Champions League kicks off

The multi-million dollar battle for European footballing supremacy gets underway this week when the cream of the continent's clubs kick off the 2001/2002 Champions League.

The most prestigious trophy in club football and hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake as 32 sides from across Europe prepare for a gruelling eight-month marathon which will climax in Glasgow next May.

The first round group phase has been criticised in some quarters as a phoney war designed to maximise the television revenues of UEFA and the participating clubs.

But nobody is likely to be complaining when UEFA's television lottery millions are shared around.

Last year's winners Bayern Munich banked 44 million dollars in television money thanks to their victorious campaign, with UEFA handing back an estimated 444 million dollars to participating clubs.

The escalating cash rewards represent close to a 100 percent increase from revenues at the start of the 1990s and make it clear why clubs across Europe stake everything on qualifying for the moneyspinning extravaganza.

Some clubs - like free-spending Real Madrid - have broken the bank to chase success in Europe.

The Spanish giants kick off their campaign with a mouthwatering Group A opener against Italian champions AS Roma at the Olympic Stadium on Tuesday.

The Spaniards' star-studded squad, which features the world's two most expensive players in French world footballer of the year Zinedine Zidane and Portguese maestro Luis Figo, comes face to face with a Roma side hoping to go one better than their 1984 runners-up finish.

Both Roma - led by former Madrid boss Fabio Capello - and Real will fancy their chances of progressing from a group that also includes Russia's Lokomotiv Moscow and Anderlecht of Belgium. Zidane will miss Tuesday's match because he is serving a suspension.

While Roma qualified for the tournaments as Serie A champions, the dark horses from the Italian trio of Champions League hopefuls which also includes Lazio, are Marcello Lippi's Juventus.

Unbeaten in the Italian league so far, the Turin giants have strengthened their squad shrewdly in the close season with some smart signings as they seek to atone for their disastrous campaign of last year.

Chilean forward Marcelo Salas, Czech midfielder Pavel Nedved and French World Cup winning defender Lilian Thuram all give Lippi's squad an enviable look about it.

"We are hungry like the wolf," Lippi warned. "We have 14 games in two months and we want to win them all."

Juve should be good enough to emerge from Group E which includes Porto, Rosenborg and Martin O'Neill's Scottish champions Celtic. Juve play Porto away on Wednesday while Celtic take on Rosenborg.

O'Neill believes his side have the ability to emulate last season's surprise package Leeds and mount a sustained campaign in Europe.

"We won't fear Juventus. If you go to places like Turin scared you'll end up getting slaughtered," said O'Neill, a European Cup winner with Nottingham Forest in the late 1970s.

While O'Neill is hoping to mastermind a successful Celtic crusade, it seems the more realistic hopes of British glory rest with Alex Ferguson's Manchester United.

The 1999 winners are desperate to present Ferguson with a farewell European Champions League triumph when the Scot brings the curtain down on a glittering 16-year Manchester United managerial career at the end of the season.

While Ferguson has insisted that the priority must be a successful defence of the Red Devils' English Premiership title, few doubt that the Glasgow-born guru is determined to sign off with an emotional victory at Hampden Park next
May.

To that end United have bolstered their ranks with nearly 70 million dollars worth of talent in the shape of Argentina's Juan Sebastian Veron and Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Victory would cement Ferguson's place as one of the greatest - if not the greatest - manager the British game has ever known.

United's opponents in first round Group G are last year's quarter-finalists Deportivo La Coruna of Spain, Greek side Olympiakos and French third-placed league side Lille.

United take on Olympiakos away in their opening fixture on Wednesday, with Ferguson stating that his players are determined to make up for last year's quarter-final exit to Bayern.

"The players should feel bad about last year because they let themselves down," Ferguson said.

"They're better than they showed. I think we're going in with a basic hunger to do well," he added.

Arsenal and Liverpool make up the other English sides in the competition.

Arsene Wenger's Gunners believe they have every chance of improving on last year's early exit after strengthening the spine of their team over the summer.

Wenger's men open their campaign against Real Mallorca away on Tuesday night and a positive result should set them on the road to qualification from Group C, which also includes Bundesliga outfit Schalke 04 and Greece's Panathinaikos.

Liverpool meanwhile entertain Boavista of Portugal at Anfield on Tuesday as they seek to build on the success of their remarkable cup treble of last year.

Gerard Houllier's team started the season encouragingly, recording a European Super Cup victory over Bayern Munich in Monaco last month, but since then have suffered domestically.

A 3-1 home defeat against Aston Villa on Saturday has raised fresh doubts about their defensive steel which is sure to be tested to the full in the ultra-competitive climate of the Champions League.

Houllier's side must outfox Boavista, 1997 European Champions Borussia Dortmund and Ukraine's Dynamo Kiev if they are to progress to the next round from Group B.

Champions Bayern have a straightforward looking first round assignment with Group H opponents including Spartak Moscow, Feyenoord and Sparta Prague.

The Germans will be without skipper Stefan Effenberg and playmaker Mehmet Scholl for Wednesday's trip to Rotterdam to face Feyenoord in Group H.