is a part of FIFA. Something that is much bigger than European football, let alone G14 ... That is what I was looking at ... But knowing ur underlying love for Blatter and Platini, I know exactly why u stand by the G14

Yes they are

That is why I said they have a voice much bigger than the smaller clubs. They are a legitimate organization and I agree, but they are playing in a UEFA competition under FIFA rules. That is all I am saying ...

I think the G14 huff and puff, but under all the hype, they need UEFA much more than UEFA needs them. The G14 help each other and all that, and they get their way with UEFA in certain instances ... But UEFA don't need the G14 permission if they plan to implement anything.