Football Media

Fußball Arena München, Munich
Wednesday 30 September 2009 – 20.45CET (20.45 local time)
Group A – Matchday 2

Two of European football’s great names go head to head again on Matchday 2 when FC Bayern München meet Juventus in Group A. The sides experienced mixed fortunes in their opening games, Bayern winning 3-0 at Maccabi Haifa FC while Juve drew 1-1 at home against FC Girondins de Bordeaux.

Previous meetings
• This is the fifth encounter between the sides, who met previously in the UEFA Champions League group stage in 2004/05 and 2005/06.
• Juventus recorded 1-0 wins home and away against Bayern in 2004/05. The Bianconeri prevailed in Munich on 3 November 2004 through a 90th-minute goal by Alessandro Del Piero. It was the last time Bayern lost at home in the UEFA Champions League group stage.
• The lineups that evening were:
Bayern: Kahn, Sagnol (Görlitz 46, Scholl 69), Lucio, Robert Kova?, Salihamidži? (Guerrero 90+2), Hargreaves, Ballack, Frings, Schweinsteiger, Pizarro, Makaay.
Juventus: Buffon, Zambrotta, Thuram, Cannavaro, Pessotto, Camoranesi, Emerson, Blasi, Nedv?d, Del Piero, Ibrahimovi?.
• The teams traded 2-1 home victories when they met the following season. Sebastian Deisler and Martín Demichelis struck first-half goals when Bayern beat Juventus in Munich on 18 October 2005, Zlatan Ibrahimovi? replying late on for the visitors.
• The sides were:
Bayern: Kahn, Sagnol, Lucio, Ismaël, Lizarazu (Schweinsteiger 30), Zé Roberto, Demichelis, Ballack, Deisler, Makaay, Santa Cruz (Scholl 88).
Juventus: Abbiati, Blasi (Chiellini 46), Thuram, Cannavaro, Zambrotta, Camoranesi (Del Piero 46), Giannichedda, Emerson, Nedv?d, Trezeguet (Mutu 66), Ibrahimovi?.

Match background
• Bayern beat ACF Fiorentina 3-0 at this same stage last term, Miroslav Klose, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Zé Roberto scoring.
• Juventus lost 3-2 at Werder Bremen on their most recent visit to Germany in the first knockout round in February 2006, surrendering a 2-1 lead late on after Pavel Nedv?d and David Trezeguet had found the net.
• The Turin club lost European Champion Clubs’ Cup finals against German clubs in 1983 (Hamburger SV 0-1) and, with Ciro Ferrara in the team, 1997 (BV Borussia Dortmund 1-3). They defeated Dortmund 6-1 on aggregate to land the UEFA Cup in 1993.

Team ties
• This is the first meeting of the two coaches since the 1996 UEFA Champions League final in Rome when Bayern’s Louis van Gaal was in charge of an AFC Ajax side beaten on penalties by a Juventus team featuring Ferrara, his present-day Bianconeri counterpart.
• Van Gaal had led Ajax to victory against another Italian side, AC Milan, in the final 12 months earlier.
• Van Gaal also guided Ajax past Juventus’s city rivals, Torino FC, in the 1992 UEFA Cup final.
• Van Gaal last faced Italian opposition in the 1999/00 group stage, guiding FC Barcelona to a 4-2 win at home to Fiorentina and a 3-3 draw away.
• Ferrara was in the Juventus side that beat Bayern 1-0 in Turin in October 2004.
• The Juve coach was also in the SSC Napoli team that got the better of Bayern in the 1988/89 UEFA Cup semi-finals, drawing 2-2 in Munich to complete a 4-2 aggregate success.
• Juventus midfielder Hasan Salihamidži? spent nine years with Bayern from 1998 to 2007 and was part of their UEFA Champions League-winning team in 2001.
• Bayern’s Italy striker Luca Toni played against Juventus for US Città di Palermo and Fiorentina in Serie A. He was on target for Fiorentina in a 1-1 draw at Juventus in April 2006.
• Bayern’s Arjen Robben appeared as a substitute for Real Madrid CF when they lost 2-1 at Juventus in the 2008/09 group stage.
• Juventus playmaker Diego was unbeaten in three visits to Bayern’s stadium with Bremen – helping his old club earn one win and two draws, finding the net once.

Artemio Franchi, Florence
Tuesday 29 September 2009 – 20.45CET (20.45 local time)
Group E – Matchday 2

ACF Fiorentina welcome Liverpool FC to the Stadio Artemio Franchi aiming to both bounce back from their 1-0 loss at Olympique Lyonnais on Matchday 1 and  improve on  their home showing  in  last season’s UEFA Champions League.

• The Viola took two points from a possible nine in Florence during the 2008/09 group stage and will know they must do better against a Liverpool side unbeaten on their travels in last term’s competition, with three wins and three draws, and who opened this year’s campaign with a 1-0 defeat of Debreceni VSC at Anfield.

Match background
• Fiorentina last won a home game in the UEFA Champions League proper in March 2000 – a 1-0 success against Valencia CF – yet they can take heart from an unbeaten home record against English sides in UEFA club competition.
• The Tuscan club have never lost nor even conceded a goal at home against English opposition. Their record is W2 D1 L0.
• Fiorentina beat Liverpool’s neighbours Everton FC 2-0 in their last meeting with an English outfit in the UEFA Cup round of 16 in 2007/08. The Viola subsequently lost by the same score on Merseyside but advanced as 4-2 winners on penalties.
• Liverpool’s last four away games against sides from Serie A yielded two wins and two draws – as well as four clean sheets.
• Rafael Benítez’s side won 1-0 at FC Internazionale Milano on their most recent trip to Italy in the UEFA Champions League first knockout round in March 2008, Fernando Torres scoring the only goal.
• The Anfield team’s overall away record against Italian teams is W2 D2 L4. This does not include their penalty shoot-out win against AS Roma in the 1983/84 European Champion Clubs’ Cup final at the Stadio Olimpico as, technically at least, this was a neutral venue.
• Liverpool also won their first European Cup in 1977 in Rome, beating VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-1.
• They secured their fifth European crown by defeating another Italian side, AC Milan, on penalties after a 3-3 draw in that remarkable final in Istanbul in 2004/05.

Team ties
• As a player, Fiorentina coach Cesare Prandelli was in the Juventus team that beat Liverpool 1-0 in the 1985 European Cup final, appearing for the final six minutes as a substitute.
• Prandelli had mixed fortunes against English opponents in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup with Juventus, winning one semi-final against Manchester United FC (1983/84) but losing another against Arsenal FC (1979/80).
• Viola front man Alberto Gilardino came on as an 88th-minute substitute for match-winner Filippo Inzaghi during Milan’s 2-1 UEFA Champions League final triumph against Liverpool in 2007.
• Fiorentina forward Adrian Mutu faced Liverpool once during a spell in England with Chelsea FC, finishing on the losing side with a 1-0 Premier League defeat at Stamford Bridge in January 2004.
• Per Krøldrup had a short-lived spell on Merseyside with Everton in the first half of 2005/06.
• Liverpool’s squad includes Italian internationals Alberto Aquilani and Andrea Dossena, the latter a former team-mate of Fiorentina’s Cesare Natali at Udinese Calcio.

Long-term commitment includes UEFA EURO 2012™ and EURO 2016™

UEFA and adidas announced that their long-term partnership is to continue with a comprehensive set of rights being granted for UEFA EURO 2012™ and UEFA EURO 2016™, along with all other national team competitions in the period from 2010 to 2017 under the UEFA EUROTOP banner.

The long-term agreement places adidas as one of the top level sponsors, while their licensing rights include branded and unbranded opportunities, with notably the rights to create and market the Official Match Balls which will be used in all matches of all national team events.

For the first time, adidas has also been granted retail rights in relation to UEFA EURO and, alongside their own retail capabilities, will work with Intersport, their long-term strategic partner, to create a strong global sports retail programme.

In addition, adidas will implement a broad product supply programme equipping the staff, officials, referees, volunteers and ball kids of all the national team competitions during the period, while also providing additional equipment support to UEFA’s numerous football development and referees courses.

Commenting on the announcement UEFA General Secretary, David Taylor, said:

“It is significant that the first UEFA EURO 2012™ partnership agreement we are able to announce is with adidas. UEFA is all about football and the beautiful game is also at the core of adidas’ business. They are the leading football brand in the sporting goods category, and beyond their promotional activities, they will also be providing top-level support to all our events and courses, through the provision of official match balls and other sporting goods and apparel.

“UEFA EURO is a hugely valuable and attractive event for sponsors to be associated with, and, with further agreements due to be announced before the end of the year, we are confident of completing the global sponsorship programme by the summer of 2010.”

In addition to UEFA EURO 2012™ and UEFA EURO 2016™, the UEFA EUROTOP agreement also includes a relationship with UEFA over all the national team competitions, including major tournaments such as the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (2011, 2013, 2015 & 2017) and the UEFA European Women’s Championship 2013 and 2017, and numerous education courses for coaches and referees through to the end of 2017, providing marketing and product support across this wide range of UEFA properties.

FIFA will hold a two-day Medical Conference in Zurich on 17 and 18 October 2009. Medical staff, but particularly administrators and officials from FIFA member associations worldwide, will enjoy an exceptional introduction to the latest achievements in football medicine and the many benefits for associations, communities, teams and players at all levels of play.

The topics of this conference, organised by the FIFA Medical Committee together with the FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Centre (F-MARC), include the prevention of injuries and sudden cardiac death, fair play from a medical perspective, FIFA’s pioneering Football for Health initiative as well as exactly how to implement football medicine in regional and national programmes all around the globe. All this will be presented in an easily comprehensible, entertaining way under the guidance of Dr Michel D’Hooghe (Chairman of the FIFA Medical Committee and FIFA Executive Committee member) and Prof. Jiri Dvorak (FIFA Chief Medical Officer and Chairman of F-MARC) to inspire a non-medical audience.

Among the many speakers will be FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke, Gérard Houiller, former South African international Lucas Radebe and Swedish international referee Martin Hansson.

For more than a decade, F-MARC has been unique in that no other research or education body has had a similar approach to sports (football) medicine. While most sports scientists and physicians focus on improvement of performance, from the very beginning F-MARC focused on protecting the health of players, injury prevention and improving standards of care. F-MARC also has a philosophy of sharing its knowledge and providing expertise to everyone for the maximum benefit of all players and athletes worldwide. The Football for Health programme goes beyond the game and those who play it and addresses the major health threats to communities worldwide.