Inter Milan head into a huge week with the Champions League and Milan derby looming large over Sunday’s trip to Monza, while the killing of a mobster revealed disturbing links between organised crime and the club’s hardcore supporters. Italian champions Inter take on Monza hoping to maintain their early league lead but coach Simone Inzaghi is likely to rest some of his stars ahead of a much tougher trip to Manchester City in Europe’s top club competition.

While everything looks rosy for Inter on the pitch the same cannot be said in the stands after the reputed heir of a powerful crime family was killed by one of the leaders of the club’s hardcore “ultras”.

Andrea Beretta, who himself had a long criminal record, stabbed to death Antonio Bellocco during an altercation outside a boxing gym in a Milan suburb last week.

Bellocco’s death was a shock because of his reportedly high status within the ‘Ndrangheta mafia, which has led to Beretta’s family being placed under special surveillance by the police over fears of violent reprisals.

It also highlighted fears that mafia mobs were infiltrating ultra groups, attracted by the earnings some supporters organisations allegedly earn through illicit activities ranging from ticket touting to drug dealing.

Beretta took a leading role in the Curva Nord section of the San Siro after career criminal Vittorio Boiocchi was shot dead outside his home in October 2022.

Italian media widely reported at the time of his murder aged 69 that Boiocchi had bragged in wiretapped conversations about earning 80,000 euros ($88,000) a month through his position as ultra leader.

Wednesday’s rematch of the 2023 final with City is the biggest of the revamped, eight-match league phase for Inter and comes days before the Milan derby.

Inzaghi’s team won last season’s Scudetto with five matches to spare by beating AC Milan, and Inzaghi will want all his first choice players fit for both City and next weekend which is a great chance to further hurt their local rivals.

Inter are top of Serie A on goals scored ahead of Juventus, who are at Empoli on Saturday evening before Milan host Venezia at the San Siro, and also level on seven points with Torino and Udinese.

Milan already trail Inter by five points and also have Tuesday’s visit of Liverpool to contend with as a poor start has tested fans’ faith with new coach Paulo Fonseca.

Tammy Abraham is set to start his first match for Milan alongside former Chelsea teammates Fikayo Tomori and Ruben Loftus-Cheek as Alvaro Morata recovers from a thigh injury picked up on the opening day of the campaign.

Meanwhile Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez should return to Milan’s starting line-up after being dropped at Lazio, in the hope that both will be raring to go both against Venezia and Liverpool.

Player to watch: Ademola Lookman

The hat-trick hero of last season’s historic Europa League victory, Lookman is yet to play for Atalanta this term after agitating for a summer transfer to Paris Saint-Germain.

However the Nigeria forward was on the bench as Atalanta got thumped at Inter Milan before the international break and is in line to feature against Fiorentina on Sunday, his team’s first home match this campaign as the Gewiss Stadium rebuild finally nears completion.

And with Arsenal coming to Bergamo on Thursday in the Champions League, coach Gian Piero Gasperini will need all the firepower he has at his disposal for two big matches in front of an expectant home crowd.

Holders Real Madrid will face Liverpool away and host Borussia Dortmund in a repeat of last season’s final in the league stage of the new-look Champions League, the draw for which took place on Thursday. Every team will play eight games against eight different opponents in the new format of Europe’s elite club competition, with all 36 clubs now pooled together into one league rather than split into groups. Madrid, who have signed France superstar Kylian Mbappe since winning a record-extending 15th European Cup, will also notably play AC Milan at home and will go to Atalanta.

Real beat last season’s Europa League winners Atalanta in the UEFA Super Cup in Warsaw earlier this month.

Liverpool, who are back in the Champions League after a one-season absence, will also notably meet Milan and take on tournament debutants Girona.

However, supporters of the Anfield club will perhaps be most excited about the prospect of hosting German champions Bayer Leverkusen, coached by former Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso.

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, winners of the competition in 2023, will play at home to Italian champions Inter Milan and go to both Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus.

However, they were also handed more comfortable opponents including Club Brugge, Sparta Prague and Slovan Bratislava, who have never played in the modern Champions League proper.

Other standout head-to-heads will include Bayern Munich against both PSG and Barcelona, and Arsenal against Inter and Paris.

The number of clubs in the Champions League has increased from 32 in the past, with the 36 participants split into four seeded pots of nine for the draw.

Every team faces two teams from each of the four pots, one at home and one away. The first matches will be played on September 17, 18 and 19.

The two extra matchdays in the new league phase will take place in January, at the end of which the top eight clubs in the 36-team classification will advance directly to the last 16.

Those ranked between ninth and 24th place will go through to play a play-off round from which will emerge the remaining eight sides advancing to the last 16.

The bottom 12 in the league phase will be eliminated altogether, with no clubs parachuting down into the Europa League as in the past.

The Europa League and third-tier Conference League, the draws for which take place on Friday, will also now feature 36 clubs, although the latter competition will involve only six matchdays in the league phase.

File image of UEFA Champions League trophy.© AFP

A new era in European club football begins on Thursday when the draw takes place in Monaco for an expanded UEFA Champions League featuring a radically changed format. European football’s governing body is selling what it describes as “a thrilling new future” for the game on the continent with more teams playing more matches, and more prize money on offer. UEFA needs to generate hype around the new format, because there is a risk — in the beginning at least — that fans will find it confusing compared to the old model.

For the last 21 years, the Champions League had consisted of a group stage in which 32 clubs were split into eight groups of four, each playing six games. The top two in each group qualified for the knockout phase.

The new version will feature 36 clubs with everyone playing eight matches, but all teams pooled together into one giant league rather than in groups.

Clubs will still be split into four seeded pots of nine teams, with every participant given two opponents from each pot.

The top eight in the final ranking go through to the last 16, while the next 16 sides advance to an intermediate play-off round and the remainder go out.

The new format was introduced against the backdrop of the threat by Europe’s biggest clubs to break away and form their own Super League.

But UEFA are also hoping the format can be a solution to the problem of competitive imbalance in the sport which was making the group stage more predictable.

“The new format will introduce a better competitive balance between all the teams, with the possibility for each team to play opponents of a similar competitive level throughout the league phase,” UEFA say.

Financial rewards

What the changes will certainly not address are concerns about too much football being played and damaging the quality as a result.

The increasing demands on players, and the lack of rest as a result, were cited as reasons why many matches at Euro 2024 proved disappointing.

The new Champions League, in a season which is also set to finish with the first expanded version of FIFA’s Club World Cup, will feature a total of 144 games in the group stage, up from 96 before.

The financial rewards are greater, however, with UEFA’s total prize pot for the Champions League rising by about 25 percent to almost 2.5 billion euros ($2.79 billion).

The winners of the competition can pocket over 86 million euros just in prize money, not including bonuses of 700,000 euros for every point gained in the league phase or income from television.

Real Madrid were the winners last season, raising the trophy for the sixth time in the last 11 years.

The addition of Kylian Mbappe to their squad means they will hope to go all the way again, and emerge victorious in the final in Munich on May 31, next year.

Newcomers

This season’s Champions League will include newcomers such as Girona from Spain, while Bologna of Italy take part in Europe’s elite club competition for the first time in 60 years.

Brest of France had never qualified for any European competition before, but now take part after finishing third in Ligue 1 last season — taking advantage of the extra place handed to France as the fifth-ranked league in Europe.

As for the other additional places, one goes to a national champion who will emerge from the qualifying rounds, while Italy and Germany get an extra team each because of the performances of their clubs in Europe last season.

UEFA said the draw itself will be a “hybrid” affair, between the manual drawing of balls and the use of software, having calculated that doing it all by hand would take more than three hours.

The Europa League and Conference League, the draws for which will both take place on Friday, will also now feature 36 teams, although there will be only six matches for clubs in the league phase of the latter competition.

FIle image of Rafael Leao.© AFP

Real Madrid defeated Chelsea 2-1© AFP

Veteran French striker Olivier Giroud bid farewell to AC Milan in subdued fashion as they slipped to a 5-2 defeat at the hands of AS Roma in an entertaining post-season friendly in Perth on Friday. Just days after the Serie A season ended, Roma had the edge in a high-octane contest in front of 56,522 fans at the Optus Stadium. All eyes were on 37-year-old Giroud as he leaves Europe, where he has played at the top level in France, England and Italy, to head next season to Los Angeles FC.

The 2018 World Cup winning striker is France’s record goalscorer with 57 in 131 internationals and will have a chance to add to that tally at the Euros later this month, after which he will bow out of international football.

“I learned so much from him. He is such a legend,” said Swiss striker Noah Okafor, who replaced Giroud at half-time.

“Big respect that he can perform at that age. I’m going to miss him….just going to enjoy these last hours together.” 

Giroud, who won the Champions League with Chelsea and the Serie A title with Milan in 2021-2022, signed off from league duty in Italy with a goal in a 3-3 draw with Salernitana on Saturday.

He almost replicated that effort in the 30th minute against Roma, only to hit the post. 

But Giroud struggled to get involved and was constantly crowded out by Roma defenders aiming to deny him a farewell flourish, and he was substituted at half-time. 

Roma midfielder Tommaso Baldanzi broke the deadlock in the 27th minute, firing past Marco Sportiello. 

Giroud almost equalised straight away, but it was French left-back Theo Hernandez who tied things up with a fierce shot from outside the area in the 37th minute.

Roma reclaimed the lead just before half-time through England international Tammy Abraham, who has been linked with a return to the Premier League after being made available for transfer. 

It was all-out attack in the second-half, with both teams having made a slew of changes. 

Angelino made it 3-1 early in the half and although Okafor pulled one back for Milan, Paulo Dybala and Sardar Azmoun rounded out the victory for Roma.

It was the only match of the tour with the teams set to fly out of Perth just hours after the game, having arrived on Wednesday morning.