2012/13 UEFA Champions League thread

[Lineker]

Malaga have been banned from European competition for at least one season because of unpaid bills.

The suspension will not affect the Spanish club this campaign, as they aim for the Champions League last eight, but any time in the next four seasons should they again qualify for Europe.

The ban has been issued by football governing body Uefa, which is seeking to stop clubs spending beyond their means through Financial Fair Play.

Malaga lie fourth in La Liga.

A Uefa statement said: "Uefa's club financial control body has taken its first decision due to the presence of significant overdue payables.

"Malaga is excluded from participating in the next Uefa club competition for which it would otherwise qualify for in the next four seasons."

The club responded by claiming they have been made a "scapegoat" by Uefa.

"Malaga wishes to express its total disagreement at the decision issued today by Uefa, and considers the intended actions against the club to be completely unjustified," said a statement.

"The club believes they are being made a 'scapegoat' and an 'example of' by Uefa by this unfair treatment."

Malaga were also fined 300,000 euros (£244,000) and face a further season's ban unless they can prove by the end of March that they have settled outstanding payments to other teams, staff and tax authorities.

The fortunes of Martiricos, who face Porto in the last 16 of the Champions League, looked to have changed for the better when Sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani of the Qatari Royal Family was named owner in June 2010.

Argentine defender Martin Demichelis, Brazil's Julio Baptista, Frenchman Jeremy Toulalan and Chile's Manuel Iturra have all been brought in by manager Manuel Pellegrini over the last two years as the club qualified for the Champions League for the first time in their history.

However, Malaga sold key players Santi Cazorla, who is now at Arsenal, and Joris Mathijsen, to Feyenoord, last summer.

And there was internal trouble with former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy and Cazorla among a handful of players to threaten legal action over unpaid wages last season.

The LFP (Liga de Futbol Profesional) had imposed a transfer ban in January after the club missed a payment to Osasuna for Spain full-back Nacho Monreal.

Meanwhile, five other clubs face similar one-year bans during any of the next three seasons unless they can convince the governing body they have cleared stipulated debts.

They are Hadjuk Split and Osijek from Croatia, Rapid Bucharest and Dinamo Bucharest from Romania, and Partizan Belgrade from Serbia.

[Lineker]

The Champion's League is back next week - and this has just emerged:

Uefa has responded to growing concerns over the high cost of watching football in England by reducing the cheapest ticket for this year's Champions League final at Wembley to £68.

European football's governing body was accused of exploiting supporters when the match was last staged in London two years ago - Barcelona beat Manchester United 3-1 - by charging £176 for the cheapest ticket.

Uefa will announce later on Friday that it has listened to that criticism and lowered prices for the showpiece match, which takes place on 25 May, after consulting football fans across Europe.

"It is correct we should give the opportunity to everyone to go to the match irrespective of their financial conditions," a spokesman said.

But many supporters may still view the entry level price of almost £70 as too high - even for what is arguably the biggest game of the season.

Only 13,000 of the 59,000 tickets on general sale will be priced in this new low category. The rest will be sold at much higher prices ranging from £140 to £330.

This year's competition resumes next week with Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Celtic, Arsenal, AC Milan and Bayern Munich all involved in the last 16 ties.

And some fans may still question why 20,000 seats are not being put on sale to the general public. Uefa hold back these tickets for sponsors, commercial partners and officials and administrators from European and world football.

Uefa's response is nevertheless a sign that football's authorities may be aware of the increased sensitivity around the cost of watching football - particularly in England where some Premier League clubs have been accused of ripping off away supporters.

In January, Manchester City fans returned nearly a third of the ticket allocation for their game at Arsenal, saying the £62 price was too high.

Supporters groups have warned the Premier League it risks alienating a generation of fans by charging too much to watch games.

The Premier League says it cannot tell clubs to reduce prices but argues many have become more sophisticated over the past decade, introducing stretched ticketing policies where higher-priced tickets help subsidise more cheaper tickets for fans on lower incomes.

Despite that, some campaigners want to see a greater commitment to reduce prices especially at a time when Premier League clubs are poised to see a huge increase in income thanks to the competition's new improved TV rights deals, which take effect from this August.

[Colly]

Token amount. That's a fairer price but all the top deck at the very least should be priced like that.

[Lineker]

Oh Celtic.

[Baddar]

Juve were all over the Celtic players on corners, and they could've been awarded pens on numerous occasions, but like the commo said, it's hard to argue with 0-3.

[Colly]

I'd agree on the few where hands were actually wrapped round a player, but there's certainly some double standards in Skys report considering the only reason Hooper wants to get past is to do the same thing to the keeper.

Not to mention 'watch what happens to number 8 here'. No, I'm watching Ambrose who has his forearm in someone's face.

[Thrilla]

SSN's build up for the United/Real game is incredibly annoying. I can't be the only one that doesn't give a toss about that game and wants to watch Dortmund/Shakhtar instead, right?

[Baddar]

Well I'm obviously interested in Real-United but that doesn't stop their build-up from being annoying. This afternoon, I was only watching for 45 minutes and stuff was repeating.

Their match coverage begins at 6 tonight, but I don't see myself watching until 7/7:30.

[Kaney]

Celtic didn't play absolutely terribly, bar the opening goal. And Juve were horribly dirty when it came to corners and free kicks, but at the end of the day, we never once looked like scoring, and three nil is three nil regardless how it happened. Pirlo and Lichsteiner are dirty cunts but what do you expect, its an italian team. I would have been more pissed off at the result if there was any expectation of us going through to begin with but there wasn't, this match was essentially a glamour tie, anything past the group stages is a bonus for a shitty wee team from Scotland, so I'm happy enough to watch the return leg without any tension or worry since it'll just be nice to see if we can nick a goal or what. We'd just need to stop shooting directly at Buffon for that to happen though.

[Matt]

SSN's build up for the United/Real game is incredibly annoying. I can't be the only one that doesn't give a toss about that game and wants to watch Dortmund/Shakhtar instead, right?

It depends how the game goes. If Ronaldo pisses all over then then I'll be watching it, if not the Dortmund game appeals more

[Colly]

I believe you are. There was someone on BBCs Sportsday live earlier moaning that game was unlucky to be on the same day, I was just left thinking I can't think of a less glamourous game. I'm sure it'll be decent, but I'm not going to ignore Real v Man Utd to make some kind of 'ooh, I'm a football expert' statement.

That said, Skys promotion is annoying, I still can't work out why they took SSN off freeview when its basically a massive advert for Sky Sports.

[Thrilla]

Also, SSN keep on pronouncing Bernabeu wrong.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Lennon got his tactics all wrong and basically played into the hands of Juventus. You could see from a mile away that Celtic were pressing like mental and were eventually going to tire and Juve were going to pick them apart, which they eventually did.

Excited for tonight would be an understatement. Expecting a classic over the two legs in all honesty.

[Lineker]

Fergie has said that Rafael will be tasked with marking Ronaldo tonight.

[brenchill]

Fergie has a 13% win record in Spain.

Won 2, Drawn 7 and Lost 6.

[Matt]

Fergie has said that Rafael will be tasked with marking Ronaldo tonight.

Lolooolololooololololololololololololololololololol.

[MJB]

XI: De Gea, Rafael, Evans, Ferdinand, Evra, Jones, Carrick, Kagawa, Rooney, Welbeck, Van Persie.

Subs: Lindegaard, Valencia, Anderson, Giggs, Smalling, Cleverley, Hernandez.

No Vidic in the 18 makes me wonder why he even travelled. I really didn't expect that XI, Welbeck and Kagawa need to step it up majorly tonight otherwise we're going to get destroyed.

[Lineker]

Phil Jones is in the Manchester United side - as are Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie and Danny Welbeck. Cristiano Ronaldo starts for Real.

[Lineker]

Real Madrid XI v Man United: Lopez, Arbeloa, Ramos, Varane, Coentrao, Khedira, Alonso, Ozil, Di Maria, Ronaldo, Benzema

[MJB]

What a save by De Gea!

We're going to need him tonight.