MANCHESTER United, Greek champions Olympiakos and last year’s Champions League runners up Bayer Leverkusen will all be coming to Cyprus in the coming months to play Maccabi Haifa, forced to play their Champions League ‘home’ ties at Nicosia’s GSP stadium.
The draw for the group stages of this year’s competition took place in Monaco yesterday and followed an announcement by UEFA, European football’s governing body, that because of security fears, surprise qualifiers Maccabi Haifa would be playing in Nicosia.
In March, UEFA ruled that home games involving the Israeli national team and the country’s clubs in European competitions should not be played in Israel.
Haifa’s last match in the third round qualifying stage for the competition was played in Sofia against Austria’s Strum Graz. Maccabi won 5-3 on aggregate, making them the first club from Israel to reach the lucrative group stages of the Champions League. Speculation surrounded the decision to stage the game in Bulgaria, with sources in Israel suggesting that the cost for security and policing an earlier tie in Cyprus, estimated between $100,000 and $300,000, had forced the club to look for an alternative venue.
The draw is certain to have pleased Manchester United’s many followers in Cyprus and should ensure a packed house for all of the games at the GSP, given the following for Olympiakos on the island and the attraction of last year’s beaten finalists.
Officials from the GSP were unavailable for comment on the outcome of the draw, although sources have suggested that ticket prices could exceed the £15 previously charged by the club for European matches.
Both Manchester Untied and Olympiakos will attract fervent support from Cypriot football fans, making the ties more like an away fixture for the Israeli team. The media in Israel yesterday urged their leading politicians, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Moshe Katzav to put pressure on UEFA to allow the club to host its home matches in Israel. However, that appears unlikely given UEFA’s confirmation of the venue and the continuing violence in the Middle East.
Manchester United will play Haifa in Cyprus on October 18, while Olympiakos visit on September 24 and Bayer Leverkusen will be playing on October 1.
And as if the lure of David Beckham and co. was not enough, Cypriot football fans will have a chance to see the likes of Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry in live action next week, as defending European champions France kick off their qualifying campaign for Euro 2004 against Cyprus at the GSP next Saturday. The game is the French team’s first competitive outing since their humiliating World Cup exit this summer.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
