A nation divided

Italy fans' mania rages before Manchester final

MILAN (Reuters) -- The first all-Italian Champions League final, eagerly awaited by a soccer-mad nation, will pit city against city, neighbor against neighbor and tycoon against tycoon.

AC Milan and Juventus fans, led by the teams' billionaire owners, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the Fiat-founding Agnelli dynasty, were dreaming of glory as Wednesday's showdown drew near -- and scrambled for the best seats.

Ice cream for rival Italian fans in Manchester MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) -- Ice cream in team colours is the closest many Italian soccer fans will get to the Champions League final at Old Trafford on Wednesday. Tickets for the match between Juventus and AC Milan have long since sold out and the northern English city's Italian community are looking for ways to help the unlucky ones among 50,000 fans expected to descend on Manchester. In Miranda Cabrelli's Cocotoo restaurant, some 300 supporters will feast on her home-made ice cream, the rivals separated by the colors of their dessert. AC Milan fans will have strawberry and liquorice ice cream to mirror the red and black strip of their team. Juventus fans' flavors of the night will be vanilla and liquorice. Neither the shortage of tickets nor Manchester's famous rain will be allowed to spoil the party surrounding the tournament's first all-Italian final. "Everyone will come and watch the match and maybe tear the place apart," Cabrelli told Reuters. A huge outdoor screen in the city center will ensure nobody misses the game even if they cannot get into Manchester United's "Theater of Dreams." Manuela Constanzo, head of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Manchester, says he is expecting more than 50,000 Italians. "Many will come hoping to get a ticket here, some just to feel the atmosphere," she said. "People have been calling me up from Italy to get tickets." Not even the city's Italian consul, Marcello Cavalcasselle, has one of the sought-after tickets. "In Italy to get a ticket is difficult. Here it is a nightmare," he said. Manchester is putting on an 11-day festival to impress Italian fans with street parties, picnics and parades, although it got off to a damp start last Thursday as the rain fell. "Here in Manchester we are used to the rain. And the Italians have much more temperament than the English. Once they get here this party will really get started," Constanzo said.

Whether shelling out 800 euros (US$945.1) for flights to Manchester, preparing to watch the match on giant screens in Milan and Turin, or contemplating a night glued to the television, soccer fans were already on the edge of their seats.

Focused on their individual teams, most still found time to crow about Italy's unexpected Champions League dominance.

"This is a good reply to people who said we were losers, that Italian football was running out of steam," said Gianbattista Bertocchi, a 40-year-old air conditioner repairman. "Instead, we brought two teams to the final."

Italy has a tremendous history in Europe's top club competition with nine out of 10 finals from 1989 to 1998 featuring an Italian side. But then they were pushed aside by the Spanish, Germans and Manchester United -- until now.

Bertocchi admitted that true bliss would come only with a victory by his beloved diavoli (devils), as Milan are nicknamed.

"I'll be stuck in front of the TV and won't move, like so many other Italians," said Bertocchi, taking a break from work on a bench near Milan's massive gothic cathedral. "I would have liked to go myself but my pockets aren't deep enough."

By contrast, two bankers at a nearby outdoor cafe could barely contain their glee at holding 250-euro seats to the year's hottest sporting event.

"You need to pay but you can find tickets," said Andrea Mina, a 32-year-old Juventus fan who was flying to Manchester -- via London's faraway Stansted airport -- with office mate and Milan fan Franco Mattazzi.

"Obviously one of us is going to have a rough night," Mattazzi said, adding that the two had bought their plane tickets even before their teams made the final.

Political game

Berlusconi could afford to make more last-minute plans, chartering a plane for the occasion, while Milan's Mayor Gabriele Albertini planned an early exit from St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary to catch the game.

Juventus's owner, Umberto Agnelli, will also fly to Old Trafford, bearing the family torch after patriarch Giovanni Agnelli died earlier this year.

Others determined to make it to Manchester were undertaking the journey by bus, car or motorcycle.

Hard core fans unwilling or unable to get tickets -- travel agents were swamped with requests -- could still opt to cheer alongside other fans at the two teams' home stadiums.

The city of Milan was beefing up transportation and police presence at the giant San Siro stadium where fans would be able watch the game -- transmitted by Berlusconi's own Mediaset network -- on a 50-square-meter screen.

"I hope and am sure that the Milanese will make their customary efforts to be civil because Wednesday evening's events should be simply a big sports party for Milan," said Giovanni Bozzetti, the city's head of special events.

"Also for our nation, because obviously it's with a lot of pride that Italy managed to get two teams into the Champions League final."

While AC Milan's fans are concentrated in Milan's financial capital, Juventus's Italy-wide fan base spreads throughout Italy.

"Many of us southerners cheer for Juventus because our teams can't even make Serie A," said tram driver Domenico Giglio, born in the southern region of Calabria.

He planned to watch the game at home with his 10-year-old son, "already a devoted Juve fan."

But for fans of Milan's archrival Inter the game is a latest indignity after they suffered the humiliation of elimination at the hands of their city neighbor in the Champions League semifinal.

"I hope the best team wins and it's a good game," said Albert Music, a subdued Inter supporter and gem salesman. "I'd rather have seen a more mixed final, with at least one foreign team, but you can't deny it's a positive for Italian soccer."

 

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