Champions League: Roma, Big Cheese Referee Travel to Manchester

By: Martha | April 9th, 2007

Ah, poor Scholes. The combination of bank holiday and Easter Monday (a holiday I hear most of the non-US world celebrates, or at least has off from work) will probably render today a slow news day, but a few tidbits have trickled out ahead of tomorrow’s Champions League match in Manchester.

First of all, as expected Francesco Totti’s minor back problems have either cleared up or cleared up enough, and he’s back in training and headed to Manchester with the rest of the Roma squad; he’s expected to start tomorrow. Rodrigo Taddei, too, is fit and ready to go so, apart from gimpy Max Tonetto the suspended Simone Perotta, Spalletti should have a full team from which to choose. (Please play Wilhelmsson, please play Wilhelmsson. And leave him on the whole 90. Thank you.)

Second, clearly focused on this match as one that will potentially be tense — both on and off the pitch — UEFA have chosen highly regarded Slovak official Lubos Michel to referee the match. Despite facing his fair share of controversy in the World Cup last summer (he likes giving cards for diving, so Ronaldo better be on his best behavior), Michel has been near the top of international “best referee” lists for the past several years — we’ll see if Alex Ferguson finds anything in the assignment to whine about before the match. (Oddly, Italian is not included in the slew of languages Michel speaks, so maybe Spalletti can complain about that if he runs out of things to talk about in today’s press conferences.)

Third, the English tabloids are busy trying to stir up controversy ahead of the arrival of Roma’s fans at Old Trafford, publishing doom-laden reports about Ultra control of ticket sales, and the “Invasion of Manchester” tshirts they claim every fan is proudly wearing. The clubs, meanwhile, are preaching calm, with Roma managing director Rosella Sensi assuring the press her team’s supporters “know how to behave,” and an independent Man U fan group imploring the home fans to conduct themselves with class in and around the ground. For the record, nearly 4000 tickets have been sold to Roma supporters; there’s no word on how many are expected to travel without tickets.