Milan clubs down in the dumps

"there's no use pretending otherwise. It's a big disappointment for us to have the Champions League final in our stadium and not to be taking part. It's a once in a lifetime chance gone missing."

The speaker is current AC Milan and former Italy coach, Cesare Maldini and one feels that he was probably speaking not only for AC Milan fans but also for all Italian fans. The fact is that the Champions League is in town tomorrow night for a prestige, full-house final that does not feature an Italian club.

For the two Milan clubs in particular, AC Milan and Internazionale, this final could hardly have come at a worse moment. Fans of rival clubs, league leaders AS Roma and second-placed Lazio from the capital Rome down south, have recently been urging their Milan counterparts to make a quick trip into the city centre and go look at the Champions Cup itself, currently on display in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, just beside the city's imposing Duomo.

Take a good look, say the Roma and Lazio fans, because that is the last you will see of it for some time. The reality of the current ongoing and absorbing Serie A championship battle is that, with three days left, both Milan clubs look set to miss out on the Champions League next season.

AC Milan are currently fifth, six points behind fourth-placed Parma, with Inter a further three points away in sixth. With only four places available, AC Milan's prospects of recovering lost ground aren't made any easier by having to travel south to Rome this weekend to play the league leaders in a game that could even see Roma wrap up the title. (With three games left, Roma are still five points clear of Lazio, with Juventus one point further back in third).

All of this coming after disastrous Champions League campaigns. Inter, remember, complete with Robbie Keane, limped out immediately, beaten by the modest Swedish side, Helsingborgs, last August.

AC Milan lasted rather longer but hardly did better, eventually crashing out of the second phase when held to a draw by Spanish champions Deportivo La Coruna in a miserable performance at the San Siro in March.

For the time being, both clubs are consoling themselves with the thought of preparations for next season. On Sunday, AC Milan announced the purchase of Alaves striker, Spaniard Javi Moreno, fresh from the Basque club's remarkable run through to that epic UEFA Cup final lost to Liverpool. On the same day, Inter, notwithstanding the vicissitudes of their recent market activity, promised their fans "four important buys for next season".

In the meantime, the city of Milan promises a gala night for the fans of Bayern Munich and Valencia, whose visiting fans expect to number close on 50,000 of the attendance. Lest those locals who attend tomorrow night's game be unsure as to which side to support, Valencia president Pedro Cortes Garcia has attempted to force their hand with a "message" to "Milanese fans": "We're going to feel at home visiting a city as handsome and as welcoming as yours, on an occasion on which we will renew all the cultural links between the Italian and Spanish peoples".

Cultural links, there may be, but in a season when Spanish soccer has been all-dominant and Italian soccer all-absent, Italian and Milanese fans can only look on and ponder what might have been.