The big final at last
CHAMPIONS
7
LEAGUE
Once again Italy will be hosting the final of the UEFA
Champions League, the biggest and most important event in
European football. This is a great honour and pleasure for the
Italian Football Federation and all the other sports associations
in Italy. It is also official recognition of Italy's leading role on the
international sports scene and a just reward for its
organisational and managerial skills. The forthcoming match
between Ajax and Juventus, two of the most famous and
best-supported clubs in football, is certainly one of the most
attractive and spectacular fixtures that football can currently
offer the tens of millions of fans all over the world.
It is especially significant that the most important game of the
season will be played at a ground, the Olympic Stadium in
Rome, that has already witnessed many great sporting events:
the 1960 Olympics, the final of the European Nations
Championship between Italy and Yugoslavia, a previous
European Cup Final, prestigious international athletics
meetings, and an unforgettable World Cup.
Over the years, this great tradition has involved all the various
administrative bodies in Italian sport. Italian sport, and football
in particular, is determined to carry on this tradition in the name
of all those values it represents.
As we get ready for the next Mediterranean Games, which,
in just over a year, in summer 1997, will be welcoming athletes
and sportsmen from a vast and varied geographical area to
Bari, Italian sport is already preparing its bid for the 2004
Olympic Games. And we hope they will be held in the very
same stadium that will be hosting today's magnificent final of
the UEFA Champions League.
Antonio Matarrese
President of the Italian Football Association
