Five referees. Wage caps. The 6+5 rule. Michel Platini may be on a mission to over-complicate just about everything in European football, but on some subjects nobody can accuse him of neglecting the essentials. Take his visit to Kyiv in early July 2008. The UEFA president emerged visibly frustrated from a series of meetings to discuss the virtual absence of any progress in infrastructure development with the Euro 2012 organising committee and announced that: ”if there are no stadiums there can be no games”.

Just over eighteen months later, however, things are looking brighter. As the qualifying draw for the tournament in Poland and Ukraine took place last month in Warsaw’s Palace of Culture & Science, the new National Stadium across town was at last beginning to resemble a football arena ready to host the opening game, rather than an outdoor version of Piotr Wiwczarek’s hotel room after a final tour date. Likewise, construction of NSK Olimpiyskiy in Kyiv, the venue for the final on July 1, 2012, seems to be back on track after an apparently interminable series of bureacratic wranglings.

Progress on the grounds outside the capitals is also generally satisfying. In Ukraine, both the Metalist Stadium in Kharkiv and Donetsk’s stunning Donbass Arena – the construction of which consumed ten tonnes of paper in technical drawings alone – opened last year. The Polish venues, meanwhile, are not too far behind, with the reconstructed Stadion Miejski in Poznań probably the most advanced, followed by the over-sized Chinese lantern which will become the Maślice in Wrocław.

Platini should probably hold off the cigar for a while longer, though. Those responsible for the PGE Arena in Gdańsk do not appear to have prioritised actually building it, preferring to spend far more time trying to sell the naming rights or producing incomprehensible promotional material which describes the stadium as having ”a striking amber-like form, which opens into its surrounding environment in all directions like flowing streams”. Those of a less poetic bent would probably describe the designs as a fairly blatant knock-off of the Allianz Arena in Munich.

Gdańsk is nevertheless some way ahead of Lviv, where authorities are still trying to find an official name for the as-yet barely begun stadium, let alone a pair of scissors for the opening ribbon. The main problem is that preparations in the city lack significant support from local business figures, and where Kharkiv and Donetsk have been able to call on the resources of Oleksandr Yaroslavsky and Rinat Akhmetov in the construction of their new arenas, the already cash-strapped authorities in Lviv have been forced to rely almost entirely on central funds.

The then-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko declared on a visit late last year that the government had given around UAH 50 million to the city, but even this failed to stop the stadium contractor from downing tools in February, ostensibly in protest at sub-standard designs produced by an architectural firm without a license to operate in Ukraine. The real news here to anyone who had passed the site over the previous months was that the tools had even been picked up in the first place.

On the whole, however, the issue of Euro 2012 stadiums is gradually being resolved. By the standards of the 2004 Olympics, where the main stadium in Athens was completed only two months before the opening ceremony, they may even be ahead of schedule. On the other hand, the real questions about the prospects for a successful tournament lie – as so often in this part of the world – strictly off the pitch.

Preparations for sporting events – and often the events themselves – on the scale of Euro 2012 inevitably become politicised, and the practical consequences of this are rarely positive. That UEFA could award the tournament to a joint bid from Ukraine and Poland and involve not one but two sets of governments, local authorities and governing associations – none with any experience of similar projects – and not expect political complications seems unlikely, but the scale of these has been enough to surprise even the most cynical observer.

The most prominent example has undoubtedly been the Olimpiyskiy in Kyiv. With no sign of any building activity several months after a USD 300 million construction contract was awarded, Ukraine’s president at the time Viktor Yushchenko issued a statement claiming that officials at the sports ministry were set on what he described as ”sabotage” of the project, and requested that Tymoshenko investigate the matter further.

Platini then weighed in with the announcement that the Troitskyi shopping centre under development alongside the stadium site would endanger the latter’s UEFA certification, as it would prevent the ground from being properly evacuated. Yushchenko issued an executive order to have the centre demolished but nobody listed to him, and only a visit from Platini succeeding in getting the bulldozers moving.

Unfortunately the demolition work ceased almost as soon as the UEFA president was safely on his way back to the airport. A furious Tymoshenko immediately pointed the finger at Leonid Chernovetskyi, known to moonlight occasionally as mayor of Kyiv when not trying to run Arsenal Kyiv into the ground, and alleged a plot to damage the goverment’s credibility. The mayor, she added, had ”issued the construction permit on a corrupt basis”, and the Troitskyi ”was put up illegally”.

Chernovetskyi’s response was to claim that the company responsible for the centre was due compensation of 8,000 hectares of prime real estate on the outskirts of the city, and that Tymoshenko was responsible for the stoppage in demolition by refusing to sign the relevant paperwork. With Football Federation of Ukraine chairman Hryhoriy Surkis doing his utmost to calm the situation by claiming that: ”If work on tearing down Troitskyi is truly stopped, it is one step nearer to the final downfall of all our hopes”, Yushchenko intervened again with rather more success than the first time and ordered Tymoshenko to transfer the land.

The Troitskyi is merely the highest-profile example of how the Euro 2012 preparations not only have to contend with governments, but local authorities and innumerable sets of interests. That these intersecting pressures would cause difficulties was almost universally accepted by the wider Polish and Ukrainian public from the very beginning, and few held out any real hope of substantial co-operation.

This negativity is in fact so extensive that, according to one poll, over three-quarters of Ukrainians expect the management of the tournament to be at least partially corrupt. Only four per cent believe that the preparations will not be tainted in any way. Yushchenko himself openly confirmed the problem, complaining that: ”Right now we have three different government agencies working on preparations – not to help us get ready, but to divert the maximum amount of money possible into the black economy”.

When corruption in relation to Euro 2012 has been raised as an issue in the international media, much of the focus has been on events in Poland. A succession of revelations over the past four years involving match-fixing and bribery have seen over 200 arrests – including the son of former national team manager Jerzy Engel – and several top-flight clubs forcibly demoted to the lower divisions. In an interview with Bild, Jan Tomaszewski claimed that: ”Poland is the most corrupt country in the football world”; and as the current domestic season kicked off in July 2009, only 15 referees had permission to officiate at the highest level.

Tomaszewski went on to suggest that: ”If nothing happens, he [Platini] should take Euro 2012 away from us”. The corruption battle has certainly not created an ideal working environment for the organising authorities, not least because of near-permanent chaos at the Polish Football Federation (PZPN). FIFA, it should be pointed out, have hardly helped matters, threatening to exclude the national team from competition after viewing an attempt by the Polish Olympic Committee to suspend the PZPN board in September 2008 as constituting undue political interference.

Yet it is hard to see how turmoil in the domestic game is in itself fatal to Poland’s capacity to host an international tournament – no Polish clubs and, hopefully, very few Polish referees will be involved. When it comes to corruption, the real problem in both Poland and Ukraine is instead, as Yushchenko recognised all too well, graft on a municipal and political level.

Simply put, the central funding pots allocated for Euro 2012 represent the chance of a lifetime for the more unscrupulous operators within the system. As any of the Ukrainians who delivered such a bleak verdict in the above poll could explain, the lengths to which some officials will go in order to divert funds into their own pockets are endless – and often remarkably creative.

Although the specifics vary, the most popular formula remains broadly unchanged. City officials, faced with an issue – real or imagined – which needs resolving before the tournament begins, apply for central funds far in excess of the cost of the solution, deal with the problem in question as cheaply as possible, and pocket the balance.

To take just one of the more bizarre examples, council managers in the eastern city of Luhansk, expected to serve as an arrival point for fans attending matches in nearby Donetsk, have been accused by animal rights groups of drawing up plans to kill stray dogs in the area by using discounted poison, rather than the more humane (and expensive) methods on which their funding application was budgeted.

Problems such as these have the effect of exacerbating the difficulty of already monumental tasks in infrastructure development. Along with the stadiums, Ukraine alone has been estimated to require investment of up to USD 25 billion in roads, hotels and general services. Whilst much of this is expected to come from the private sector – in addition to the Metalist Stadium, Yaroslavsky has also financed the renovation of Kharkiv International Airport – the country is essentially being asked to make good in two years what went wrong in fifty.

Half the problem is even knowing where to start. The distances between some of the hosting cities are the longest ever for a European Championship – the 1,556 kilometres between Poznań and Donetsk means that the Polish city is closer to London than the Donbass. Travel the same distance south-east from Donetsk and you’ll almost reach Tehran. To complicate matters further, there are currently no direct flights or trains between the two cities.

Even for those venues located closer together, logistical headaches loom for many supporters. Whilst both government have promised improvements to the often-dilapidated road networks, visitors will still need to plan for rail delays at the border caused by the need to switch train gauges from the Polish track width to the narrower Ukrainian setting, along with the small matter of the European Union frontier running right down the middle of the hosting area.

Unfortunately, the problems may not be over once everyone actually makes it to their destinations. Kyiv is some way off being able to provide the 7,300 four- and five-star hotel rooms demanded by UEFA, and the chronic shortage of accomodation in Donetsk has lead the authorities to consider plans to base fans in the coastal city of Mariupol.

As if that wasn’t enough, a curiously fascinating study recently bemoaned the lack of public toilets in the Ukrainian capital, where only six facilities are signposted (all of them on the main Khreshchatyk thoroughfare). The same analysis also effectively put the kibosh on any prospect of near-term improvement by calculating that any loo entrepreneurs should expect a wait of up to seven years for a return on their investment.

How much of all of this will be fixed – and how much it is even possible to fix – by June 8, 2012 remains an unanswered question. Whether it is the most important question, however, is another issue. Few seem prepared to look beyond the building sites and ask what hosting the European Championship in Poland and Ukraine really means.

For starters, it represents the righting of a historical wrong. Aside from the 1976 tournament in Yugoslavia – which featured only four teams – the European Championship has never before taken place in eastern Europe. Given the glittering contribution of the region to the development of the game over the past decades, it seems only fitting that the latter should at last give something back to the lands of Tomaszewski and Valery Lobanovksyi, lands where some people are so hopelessly in love with football that they actually pay to watch Polonia Warsaw.

Secondly, it might just be the last chance to enjoy a tournament which actually has its own characteristics and soul. Poland and Ukraine represent, at least in some ways, an antidote to football across the continent which is increasingly becoming a homogenised plastic shell, and represent a challenge to the idea that ’developed’ tournament infrastructure and ’positive’ fan experiences must resemble those found in western Europe.

Memo to UEFA – if you don’t want your tournaments to have eastern European features, don’t hold them in eastern Europe. It’s not going to be perfect, and surely even Platini would accept that the normal way of running things is not going to be turned upside down just because there is a football tournament involved.

But offering different experiences is surely the whole point behind rotating the host nation, and it is interesting to reflect that the most memorable sporting events – for better or worse – are those which contain something of the society which surrounds them. Just over 800 days to go. See you there.

Juventus v Fulham
UEFA Europa League Round of 16 1st Leg
11 March 2010 – 20:05 GMT

Juventus will begin the UEFA Europa League round of 16 with a first leg match against English Premier League side Fulham on Thursday.

Juventus v Fulham Preview

Juventus is looking to find success in the Europa League after a disappointing season in the Serie A and Champions League. They had a chance to make the round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League but a home loss in the last group stage match-day put them in the Europa League. A run into the semifinals or final of the Europa League would help to compensate for their poor showing in the other competitions.

Fulham, who are currently 10th in the Premier League, defeated reigning UEFA Cup Champions Shakhtar Donetsk in the round of 32. They were not expected to advance past the Ukrainian side but a 1-1 draw on the road was enough. Manager Roy Hodgson has instilled a discipline 4-4-2 system that has made Fulham one of the strongest defensive side in England.

Juventus have had a rollercoaster season that included being near the top of the table to start the Serie A season and then dropping to as low as 7th place. They are in 6th place in the league table heading into Thursday’s match. Juventus advanced to the round of 16 with a 2-1 aggregate win against Ajax Amsterdam.

Both sides will be missing key players for Thursday’s match. Juventus is without goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, Giorgio Chiellini, and Amauri. Fulham is missing Andrew Johnson, Clint Dempsey, and John Pantsil for the trip to Italy. Juventus will be favored in the home match but Fulham have surprised in the Europa League.

Fulham will be satisfied with a draw and if they can get an away goal. It should be Juventus attacking in the match and Fulham looking for chances on the counterattack. Bobby Zamora leads Fulham with three goals in the Europa League while Amauri has two for Juventus.

Juventus v Fulham Prediction

The match will end in a 1-1 draw.

Watch Juventus v Fulham Live Online

You can watch Juventus v Fulham live online as well as all other Europa League games. Read our live Europa League football page for more details.

Lille v Liverpool
UEFA Europa League Round of 16 1st Leg
11 March 2010 – 18:00 GMT

With their English Premier League title hopes gone, Liverpool will continue their march towards a Europa League title with a round of 16 first leg match against French side Lille.

Lille v Liverpool Preview

Liverpool head into the match after a disappointing loss at Wigan on Monday in the English Premier League. The Reds continue to struggle in the Premiership and could salvage their season with a deep run into the Europa League. They advanced to the round of 16 with a 4-1 win over Unirea Urziceni.

Lille are 6th in the French Ligue 1 table and enjoying another solid season. Despite being in 6th place, Lille has the highest goal difference (+22) with 50 goals scored and 28 goals conceded. Their defense will be tested on Thursday as Liverpool will have a fit Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres available.

Players who will be sidelined because of injury are Fabio Aurelio for Liverpool and Nicolas Plestan, Mathieu Debuchy, Tulio De Melo, and Gervinho for Lille.

A win for Lille in the first leg is important with the second leg at Anfield. Liverpool haven’t been strong on the road but still are capable of playing with any team in the world. If they can get strong performances from Gerrard and Torres then it could be a long night for Lille. This hasn’t happened often this season and Lille have not lost at home in the Europa League.

Lille is led by Gervinho who has five goals in the Europa League. The home side should be more aggressive as Liverpool will be content with a draw or even a 0-1 defeat.

Lille v Liverpool Prediction

The match will end in a 2-2 draw.

Watch Lille v Liverpool Live Online

You can watch Lille v Liverpool live online as well as all other Europa League games. Read our live Europa League football page for more details.

Italy’s future in club and international terms is bleak, whether you look at the fact that the Serie A could be losing one of it’s Champions League spots to Germany, or you take into consideration that the Italian National Team is full of decrepit and defensive players. Not only this, but Italy isn’t producing the stars that would be able to step up to the plate when the time arrived, Italy misses speed and creativity because it relies on players like Gattuso, Camoranesi, and Cannavaro. Amidst the depressing future of Italian football, a bright star shines, whether he is mature enough or not, only time will tell, but Mario Balotelli could be one of the greatest players in the world, as long as he stays on track.

Mario Balotelli has had a strange sort of career, his three years at Inter Milan aren’t filled with goals, but it seems like Balotelli is more than just a goal-scorer. His first year he burst onto the scene with 7 goals in 15 appearances in all competitions, a great record for an 18 year old. The next season he scored 10 in 31 and this year he’s at 9 in 30, not only this, but throughout his career he has had 12 assists, 6 coming this season. Not only do the stats look good for such a young player, but Balotelli does much more than goals, he is tall, and able to use his physicality well, providing great hold up play. Balotelli also has an edge of trickery and speed, he often cuts inside from the wings to fire blistering shots at the keeper, and his creative side has certainly improved after playing with Ibrahimovic. Mario Balotelli is probably the most complete young striker around.

So why isn’t Balotelli earning a starting 11 spot in the Inter Milan line-up, and at least a squad spot in the Italy side? Lippi says that Balotelli isn’t mature enough, and I would sadly have to agree, and although he has games where he smashes a rocket into the top right corner, he also has games like this past weekend against Genoa. Balotelli could be described as a slow moving giant, attracting defenders like flies, who when try to take the ball, find Balotelli writhing in pain on the floor. Mario Balotelli slows down the tempo of the game, stopping Inter from creating smooth and beautiful football, often getting yellow cards in the late minutes of the match for diving or stupid fouls. It really seems like Balotelli can’t find a happy medium between humility and cockiness. It’s a cycle; Balotelli starts out humble, playing 20 minutes as a sub in a match or two, after scoring a couple of goals, he decides to come out with a remark like, “I remember scoring a lot more goals when I was in the starting 11,” Jose Mourinho starts him, and Balotelli is cocky the entire match, and is either taken off so that Inter can salvage some points, or left on so he doesn’t whine. Not only does this affect Inter and their position in the table, but it affects the tactical moves that Mourinho pulls off.

And if there was a manager that could tame raw talent, you’d expect it to be Jose Mourinho, the man dripping with confidence and ego makes every player he has had feel special. When he was at Chelsea he said Drogba was the best striker in the world, last year at Inter Milan he said that Ibrahomovic was the best striker in the world, and this year? He said that Eto’o is the best striker in the world (when asked about his fluctuating opinion, Mourinho cooly replied, “Because the players I train are always the best”). So why is Balotelli still complaining to the media about his playing time? I think the best way to sum it up is this; when Balotelli was a youngster playing for Lumezzane’s youth team, Barcelona offered him a contract, but Balotelli was stubborn and insisted on having a higher salary, therefore refusing to sign with the biggest club in the world, and eventually going to Inter Milan where Massimo Moratti met the youngster’s demands.

Balotelli seems to be an untamable young talent, even for Jose Mourinho, and while fans are claiming he should have a seat on the plane to South Africa, I would have to agree with Marcello Lippi. Balotelli is too immature, cocky, and inexperienced, and although he has all these defects, he still seems to be Italy’s brightest young star for the future.

Real Madrid 1-1 Lyon
UEFA Champions League
10 March 2010

Real Madrid struggled to convert their chances as they failed to advance to the quarterfinals and lost 1-2 on aggregate to Lyon.

The home side looked like they were heading for an easy win as Cristiano Ronaldo scored in the 6th minute. Unfortunately for Real Madrid that’s the only goal they would score in the entire match.

Lyon played solid defense the entire match and was able to get the crucial goal in the second half. Miralem Pjanic would score in the 75th minute to make it 1-1 and 2-1 on aggregate.

Real Madrid will now be focusing solely on La Liga as they are now knocked out of the Cope Del Rey and the UEFA Champions League. It was a disappointing performance as the final is going to be held in the Bernabeu.

Real Madrid 1-1 Lyon Video Highlights

Ronaldo 6′ (1-0)

Pjanic 75′ (1-1)

Manchester United 4-0 AC Milan
UEFA Champions League
10 March 2010
Wayne Rooney continued his incredible form with two goals to lead the Red Devils into the quarterfinals.

A header from Rooney off a cross in the 13th minute gave Manchester United the lead and from that point the match was over. It would remain 1-0 into halftime but Milan would have to score 3 or more goals to advance. They struggled to find the back of the net and an early second half goal from Rooney made it 2-0.

Manchester United added two more goals, one from Park in the 59th minute and the final from Fletcher in the 88th minute. David Beckham did play in the second half but by the time he entered the match it was all but over. It was a dominating performance from the Red Devils and AC Milan are definitely not the team they were a few years ago.

Manchester United 4-0 AC Milan Video Highlights

MLS Commissioner Don Garber is once again soliciting foreign clubs to buy into the League now that the MLS Players Association (MLSPA) confirmed that they’ll strike if the League doesn’t move towards guaranteed contracts and free agency. That’s to say, if Garber is going to make concessions on the issues that killed the Barcelona bid for a Miami franchise, he might as well use those concessions to get what he wants – a major foreign club buying a $40 million expansion team or existing team in the League.

An MLS strike just before or during the World Cup would be disastrous financially and to the brand. However, a bid from an overseas club to invest in MLS could factor into a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) resolution. If MLS contracts are restructured in some way acceptable to a foreign club and the CBA signed by the advent of the World Cup, the positive media exposure for the League would be priceless. Instead of stories spinning off a fractured league, marginal players, low salaries and limited player rights, MLS could promote its new soccer specific stadiums, new sponsors and broadcasts, international stars, the success of Seattle Sounders, and the high attendance of last summer’s international matches. MLS could look very promising in the glare of the World Cup media.

Federal mediator George Cohen has been appointed to assist negotiations starting this week, but any recommendations are non-binding and a strike could still be ordered. After two extensions beyond the January 31 deadline, the MLSPA refused Garber’s offer to continue the old CBA through 2010 and allowed it to expire, which effectively allows the players to strike at any time. With Fox and ESPN heavily invested in MLS and the World Cup in 2010, the most lethal time to strike would be after the season begins and media hype is in full steam for the World Cup. A strike closer to June is also more practical for the US National Team, as the US-based players could train and compete with their teams in early spring in preparation for South Africa.

So, last week after the MLSPA let the old CBA expire, Garber engaged in preliminary discussions with Manchester City about entry into MLS.

“Whether it’s an existing team or an expansion team is irrelevant to me,” Garber said in an interview with The Associated Press at SoccerEx. “But I would see over the next number of years us continuing our connection with international football clubs, and having it go beyond representing them in the United States for brand development and fan opportunities.”

A foreign club in the League will have different objectives than its sister clubs, but that doesn’t prevent the arrangement from being mutually beneficial. The big European and English clubs are on a global mission to expand their brands and increase viewership and jersey sales worldwide. To date, their US branding efforts have focused on friendlies and affiliating top youth clubs under their banner to promote their name and fathom the US market. In such an expansive country, this amounts to throwing a pebble in a pond, but foreign interest in the US youth market should not be underestimated. Currently, there are no youth transfer fees for identified talent in the largest group of young players in the world.

Regarding the development of youth soccer, MLS now has serious competition from the new North American Soccer League (NASL) who already will have one residential academy up and running at Tampa Bay FC in fall 2010. MLS has none. According to Kartik Krishnaiyer, NASL Director of Communications and Public Relatons:

“Tampa’s [residency program] is already signed, sealed and delivered, they’re doing it, and they’ll be the first pro club in the country to actually have a residency program.”

NASL’s Miami FC, owned by Traffic Sports, also is developing a residency program and has already presented a proposal to the City of Fort Lauderdale. Expansion MLS team 2010 Vancouver has operated a residential academy for three years. Funded by owner Greg Kerfoot at a cost of $1 million a year, the academy houses, trains, and educates 15, 16, and 17 year-old players from as far away as Jamaica and Eastern Canada.

Some MLS clubs such as Chicago Fire, Colorado Rapids, and New York Red Bulls have network variations of parallel boys and girls teams spanning U-6 through college age, but they are only starting to produce occasional signings. The potential has barely been touched. Garber told the Associated Press:

“We could learn a lot about youth development and coaching and the technical side of things. On the technical side, we still need help and I like to think we are not creating an American version of the world game. I would like to think we are part of the world game, and in order to do that we need to have more deep association with the global football community.”

A foreign expansion team offers multiple benefits for MLS outside of revenue to compensate for union concessions. An association with a major brand would draw both global attention and that of American fans of international soccer who have spurned the domestic league. It might also increase the level of play in the League. Last spring, Garber jumped all over Barcelona’s bid for a Miami franchise, trampling hopefuls in St. Louis, Montreal, Portland, Atlanta, and Vancouver on the way to the handshake. For a while, it looked promising, but the deal-breaker revolved around player contracts.

In fall 2008, Marcelo Claure, CEO of Brightstar Communications, Joan Laporta, Barcelona president, and Joan Oliver, general director, campaigned on all fronts to launch a Miami franchise in 2010. The club would operate rent-free in Florida International University’ stadium for two years, develop a US-based academy and build a soccer specific stadium. Laporta told Sports Business Daily:

“We will provide this franchise with players from our academies around the world and the ones we will build in the States in order to make a profitable franchise so that shareholders will be compensated for our efforts.”

However, these investors did not fully grasp MLS player contract arrangements and when they did, they could not accept them.

Claure said:

“We wanted to form an Ibero-American team, with players from Bolivia, Spain, Columbia, Venezuela, etc. To succeed in Miami, you need to form a team including Latino players, reflected in the fans, and obviously the team should have a Spanish touch with players from Spain and, of course, players from the USA. We have to include the Americans, because the League only allows eight foreign players per team.”

If a foreign club should now enter the picture, an increased international roster might be something the MLSPA would have to swallow. Currently, each team is allowed eight international slots, with the exception of Toronto FC who have 13 slots, five of which may be used on domestic U.S. players. This variation, which accommodates Toronto’s Canadian identity could be extended to a foreign team, who would want to use their own players and retain their national identity.

Barcelona objected to League ownership of their players, but the union crisis now may have Garber looking for profitable alternatives to offset union concessions and avoid a disastrous strike. It’s likely that a foreign club might wish to move their developing MLS talent to their foreign-based club or sell them on and profit from their academy training. While the contract arrangements sought by a foreign entity and the MLSPA might differ, it’s likely there’s common ground that could effectively satisfy all parties given the gains.

Garber told AP:

“We tried with FC Barcelona and Real Madrid and we will continue to talk to the Spanish clubs while finding some way to see if there is an investment opportunity with any of the English clubs.”

If Garber successfully establishes a new CBA, the MLS Board of Governors will offer him a raise worth an annual salary of $3 million for the next four years. If he’s able to satisfy the union’s contract demands and simultaneously attract the investment of a major foreign club, it could be said that he earned it.

Manchester United v AC Milan
UEFA Champions League Round of 16 2nd Leg
Old Trafford – Manchester, England
19:45 GMT – 10 March 2010

David Beckham will return to Old Trafford for the first time since leaving the club in the summer of 2003 as AC Milan travels to face Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League.

Manchester United v AC Milan Preview

Manchester United holds a 3-2 lead on aggregate after the first leg and is well on their way to the quarterfinals. AC Milan had a strong start in the first leg but they faded in the second half and now need a 2-0 win to advance to the next round.

Wayne Rooney will be fit for the match and scored two goals in the first leg. The striker has been in terrific form and have a season similar to Cristiano Ronaldo’s 2007-08 season in which he had 42 goals in 49 matches. Rooney currently has 28 goals in 35 matches and already surpassed his highest scoring season by five goals (23 in 2006-07). For AC Milan, their young striker Pato will likely not be available for the match due to an injury.

The main storyline that has received the most attention is David Beckham’s first return to Old Trafford since transferring to Real Madrid seven years ago. Beckham is not guaranteed a start and he could be relegated to a second half substitute. With Pato out, Milan will need Ronaldinho to step up and create chances. The Brazilian has showed signs during the season but at times he can seem uninspired on the pitch.

A good start is absolutely necessary for Milan who will have to attack and can’t afford to play conservatively. If they can score one or two first half goals while keeping Manchester United scoreless then they will have a good chance. This is a lot easier said than done and Man United have been very tough to beat at Old Trafford in the Champions League. AC Milan could surprise but this isn’t the same team that won the trophy in 2006-07.

Manchester United v AC Milan Prediction

Man United will win 2-1 and 5-3 on aggregate.

Manchester United v AC Milan Live Blog

Watch Manchester United v AC Milan Live Online

You can watch Manchester United take on AC Milan live online as well as all other Champions League games. Read our live Champions League football page for more details.

Real Madrid v Lyon
UEFA Champions League Round of 16 2nd Leg
Bernabeu – Madrid, Spain
19:45 GMT – 10 March 2010

Real Madrid will need a solid performance to reach the quarterfinals as they trail 0-1 heading into the second leg in the UEFA Champions League.

Real Madrid v Lyon Preview

Lyon had a 1-0 victory in the first leg in France but now has to travel to the Bernabeu where Real Madrid have been dominant this season. The French Ligue 1 side has not conceded a goal in 620 minutes in all competitions and will need that level of defense in the second leg. While they held Real Madrid scoreless, it will be a much different match on the road.

Real Madrid will not have Karim Benzema, Royston Drenthe, and Marcelo who are out due to injury. Xabi Alonso will not be available due to suspension. Lyon will be without Michel Bastos while Lisandro Lopez and Aly Cissokho could be available to start. Real Madrid are favored in the match but can Lyon hold them to one goal or score an elusive away goal?

Lyon is a solid team but there’s probably no defense that can contain an inform Gonzalo Higuain along with Guti, Van der Vaart, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Kaka. Higuain has been in great form of late, scoring four goals in his last three matches. Ronald leads Real Madrid in goals during the UEFA Champions League with six and is always dangerous on free kicks.

Kaka has yet to find his form under Real Madrid but has started to show signs with three goals in his last three matches. Lopez leads Lyon in scoring with 11 goal and has two goals in his last three matches. Overall, Real Madrid will be very aggressive in the match and if they can get a few goals early it should be all over for Lyon. If the visitors can keep it scoreless late, then extra time could be necessary.

While Lyon have a great defensive streak going, the level of competition in France can’t compare to Real Madrid. It could be close early but Real Madrid will wear down the Lyon defense and eventually get several goals in the second half.

Real Madrid v Lyon Prediction

Real Madrid will win 3-0 and advance 3-1 on aggregate.

Watch Real Madrid v Lyon Live Online

You can watch Real Madrid take on Lyon live online as well as all other Champions League games. Read our live Champions League football page for more details.

Fiorentina 3-2 Bayern Munich
UEFA Champions League
9 March 2010

Fiorentina grabbed a 2-0 lead but Bayern Munich stormed back to advance on away goals on Tuesday.

The home side looked like it was heading for the quarterfinals with goals from Juan Vargas in the 27th minute and Steven Jovetic in the 54th minute. They would get one more from Jovetic in the 64th minute but it wouldn’t be enough. As they led 2-0 before Jovetic’s second goal, Bayern came back with a goal from Mark Van Bommel to level the match at 3-3 on aggregate.

After Jovetic scored to make it 4-3, Bayern’s Arjen Robben made it 4-4 and the German side led on away goals. Fiorentina would have to get one more to advance but couldn’t as Bayern Munich advanced to the quartefinals.

Fiorentina 3-2 Bayern Munch Video Highlights