Zidane declines Materazzi meet-up as stars face Man Utd

BRUSSELS (AFP) – A star-studded European XI including Ronaldo, Marco Materazzi and Steven Gerrard will join forces to face Manchester United on Tuesday to celebrate 50 years since the EU’s founding Treaty of Rome. The match, to be held at Old Trafford stadium, is a sell-out, ensuring a 72,000-strong crowd with all proceeds going to charity. World Cup winner Ronaldo, along with fellow Brazilian star Ronaldinho of Barcelona, will also be joined by the likes of German goalkeeping great Oliver Kahn and French world cup winner Lilian Thuram.

However there will be no cosy coming-together for Materazzi and Zinedine Zidane, who famously head-butted the Inter Milan defender in last year’s World Cup final in what was the French great’s swansong. The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) invited Zidane for the special match but “the answer arrived late and it was negative” former Italian coach Marcello Lippi announced Monday. Lippi coached Italy to victory and is managing the European XI for Tuesday’s match. Several other players were approached but declined the invitation for “excellent reasons”, Lippi told a press conference in Brussels, alongside UEFA chief Michel Platini, former Manchester United great Bobby Charlton and EU Commission chief Manuel Barroso.

Former England star David Beckham was earlier named to face his former club but is currently out with a knee injury. Nor do any Chelsea players appear on Lippi’s list, which he stressed was still subject to last-minute changes. Charlton could not say whether United would field their strongest side for the match, given their heavy domestic and European schedule.
But he assured the assembled reporters that whatever team United manager Sir Alex Ferguson sends on to the field “it’s a team he sends out to win”.

The match, the proceeds of which will go to the official Manchester United Foundation, funding commun ity projects locally and further afield, also marks 50 years of the club’s involvement in European football competitions. “In a continent proud of its cultural diversity, football offers a common language,” said Platini. Below is a list of the full squad of European and Europe-based players, who will give their time and effort for free.

Goalkeepers: Oliver Kahn (Bayern Munich/GER), Gregory Coupet (Lyon/FRA), Iker Casillas (Real Madrid/ESP)
Defenders: Paolo Maldini (AC Milan/ITA), Jamie Carragher (Liverpool/ENG), Eric Abidal (Lyon/FRA), Lilian Thuram (Barcelona/ESP), Carles Puyol (Barcelona/ESP), Marco Materazzi (Inter Milan/ITA), Fabio Grosso (Inter Milan/ITA), Gianluca Zambrotta (Barcelona/ESP).
Midfielders: Steven Gerrard (Liverpool/ENG), Juninho (Lyon/FRA), Florent Malouda (Lyon/FRA), Luis Miguel (Valencia/ESP), Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan/ITA), Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan/ITA)
Strikers: Ronaldinho (Barcelona/ESP), Ronaldo (AC Milan/ITA), Alessandro Mancini (AS Roma/ITA), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter Milan/ITA), Henrik Larsson (Helsingborg/SWE).

Totti ends spell in international wilderness

ROME, Italy (AFP) – AS Roma captain Francesco Totti has said he will be once again available for international selection starting from September, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) announced here on Monday.
The on-form striker should now be present for the world champions decisive Euro 2008 qualifiers against the team they beat in the 2006 World Cup final France on September 8 and the Ukraine four days later.
The FIGC statement also said that national coach Roberto Donadoni and vice-president of the federation Gigi Riva had held talks with Totti to “be assured of his willingness to return to the national team….on the basis he would be able to combine his club engagements in the championship and Cup with those of the national side.”

Totti decided to hang up his international boots following Italy’s victorious campaign at the 2006 World Cup finals held in Germany. The 30-year-old Totti failed to fully recover from a fractured fibula suffered in a league game just three months before the World Cup. And though the Italian striker made the finals he could not quite find the form he had prior to the accident and subsequently decided to quit the national team and concentrate on club football.

However Totti, who has 58 caps for his country with nine goals, will look to carry over his impressive Serie A form and help propel the Squadra Azzuri to the Euro 2008 finals beginning on June 7 and which is being co-hosted by Switzerland and Austria. Totti has been on target for his club this season and is the league’s leading scorer firing 18 goals in 27 matches.
AS Roma presently occupy second place in the Serie A behind leaders Inter and recently qualified for the Champions League quarter-final after dismissing French side Lyon last week.

LONDON (AFP) – Tickets for the first football match due to be played at the rebuilt Wembley Stadium sold out within hours of their having gone on sale, the English Football Association said on Monday.

The March 24 under-21s match between England and Italy was so heavily in demand that the FA’s ticket website crashed at about 3 p.m. (1500 GMT), when the 10-pound (15-euro, 19-dollar) tickets first went on sale.

Though only about two-thirds of the seats at the 90,000-capacity national ground will be filled – Wembley is being tested to get its safety certificate – the FA said it will still be the “largest ever under-21s crowd in world football history.”

“I think this shows just how much the whole of England is waiting with anticipation for all the games to be held at Wembley,” an FA spokesman said.

The FA were given the keys to Wembley last week after work on it was finally completed, years behind schedule and at a final cost of 800 million pounds.

The March 24 match is the second of two “ramp-up” events to ensure the stadium is in working order, the first being a March 17 community day.