Not only because the least appealing team among the four semi-finalists won the competition, the two teams widely regarded as the world's best were conspicuous by their absence, a German team actually lost a penalty shootout or UEFA allowed banned John Terry to receive the trophy.

The air of unreality surrounding the occasion was due mainly to the fact that the match was a throwback to the 1960s and 1970s when negative football ruled the waves.

Catenaccio was supposed to be dead and buried years ago but after this final it is obvious that it is very much alive and well.

The London club has managed to do what no one outside Stamford Bridge could possibly envisage barely three months ago.

That is, oust mighty Barcelona over two legs and win the Champions League by beating Bayern at its home ground.

It is not the main purpose of this blog to discuss the merits of Roberto Di Matteo's side that won the club its first European title after the phantom goal at Anfield in 2005 and the shootout heartbreak in Moscow in 2008.

It is true that Chelsea was incredibly fortunate to survive three veritable sieges from out-of-sorts Barcelona and wasteful Bayern.

It is also true that the Blues effectively had only four attempts on target in the three key matches that defined their season.

It was hardly the most convincing way to win a major trophy.

Ruud Gullit kept referring to Chelsea's “blue angel” in his tweets at each favourable turn that helped his former club in the semi-finals and final.

Yet if the truth be told, the team's tactical discipline and stoic refusal to be beaten by a better and more positive opponent perversely makes Chelsea's unexpected triumph rather deserved if not entirely popular.

Its dogged determination was typified by the polished performance of fullback Ashley Cole who hardly put a foot wrong all night and threw himself about with courage in a bold drive to stop the relentless German juggernaut.

It was Cole's late goal-line clearance in Naples when Chelsea was 3-1 down in the round of 16 that may have changed the course of its shambolic season.

So essentially the thrilling final ended up with a feel-good story about a team that changed its manager mid-season and came from nowhere to land the biggest prize in club football.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that Chelsea's clear intent to play for a draw and subsequent penalties will have given many coaches the wrong example.

It showed that if you have only a remote chance of beating a more skilful team you can survive by putting nearly every man jack behind the ball, defend all night and hope for the best in a shootout lottery, where the chances are usually 50-50.

It's not the first time this has happened.

The last team to play for penalties in a Champions League final was Red Star Belgrade when it faced Olympique Marseille in 1991 and got away with it.

Argentina employed a similar approach to the 1990 World Cup final against Germany but thankfully lost 1-0 to a late penalty goal.

The weekend final was not as dull and uninspiring as the showdowns in Bari and Rome.

But Chelsea's reluctance to get out of its half until it was absolutely necessary after it fell behind 12 minutes from time and Bayern's failure to convert at least four glorious opportunities contributed to a low quality match in terms of overall technique.

Many apologists will point to Chelsea's tactical excellence yet let's not forget that Bayern breached its wall several times and had only itself to blame for not scoring.

I thought Chelsea defended better and more tightly in the two games against Barca.

Many coaches, even those who keep telling us that they always go into a match with the intent of winning, certainly would have noted that if they had a decent goalkeeper, a couple of strong centre-halves and a set of players who had the capacity and fortitude to stick to their task for a 90-minute barrage, a defensive approach could pay rich dividends same as it used to do three decades ago.

So if the Chelsea way becomes the norm in European football where would this leave the game in terms of entertainment?

The answer to this question can easily be answered by a rhetorical question.

Would any ambitious or under-pressure coach really care how he wins as long as he wins?

The end will always justify the means, more so in football where the financial rewards for victory and the cost of failure are massive.

Funnily enough, we used to say exactly the same thing 40 years ago when Helenio Herrera's Inter Milan changed the face of football.

Roberto Mancini has led City to a richly deserved title by getting the better of crosstown rival Manchester United, albeit by the most slender of margins.

At one stage it looked like City had choked in its last match of the season, against Queens Park Rangers, before scoring twice in injury time to land the elusive championship.

It was an extraordinary escape even comeback king United would have been proud of.

But this won't stop football's killjoys from pontificating that City would be nowhere without Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Zayed Nahyan, who bought the club in 2008 and changed the face of football.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson even described City's spending power as “insane”.

Excuse me, am I missing something here?

Fergie, of all people, is complaining about City's capacity to acquire the finest players money can buy after he himself enjoyed so many years of domestic superiority on the back of the financial clout of the Old Trafford club which is one of the biggest brands in sport.

The Scot can justifiably point out that the club produced several of the stars that made United so popular worldwide for the best part of two decades.

Yet Fergie never hesitated to dip into the club's considerable pockets to acquire any player who might have taken his fancy.

Manchester City may have invested more money on more players but that does not make it insane. Extraordinary perhaps but not insane, especially since the club has been richly rewarded.

Why all this fuss about City spending big money, anyway?

Real Madrid was able to bring Jose Santamaria, Alfredo di Stefano and later Ferenc Puskas to Spain in the 1950s thanks largely to the wealth and political clout of club president Santiago Bernabeu.

AC Milan used the vast riches of its controversial president Silvio Berlusconi to assemble a highly successful side that took the game to a new level from 1988 to 1994.

Barcelona, which won the UEFA Champions League three times in the last seven seasons, is not exactly shy when it comes to using its cheque book, either.

These three massive organisations have produced arguaby the finest teams Europe has ever seen basically because of their spending power.

Yet few level-headed fans would have complained at the way the Merengues, Rossoneri or Azulgrana had 'bought' their way to domestic bliss and European glory ... they just admired the fantastic football they were able to produce.

The history of the game is also littered with examples of expensively-assembled teams that failed to deliver on the pitch essentially because a team of champions does not necessarily make a champion team.

Remember the Galacticos of Roberto Carlos, Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, David Beckham, Raul and Ronaldo?

So why all this indignant head-shaking about Manchester City, which has moulded a highly efficient and successful team in a short space of time (although in fairness it has a long way to go to emulate that triumvirate's achievements)?

Mancini's men are not the finished product, far from it. They failed to survive the group stage of this season's Champions League before flopping in the lesser Europa League too.

Some positions in the team leave a lot to be desired and the squad depth must be strengthened.

However, it is not as if City usurped the title in controversial fashion or bored the hell out of everybody with a cynical and negative approach.

City generally plays imaginative, attacking football and in David Silva it has one of Europe's most outstanding playmakers and in Sergio Aguero one of the world's most lethal finishers.

City's rapid transformation into a global giant has also given European football a new force in its midst, a team to challenge the usual suspects for the honours.

So before we start casting aspertions on a club that was unhappy with its state of mediocrity and chose to do something about it, we should be thankful to Manchester City for giving football a new and fresh dimension.

Welcome to the big time, Manchester City.

Perennial powerhouse Bayern Munich would be most neutrals' favourite to land the UEFA Champions League trophy when it meets Chelsea in the final at the Fußball Arena Munchen on 20 May (AEST).

Germany will go into the European championship in Poland and Ukraine with a 100 per cent record in qualifying and with a blistering form to match.

A famous double is certainly on the cards.

Such a feat should come as no surprise because Europe's second most successful country at club and national level, behind Italy, deserves any silverware it can lay its hands on at the moment.

It does so because the Germans, in typical fashion, knuckled down and went back to the drawing board after a period of abject mediocrity at the turn of the century.

The Bundesliga is now recognised as the best run competition in the world. This is a result of sound management whereby all its clubs realise there is more to football than making money at the fans’ expense.

Fans are treated as part of the football family not as a commodity.

Ticket prices are among the cheapest in Europe and you can watch champion Borussia Dortmund at its 80,000 capacity Signal Iduna Park - which is nearly always full - for as little as $15. That's cheaper than an A-League ticket.

Clubs also are obliged to limit the number of season tickets so anyone gets an opportunity to watch the games and every away team has the right to 10 per cent of available tickets.

This sensible management that is the antithesis of corporate greed essentially recognises that the fan is king, which is probably the reason the Bundesliga has an average gate of more than 40,000, which is the highest among Europe's big five leagues.

The special relationship between the corporate side of the game and its supporters has brought about a resurgence in interest in the game that is also rubbing off on the national team.

Germany's Mannshaft was a sorry and pitiful sight at EURO 2000 in the Netherlands and Belgium and at the 2004 titles in Portugal when it surrendered meekly in the group stage without winning a single game.

In between, Germany surprisingly and rather fortunately reached the 2002 FIFA World Cup final against Brazil in Yokohama without convincing anyone, least of all itself, that it had turned the corner.

Everything changed, however, at the 2006 World Cup on home soil.

Jurgen Klinsmann's team played the most exciting football in the tournament and, with the whole country behind it, stormed into the semi-final before it ran into old rival Italy and lost 2-0 in a Dortmund dazzler.

New coach Joachim Low continued Klinsmann's good work by taking Germany all the way to the final of the 2008 European championship in Vienna, where it lost 1-0 to Spain.

The Spaniards proved to be Germany's nemesis once again at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Low's troops again were the finest and much admired entertainers of the tournament but they fell to a late header from Carles Puyol in the semi-final.

So Germany has nothing to show for playing such adventurous football during the last six years, although few would argue that in this period it probably has been the most consistent if not the best team in the world.

The three-time world and European champion has an excellent opportunity to make EURO 2012 another tournament to remember, holder Spain permitting of course.

Bayern can start the ball rolling by winning its fifth European Cup/Champions League title at Chelsea's expense on its home ground and catch Liverpool in third place on the all-time winners' list behind Real Madrid (nine) and AC Milan (seven).

German fans have every reason to feel good again about their football.

Barcelona's sensational demise at the hands of Real Madrid and Chelsea in the two competitions that mean most to the Catalan giant has been aptly described as the club's “three darkest days”.

Elimination from the UEFA Champions League by Chelsea and the effective loss of La Liga to Real Madrid sparked a frenzied reaction from those fans who had grown sick and tired of the 'Azulgrana' sweeping all before them at home and abroad for the last four years.

The vitriolic response to Barca's failure was reminiscent to that which greeted the demise of Europe's other great side AC Milan of Franco Baresi, Marco Van Basten and Ruud Gullit in the 1990s.

Arrigo Sacchi's players were widely regarded as a breath of fresh air to the game but after a few dominant years many fans could not wait to see the back of them.

Same story today: it did not quite matter which team beat Barca, as long as it got beaten … even if it were by such an unadventurous side as Chelsea.

Roberto di Matteo's side was hailed as heroic and brave for its performance in Spain and it is certainly no mean feat to score twice at Camp Nou with 11 men, let alone 10.

It was definitely a heroic display but I'm not sure about the 'brave' bit. We tend to use this word very loosely in sport.

You show bravery when you take on a team like Barcelona face to face not park the bus for 180 minutes and hope for the best.

To be fair, Chelsea deserves full credit for picking the right tactics in a tie it was not expected to win, same as Inter Milan did against Barca at the same stage two years ago.

Let's hope the Blues, who will have four key men out of the final through suspension, do not play for penalties against Bayern Munich and ruin the occasion.

One suspects that the snide remarks about Barcelona and its unexpected fall are not directed at Pep Guardiola's team itself but at hundreds of commentators who never failed to underline the excellence of its football that took the club game to a new level.

Barcelona, with Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez and Lionel Messi pulling the strings, established itself as one of Europe's all-time great sides in the last four years.

It deserves recognition, respect and gratitude from all football lovers for its refreshing approach to football.

So it is utterly baffling how anybody can possibly be accused of one-eyed bias when commenting on such a wonderful side that has given pleasure to tens of millions of fans around the world.

Thirteen major trophies in four seasons - and possibly 14 if Barca beats Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final in May - leaves no room for doubt, especially since all that silverware came in a most convincing and entertaining manner.

The only less-than-convincing victory recorded by Barca in this golden period of its history came in its semi-final against Chelsea in 2009, when it survived two strong penalty appeals in the return at Stamford Bridge before scoring a last-gasp goal from Iniesta.

Mind you, Barca was still the better and more positive team over two legs.

Barcelona's decision to appoint Tito Vilanova as head coach is a testament to the club's determination not to rock the boat and maintain its highly productive and unique style of play.

With so many champions at his disposal, Vilanova will be expected to keep Barca at the forefront of the world game by playing its unique brand of crisp, short-passing football.

Fans who love the game for its pure skills would be hoping that Barca's crash last week was just a hiccup or an accident and normal service will be resumed next season.

If that does not happen, then it would be time to start penning the obituaries.

Thankfully, we have not reached that point in time yet.

Chelsea played to its limitations and parked a London double-decker against holder Barcelona and got away with a 1-0 victory at Stamford Bridge.

Real Madrid has no limitations especially in attack yet it blatantly played for a draw and was castigated by Bayern Munich which scored a 2-1 win at the Allianz Arena.

This week's return legs at Camp Nou and the Bernabeu are still wide open and any two of the four semi-finalists could secure a ticket for next month's final.

However the merits or otherwise of playing a style of game that went out the window 30 years ago but which is making a bold comeback are also difficult to determine.

The Blues have made great progress since they parted company with Andre Villas-Boas and appointed Roberto di Matteo as caretaker manager.

The Swiss-born former Lazio, Chelsea and Italy midfielder has instilled stability and restored the belief within the squad, especially among senior players like Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba.

Befitting of an Italian coach, the first thing he did was make sure he got his defensive set-up right before he even thought about what to do with misfiring striker Fernando Torres.

Chelsea played magnificently and intelligently against Barcelona and deserved its narrow victory from a Drogba goal on the break, not so much for the balance of play but for picking the right tactics to thwart a team that on its day can rip you apart.

Barca had several scoring chances and probably felt it should have gone home with a draw but the reality is that it was never allowed to settle into its majestic stride.

Chelsea deserves full credit for finding a way to first stop then overcome the Spanish juggernaut.

Pep Guardiola was outmanoeuvred, same as he was by Jose Mourinho in the weekend Clasico which Real Madrid won 2-1 to virtually land the Spanish league title.

Super coach Mourinho continues to win trophies against all the odds.

He showed his 'special' ability when he took Porto to an unexpected UEFA Cup and Champions League double in 2003 and 2004.

He led Chelsea, which had not won an English league title since 1955, to a championship double in 2004-2005 and 2005-2006.

He masterminded a UEFA Champions League victory in 2010 for Inter Milan which had last won the continental trophy in 1965 when Mourinho was two years old.

Now he has effectively broken Barca's three-year supremacy in Spain, barring any slip-ups over the final four matches of the season.

Mourinho has never had a better squad of players than the one he enjoys at Madrid.

For this reason most fans would have been entitled to shake their heads in disbelief when they saw such an exciting, attack-minded side that has swept all before it at home and abroad give up midfield and hang out for a draw against Bayern.

After conceding an early goal to Franck Ribery, Madrid clawed its way back to level terms with a goal from Mesut Ozil by doing what it does best ... attack with as many men and from as many fronts as possible.

However, instead of pressing home its momentum, Madrid's mindset changed from offensive to defensive after the equaliser.

Bayern gladly accepted the invitation to take the initiative and fully grasped the opportunity by winning the match.

So on one side Chelsea was rewarded for its defensive approach with a rare win over Barca.

And on the other hand Real Madrid was punished for being too negative against Bayern.

Go figure!

To add more mystique and intrigue to the equation, events in the last few seconds of each of the two matches could have shaped public opinion very differently.

With Chelsea hanging on for dear life, Barca midfielder Sergio Busquets missed a golden opportunity to score from a few metres out.

Bayern striker Mario Gomez took full advantage of Madrid's messy marking to pop in his side's winner.

Without these two 'accidents' both matches would have finished 1-1 and commentators probably would have chastised Chelsea for giving Lionel Messi's maestros too much respect and hailed Madrid's tactical superiority or something to that effect.

Which goes to show that pundits often tend to be heavily influenced by results when passing judgment on teams, coaches and players.

They often forget that you just cannot legislate for the unpredictable nature of football.

Coaches can set the scene by devising the perfect tactics and having the ideal players to execute them.

But as long as the ball is round and can bounce anywhere no game plan can determine the outcome of a match.

Football never stops reminding us of its capacity to amuse and bemuse us.

Which is why we all love the game so much.

It is becoming very difficult to concentrate on the football itself when so many 'outside' issues are making headlines and shaping the game.

But for just one week, the A-League, Football Federation Australia, Newcastle Jets, Nathan Tinkler and Clive Palmer must take a back seat as the football community sits down to digest a crucial period of the club game's development.

The scenario involves four A-League clubs in four vital matches.

Brisbane Roar will get the ball rolling in the AFC Champions League when it faces Korea Republic's Ulsan Hyundai at Suncorp Stadium on Tuesday night.

It is the first of three clashes in two days between A-League and K-League sides in the group phase of the tournament.

Adelaide United takes on Pohang Steelers at Hindmarsh Stadium and Central Coast Mariners is away to Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma on Wednesday night.

Finally, a solid A-League season where general standards have continued to rise will, hopefully, reach a fitting climax in the grand final between Brisbane and Perth Glory at Suncorp.

The three matches involving the cream of Australia's and Korea Republic's league football should give us a better idea of where we stand vis-a-vis one of the pillars of Asia's club scene.

Australia is not quite up to the high standards the Japanese have set in the J.League while most of us would like to think that we may have the measure of the Chinese Super League.

But the situation with the Koreans is still as open and equal as it has been since the creation of the A-League in 2005, if ACL results are anything to go by.

In the reverse fixtures of two weeks ago, the A-League certainly gave a good account of itself and, with two matches out of three to be played at home, the Australians would be entitled to feel confident about match day four.

Pohang was the better side in its 1-0 win over the Reds but Central Coast and especially Brisbane were rather unfortunate not to take the three points against Seongnam and Ulsan respectively and they had to be content with sharing the spoils.

Particularly pleasing was Brisbane's positive attitude after having defender Matt Jurman sent off early in the second half with the score 1-0 in its favour.

Instead of going into its shell and trying to survive with 10 men, Brisbane continued to practise the eye-catching passing game that it preaches so effectively in Australia.

There was no prouder man in the dressing room afterwards than coach Ange Postecoglou, who is seeing his players take up the challenge of testing themselves at a higher level and, more importantly, believe they could succeed.

Brisbane needs to beat Ulsan to keep alive its chances of surviving the group and more of the same cultured football is expected on Tuesday.

Adelaide will look at Wednesday's clash with group co-leader Pohang as a big opportunity to lay a strong claim for a spot in the knockout phase of the competition, which is when teams start to see some money.

Adelaide's cause would be considerably boosted if playmaker Dario Vidosic recovers from a hamstring strain.

However the Reds' hopes lie squarely on the broad shoulders of experienced striker Sergio Van Dijk, who has yet to leave his mark on this season's competition after finding the net eight times in an injury-hit league season.

After doing enough to earn a place in the league decider in the preliminary final against Perth before losing on penalties at the weekend, the Mariners find themselves cast into another 'grand final' situation in Seongnam.

After drawing their first three group matches, the Mariners must start thinking of winning a game or two if they are to reach the last 16.

Coach Graham Arnold said after the Mariners' undeserved defeat to Perth that the ACL was more important to his club than reaching the A-League grand final.

A visibly disappointed Arnold might not have fully meant what he said in an emotional post-match interview but there is no doubt that he has a job on his hands to lift his dejected players who had enough chances against Ian Ferguson's men to win two matches.

A very special week will come to an end with the grand final and if the game is half as good and thrilling as last year's epic between Brisbane and Central Coast, a full house at Suncorp and an expected big television audience will be in for a treat.

This is an interesting phase in the evolution of the A-League.

Brisbane has a chance to etch its name in the annals of the Australian game by becoming the first team to retain the championship.

While Perth has a wonderful opportunity to turn the clock back to the days when it dominated the National Soccer League at the turn of the century.

Victory for Brisbane would make Postecoglou's side the finest in the seven-year history of the competition.

Yet if Perth was to prevail against the odds, it would complete the transition from the 'old soccer' to 'new football'.

It would show that you can paint a game in any colour and put any political spin on it but sticking the ball in the net is what matters most in football.

Comments are free but facts are sacred, after all.

It's just a shame that, to kick off grand final week, Football Federation Australia used 'friendly and accommodating' journalists to take shots at Tinkler's Hunter Sports Group and Professional Footballers Australia.

It's not the first time FFA took its eyes off the ball.

This was a good news story that many felt was long overdue.

It was only a matter of time before the so-called heartland of the game in Australia got its due recognition.

Even though it came about more by accident than design.

Football Federation Australia had to bite the bullet and act fast after it became clear a month ago that rebel club Gold Coast United would not be in the competition any more.

With talks on a renewed broadcasting deal coming up, FFA simply had to present a 10-team competition on the negotiating table.

The six-month time frame that has been afforded the new team to be up and running has raised many eyebrows, as has FFA's strange decision to part with its money now when it could have done so two years ago after Sydney FC's period of exclusivity elapsed.

Many also have questioned the wisdom of the A-League having another team in Sydney when the foundation club is hardly an epitome of health and stability.

Nonetheless, FFA's bold if forced initiative has created a sense of widespread goodwill similar to that which greeted the launch of the A-League in 2005.

You feel that western Sydney will never get another chance to be part of the national football landscape.

It is now or never, as simple as that.

Which is why football fans of all colours and from all backgrounds need to forget for a moment FFA's penchant for getting things wrong, the perceived arrogance in its modus operandi and its contempt for criticism and essentially learn to trust and support the governing body in this hour of need for the game.

Even though its know-it-all attitude does not endear it to the game's fan base, particularly those who may have felt left out and alienated by FFA's “new football” policy from day one.

Western Sydney has been given a glorious opportunity to mix it with the big boys and it should be thankful for it, even though it is unclear if the west needs the A-League more than the competition needs a second Sydney side.

But now comes the massive responsibility that has been bestowed upon Sydney's west.

It was alright for frustrated fans to keep harping on the need for a Sydney derby to rival that of Melbourne between Victory and Heart.

It was quite logical that an area with such a footballing history should expect to be represented at the highest level of national club football.

It was also understandable for the “westies” to claim that Sydney FC was essentially an eastern suburbs side that did not truly represent the entire city.

So the million dollar question now has to be: will all those thousands of fans who are supposed to have football in their blood be prepared to support the new team on a regular basis?

Will they be prepared to create a community-based club culture surrounding the new entity?

Will they back the team in the good times and especially during the lenient times, which every club must expect at some time or another?

Or will they stay away at the first signs of a few raindrops, if they know they won't find a parking spot right near the ground or if there is some Champions League or Premier League replay on television at the same time?

Sydney's football fans are notoriously fickle and spoilt and, contrary to their Victorian counterparts, can be very frustrating and would come up with any excuse not to go the football. Just ask poor old Sydney FC.

So before the long-suffering fans in the west start rubbing their hands in anticipation of top-class football finally coming to their backyard, they should spare a moment and ask themselves if they would put their money where their mouth is and support the new team through thick and thin.

The A-League has taken some matches to western Sydney over the years but the fans' response was hardly overwhelming. Make that very disappointing.

Western Sydney can have no excuses now for not backing the A-League. Or, more specifically, its club in the A-League.

Essentially because it would be supporting its own team that plays at easily accessible grounds.

The high level of interest shown in the New Sydney Club accounts on Facebook and Twitter would suggest that already there is a hunger for news on the league's newest team.

Presumably, the interest will increase substantially when the first club appointments are made.

FFA's decision to let Sydney's western community chose the name and colours of its team and give it an opportunity to eventually own the club would appear to be a masterstroke.

The move should go a long way towards mending FFA's fractious relationship with an area that justifiably must have felt it was snubbed by the governing body when it came to choosing a Sydney team to play in the A-League.

So all this augurs very well for the next few months that could shape the long-term future of the game in Australia.

PS: And please, for goodness sake, let's not refer to the new team as a franchise. We do not need any more Americanisms in our midst.

The return matches take place this week but only one of the four ties is really still in the balance.

The first legs yielded a draw, three away wins and, amazingly, none of the four home teams managed to score.

Free-scoring Real Madrid and efficient Bayern Munich are in control of their confrontations with APOEL Nicosia and Olympique Marseille after securing 3-0 and 2-0 victories respectively and should meet in the semi-finals.

Revitalised Chelsea has one foot in the semis after beating Benfica 1-0 in Lisbon.

It would take a massive reversal of form for the Cypriot, French and Portuguese clubs to be still in the competition by the end of the week.

The Barcelona versus AC Milan tie is still finely poised after a 0-0 stalemate in the first leg at the Meazza Stadium.

Pep Guardiola's side was more positive throughout and could have won the game with more luck up front.

To its credit, Milan defended diligently against a treacherous opponent and showed enough in attack to suggest that scoring at the Nou Camp is not beyond the realms of its possibilities.

However with that little wizard Lionel Messi pulling the strings in the last third of the field, Barca is even harder to contain on its home ground and, make no mistake, it is hot favourite to reach the semi-finals where it would meet the winner of the Chelsea-Benfica tie.

Much was said of Italy's revival on the European club scene after three Serie A teams reached the last 16 of the competition.

Inter Milan won its group comfortably if not spectacularly but fell timidly to modest Marseille while Napoli provided some of the most thrilling moments in the competition before crashing to experienced Chelsea.

So a high probability exists that Calcio will end up with no representatives in the last four for the fourth time in five years.

By the same token, there are strong signals coming from Italy that the much-maligned Serie A is flying under the radar and is on its way back.

It's still a long way from reaching the high standards set two decades ago when Italy was the place to be, but at least Serie A seems to be getting its house in order on the European club front and is becoming highly competitive once again.

Which, of course, is good for European football.

This is more than could be said of Italy's shambolic state of a few years ago, when Milan's sporadic exploits and the Azzurri's FIFA World Cup win in 2006 papered over the wide cracks in the set-up of the Italian game.

There are no such cracks in Spain, which is unquestionably the world's leading football country at club and national level. English football fans can say what they like.

Spain and Barcelona, remember, are the current world and European champions.

With eternal rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona heading towards a showdown for the crown on 20 May (AEST) and Athletic Bilbao setting the UEFA Europa League alight with a string of impressive performances, no one would be surprised if Europe's two major trophies end up in the land of La Liga.

All three teams gave an impressive demonstration of their potential at the weekend.

Madrid beat Osasuna 5-1 away thanks mainly to doubles from Cristiano Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuain while Barcelona overcame Bilbao 2-0 in a quality match that was determined by goals from Andres Iniesta and Messi.

”Tan exigente” and “partidazo” (very demanding and a great match) is how Iniesta, who has nearly three million followers, described it on Twitter.

With eight matches to go, Madrid holds a six-point advantage over Barca in the race for the championship.

Madrid has to visit Barcelona on 24 April so the league race is still open.

One suspects, however, that the big one which both teams are gunning for is the Champions League final at the Allianz Arena in Munich.

It would be the mother of all clasicos.

As coach of Australia's Olyroos, the former striker who played 54 times for his country was roundly criticised after the team's early exit from the football tournament of the Beijing Olympics.

He also was in charge of the national team during its unspectacular AFC Asian Cup campaign in 2007 when it lost to Japan on penalties in the quarter-finals.

His brief appointment as interim Socceroos coach came between stints as assistant to World Cup coaches Guus Hiddink in 2006 and Pim Verbeek in 2010.

The general feeling among many Australian pundits was that he was an able lieutenant but he lacked the qualities and experience to be a commander.

Fast forward to 2012 and Arnold is basking in the glory of a far more respectful stature after adapting himself effortlessly to the day-to-day routine of club coaching.

Arnold's star continued to rise at the weekend when his Central Coast Mariners side secured the A-League premiership in his second season as club coach.

This week he was rewarded for his efforts by being named A-League coach of the year by players' union Professional Footballers Australia.

This success arrived a year after the Mariners came within seconds of beating Brisbane Roar in an epic grand final that will be remembered for a long time.

Arnold, described by The Australian this week as “more blue singlet than white collar”, has done all this without any big names other teams could count on.

Rival coaches had the luxury of dealing with such crowd-pullers as Thomas Broich, Besart Berisha, Paul Ifill, Shane Smeltz, Brett Emerton, Nick Carle, Harry Kewell, Archie Thompson and Fred.

However Arnold had to make do with a blend of experienced players and emerging youths that has yielded a hard-working and dependable outfit that thrives on an uncompromising defence and a crafty midfield.

Never has the adage that a champion team is better than a team of champions rung truer.

The Mariners are a more refined outfit these days after shedding the “no frills” tag that was unkindly bestowed upon them since day one, probably because they were always seen as a battling team that punched above their weight.

The fluent passing game developed by Arnold is beginning to pay dividends because the Mariners seem to be the only team in Australia with the capacity to consistently trouble Ange Postecoglou's Roar.

Brisbane's 5-1 bashing in Gosford 16 months ago seems like a distant memory now.

And Arnold, 48, could only achieve this by keeping his players focussed in the good times and during a period of turbulence in the latter part of this season that could have aborted the Mariners' flight to glory.

He has strengthened the camaraderie in the dressing room that was the hallmark of his predecessor Lawrie McKinna and kept his players' feet well and truly on the ground.

Which is not an easy task considering the widespread media attention given to whiz kids Matthew Ryan, Mustafa Amini, Bernie Ibini and more recently Tomas Rogic.

A few weeks ago, when the Mariners were leading the competition by a commanding 11 points, I rang Arnold to ask him if he would be tempted to rotate his squad in the last rounds of the league so as to fit in the club's tough AFC Champions League commitments.

”Speak to me when we secure the title, we're not there yet,” Arnold wisely told me.

Arnold's point was that football is a strange and unpredictable game and has a way of making people look silly for making hasty statements.

Arnold's concern was vindicated almost immediately because the team suffered a form slump with the finish line in sight and it only secured its richly deserved premiership in the last round of the competition proper, beating Wellington Phoenix 2-1 away.

It is a measure of the self-belief that Arnold has instilled in his players that they overcame a difficult period in the face of hot Brisbane pressure by going back to the basics and grinding out results.

What the 2012 Premiers' Plate means is that the Mariners will be playing in next year's Champions League, giving the cash-strapped club another opportunity to raise its profile and boost its brand in Asia.

The Mariners have secured two draws in their opening matches against China's Tianjin Teda and Japan's Nagoya Grampus in this year's tournament and would have an excellent chance of reaching the knockout phase if they beat Korea Republic's Seongnam Ilhwa at Bluetongue Stadium next Tuesday.

A more immediate benefit of winning the premiership is that the Mariners will go into the finals series as favourites to win the title that has eluded them since the league started in 2005-2006.

The Mariners face Brisbane at Suncorp on Friday in the first leg of the major semi-final.

They feel quite at home at Suncorp and they won 2-1 the last time they played there.

And the Mariners' belief in their ability to go toe to toe with Brisbane is such that Arnold would be entitled to feel quietly confident about the outcome of the match.

And this is all due to the work behind the scenes that has made his former critics eat their words.

Graham Arnold may or may not lead the Mariners to their first championship but he has certainly come a long way as a football coach.

The creation of the premiership in 1992 gave English clubs the cash and the impetus they needed to emerge from a period of mediocrity that followed the Heysel disaster in 1985 and challenge their rivals from Serie A and La Liga for continental supremacy.

English clubs gradually rediscovered their old swagger, causing a seismic change in the landscape of European football.

Yet while cashed-up English clubs began to turn the tables on their Italian counterparts, they never quite got the measure of the finest teams from La Liga.

The Premier League generally was dealing comfortably with the likes of AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus and Roma after Manchester United overcame the Nerazzurri and Bianconeri in 1999 to become the first English club to knock out an Italian side over two legs in the UEFA Champions League or European Cup.

Yet no matter how strong England's top clubs had become, Spain's representatives always appeared to be just that little bit stronger and classier. Most of the time, anyway.

Barcelona and Real Madrid, for instance, won six Champions League titles between them in the last 14 years.

However now that there are signs that Italian club football might be awakening from its long slumber and Spain continues to lead the way in terms of overall quality, one wonders if the English teams that may have coveted an era of domination have missed the boat and will soon be 'relegated' to third spot in the order of merit of European club football.

English clubs dominated the old European Cup in the late 1970s and mid-1980s, winning the trophy seven times in eight years from 1977, but despite its current wealth and stature the Premier League has been unable to replicate those golden years.

One could argue that a return of three champion teams and four beaten finalists in 20 years is not something to be sneered at although Italy also had three wins and two finalists in the same period that was supposed to be Serie A's lean years.

The consolidation of La Liga's premier status and the apparent reincarnation of Serie A have also coincided with a drop in standards of the cream of the premiership.

This view is not necessarily results-driven but borne out of the obvious: the top English clubs are not as strong and formidable as they were less than a decade ago.

Take Manchester United, which for a long time was the flag-bearer of the English game.

Sir Alex Ferguson's men were found wanting in this season's Champions League and did not even survive a modest group before being taken to the cleaners by Athletic Bilbao in the UEFA Europa League last week.

Make no mistake, Bilbao was so much better than United on the night that the 2-3 result flattered the home side.

United was not merely outplayed but outclassed and its inept performance confirmed the general suspicion that this side is probably Fergie's weakest in many years, although it should also be pointed out that it has been heavily hit with injuries.

Chelsea's troubles on and off the field are well documented and its fans must yearn for the glory years of not so long ago when Jose Mourinho turned the Blues into a feared outfit that was the envy of many managers.

Same as United, Chelsea's level of play has deteriorated in the last two or three years and it would surprise no-one if England's remaining club in the Champions League fails to overcome Napoli for a place in the quarter-finals.

Arsenal may have gone out of the tournament with all guns blazing against Milan.

But the bottom line is that the Gunners were very ordinary for almost three halves of the two ties and did not deserve to advance although they came close.

Young playmaker Cesc Fabregas has been terribly missed and the team's much-admired effervescence has gone with him.

It re-surfaces only sporadically, which is unsatisfactory at this level of football.

Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur have had their fleeting moments of glory at home and abroad but even their staunchest fans would agree that much more is needed in terms of quality, depth and consistency if they are to be a force to be reckoned with in Europe.

Which leaves us with Manchester City, the new kid on the block that has taken the premiership by storm and would love to do the same on the continent.


There is no question that City is among the strongest teams in the world and in midfielder David Silva and striker Sergio Aguero, manager Roberto Mancini has two genuine stars who could win a match on their own.

But City oddly enough still has a few spots in the team that need strengthening, like the two centre-backs.

How can a club that has the financial means to acquire any player on earth fail to see that guys like Joleon Lescott and Vincent Kompany are a liability, particularly in Europe?

Mancini is fortunate enough to be able to count on an attack-minded squad that can make up for its deficiencies at the back.

But the Italian manager must know that City can get away with this drawback against some teams most of the time but it won't do it against the top sides all the time.

While English clubs are beginning to struggle to assert themselves in Europe, their rivals from Italy and especially Spain are going great guns.

Milan and Napoli have had some positive moments that have made Serie A more competitive this season.

Spain, of course, continues to reign supreme and on current form Barcelona and Real Madrid should clash in the final in Munich in May if they are kept apart in next week's draw.

It would be the dream final.

They say La Liga is boring and predictable because one can expect top-class football only from the two mainstays of the Spanish game.

Well, if that's the case, can someone please explain to me what Bilbao was playing the other day at Old Trafford?

Three Serie A teams are still in the running for the UEFA Champions League, which as always is the barometer by which true greatness is gauged.

It is quite plausible that AC Milan, Inter Milan and Napoli will all end up in the quarter-finals by the end of the return legs of the round of 16, which commence this week.

This is all good and positive for Italy but it is worth reminding that one swallow does not make a summer.

So all those who reckon Italian football has finally turned the corner after a decade of abject mediocrity might do well to hold their breath and wait a bit longer before proclaiming Serie A is back to the highest levels of European football.

The last few years I have written several articles that were highly critical of the miserable state of a game that not that long ago was the jewel in the crown of world football.

My criticism was borne out of a disappointment at watching famous clubs struggle to leave their mark on a competition they effectively owned two decades ago.

It was demoralising to see Milan, Juventus and Inter being tossed about in Europe by teams they would have beaten rather comfortably in their heydays.

And it was frustrating to watch a true giant of the European game lose the plot at club and national level.

Italy, remember, did not exactly cover itself in glory at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

European football needs the Italian game to be alive and well.

The same applies to England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga and Spain's La Liga.

Milan's demolition job of Arsenal and Napoli's come-from-behind win over Chelsea were seen as perfect examples of Italy's renaissance.

The Rossoneri put four goals past the Gunners to virtually assure themselves of a place in the quarter-finals.

It was a shock result but the most surprising aspect of the game was that the scoreline hardly flattered Milan, such was its all-round domination.

It would now take a sporting miracle for Arsenal to overturn the 4-0 result but I am not convinced that the tie is over.

Arsenal cannot possibly play as poorly and disjointedly and as it did in Milan and if Arsene Wenger's men score early, who knows what could happen with white hot Robin van Persie in the form of his life and with 60,000 fans behind the Gunners.

Remember 2004 when Milan crashed to a 4-0 defeat against Deportivo La Coruna after winning the first leg 4-1?

Or 2005 where Milan lost the final after leading Liverpool 3-0 at half-time.

The current Milan side is inferior to those that capitulated so spectacularly in La Coruna and Istanbul yet it still has enough experience and know-how to get through but it is not a fait accompli yet.

Napoli staged a stirring comeback to beat out-of-sorts Chelsea 3-1 to justify its dreams of a quarter-finals spot for the first time.

The Partenopei are not the finished article but they look good going forward because they attack with verve, pace and creativity.

And the London side, which sacked manager Andres Villas-Boas at the weekend, would be especially keen not to allow strikers Ezequiel Lavezzi and Edinson Cavani any space around goal because the South American hitmen have the guile and ability to punish any defence, especially Chelsea's which is missing the influence of injured captain John Terry.

Napoli held its own the last time it visited England to meet Manchester City in a group game and came away with a 1-1 draw.

But Stamford Bridge will provide a sterner test of Napoli's credentials and the new kids on the block will know exactly where they stand in the hierarchy of European football.

Inter continues to frustrate its fans with insipid performances at home and away and it will have been dismayed at letting in a late, late goal in a 1-0 loss to modest Olympique Marseille.

A one-goal defeat on the road is usually not the end of the world in a home-and-away tie but it might seem an insurmountable obstacle for a demoralised team that has not won a game since it beat Lazio 2-1 on 22 January.

At the weekend it drew 2-2 at home with Catania.

Football fans will be looking at the forthcoming UEFA Champions League results with particular interest.

And no doubt, the big question being asked is whether Italy's recent revival is a flash in the pan or a clear sign that Europe's sleeping giant is waking up.

An independent competition is not the answer to football's woes.

It would be the catalyst for disaster because the equality the salary cap has achieved since day one would go out the window in one fell swoop.

The A-League would become a brutal battleground for billionaire businessmen whereby the richest clubs become the strongest and those teams that do not have a wealthy owner would become uncompetitive and fall by the wayside.

The competition would become as lopsided as England's Premier League and Spain's La Liga where the title can be won by only a select few.

Is this what the proponents of an independent A-League want?

Of course, as long as the salary cap remains in place this should never happen even if clubs run their own show but would the rich owners guarantee that they won't try to abolish or get around a system that effectively limits their spending power?

And how independent can a separate league body possibly be, anyway?

Legal eagles tell me FFA would be able to easily control an independent body despite the participating billionaires' financial muscle if the participation terms are clearly spelt out from the start with the salary cap firmly entrenched in the relevant documents.

But the possibility of manipulation would always exist and this aspect alone makes an independent league too risky a proposal.

It is easy for FFA to take action on a recalcitrant club when it is running a competition itself but this might become much harder if an independent body controls the league, albeit under FFA's umbrella.

FFA has always maintained that as the game's ruling body it had the right and obligation to run the national competition.

Chief executive Ben Buckley left no doubts about FFA's stand on the matter at the end of a traumatic week that shook the game's foundations.

There is now talk that by the end of the week a few prominent heads might roll at Whitlam Square.

Some people suggest that chairman Frank Lowy might be reluctant to give rich owners more control of a game he himself has saved from oblivion less than a decade ago.

Others suspect that he might not have the complete trust in some clubs' ability to run a business successfully.

Which would be a bit rich coming from a body that would be in trouble without continued government assistance.

But that is beside the point, anyway.

The main reason FFA will steadfastly refuse to let clubs run its own competition is because it is fully aware of the risks associated in letting billionaires engage in their own brand of cut-throat, dog-eat-dog business.

FFA has come in for plenty of criticism over the years for its modus operandi and it is not the purpose of this exercise to pinpoint its failings once again.

But as FFA engages in an acrimonious battle of brinkmanship with Gold Coast United's controversial owner Clive Palmer, it is worth underlining the importance of football fans throwing their support behind the governing body on this issue because the very future of our sport might be at stake here.

This is a must-win game for FFA.

Make no mistake, for all his eccentricities, Palmer has raised legitimate concerns about the game's governance that need to be sorted out.

But there is a time, place and manner in which to voice your concerns and Palmer has gone about things the wrong way, even allowing for the fact that clubs might feel that FFA's alleged intransigence on the issue has led to a degree of frustration across the board.

The clubs basically want more money. And they want it now.

Gold Coast's misguided decision to use its home match against Melbourne Victory at the weekend to display 'Freedom of Speech' slogans on the players' jerseys and on signage around the ground that were widely perceived to be aimed at FFA showed the extent of Palmer's dislike of and contempt for the governing body's administration.

In this context Gold Coast's dismissal of coach Miron Bleiberg for exercising his right to speak his mind must have raised a few eyebrows.

FFA has rightly claimed that Gold Coast breached its participation agreement and it has promised to take action but Palmer is no fool and he knew exactly what he was doing.

Palmer would like to think of himself as the game's white knight but he is beginning to look more like a white elephant that is causing the game serious commercial damage.

Which is why the football fraternity must back FFA to the hilt.

However the fans' support won't be enough because the need for strong, decisive leadership from head office has never been greater than in these trying times.

The A-League is facing a formidable challenge to its very existence and it needs a perfect game plan to prevail.

It's a colossal schemozzle FFA got itself into when it allowed Palmer's Gold Coast to marry into the A-League family and is now counting the cost of its haste.

FFA must be rueing the day it crossed paths with Palmer.

The controversial Gold Coast United owner has gone on national television to tell us of his deep frustration at having to deal with Football Federation Australia.

He accused FFA and its top five executives who he claimed are paid “more than $5 million” a year of thuggery, backhanded deals and secret commissions and said the administration was insolvent and there was no light at the end of the tunnel.

Palmer also said that it was time football washed itself of pay television and gave every media outlet a chance to bid for the right to show the game.

He also said that people who invest heavily in the game should have a bigger say in the way their clubs are managed.

He finally warned that he would fight FFA in the Supreme Court “to a standstill” if the governing body kicked his club out of the competition.

Palmer's strong comments on The World Game program generally made sense and surely will resonate with several club owners who have lost a lot of money since they became involved in the game.

Thousands of fans at large who cannot afford pay TV would also relish an opportunity to watch their favourite game on free-to-air.

However in his 15-minute tirade that left no doubt as to his complete lack of confidence in FFA's ability to administer the game, Palmer refused to explain one major concern.

Gold Coast United as a club is a disaster and a huge embarrassment to the game, mainly because it has failed to connect with its own market.

Its crowds are abysmal and the sight of football games being played at a quasi-deserted Skilled Park is a constant blight on the image, credibility and marketability of the competition.

Palmer, who bizarrely contended that his club is successful essentially because it pays its bills and has lots of money, has caused massive damage to the A-League since 2008 when he was welcomed into the fold with open arms and with no questions asked, so to speak.

FFA naively gave him the licence that eventually would drag the game into disrepair.

Palmer has been a public relations disaster since day one when he put his coaches and players under unnecessary pressure by declaring that his side would win the league unbeaten in its first season.

That outlandish approach was seen as a cheap publicity stunt and derided by most level minded fans, even though there were those within the club who privately cringed at such a misguided attitude that was bound to backfire. And it did.

But then came the more serious PR blunders like failing to engage with the community, putting a lid on the capacity of the Skilled Park Stadium to save costs, his failure to ensure that star player Jason Culina was adequately insured, his refusal to pay after tearing up German player Peter Perchtold's contract and last but not least his bizarre appointment of 17-year-old Mitch Cooper as captain for the weekend match against Melbourne Heart.

An extraordinary chain of events led to the dismissal of coach Miron Bleiberg, who commented adversely to the decision, and a spectacular war of words in the media between Palmer and FFA chief executive Ben Buckley.

It would appear that Gold Coast has now reached a point of no return and realistically has no future, even allowing for the distinct possibility of a messy legal stoush.

Yet this is a disaster of FFA's own making because it is pretty obvious that not enough due diligence was made on Gold Coast's application to join the league four years ago.

”What we say to every new club is 'what is your strategy around these criteria?' and I must say the Gold Coast's one was well put together,” Buckley said on Monday night's show.

The general feeling, however, is that FFA must have more than likely said something like 'hey, this bloke is seriously rich so let's lock him in'.

FFA is paying dearly for its gross misjudgment and it could well be in a lose-lose-lose situation.

Firstly, it must realise that it has been cast in a straightjacket by Palmer, who knows that unless he does something legally or contractually wrong FFA cannot afford to kick him and his club out of the competition.

Secondly, it also must realise that it can ill afford the embarrassment of having to admit, a year after the North Queensland Fury and 2022 World Cup bid fiascos, that letting Gold Coast into the A-League fold was a major blunder.

Thirdly, it might be stuck with a sub-standard young side that plays in front of a few hundred fans for the next two years until its licence expires.

Every Tom, Dick and Harry could see that a football club on the Gold Coast would never work, especially if it is run by a man who has no real passion for or understanding of the game and who obviously was in it for commercial gain.

Well, Palmer got that one wrong, alright, even though he bragged on television that he has more money than the entire FFA will ever have.

So the million dollar question is how to fix a problem that won't go away and is more than likely to end up in the law courts.

The solution is straightforward, I believe, and Palmer holds the key.

If Palmer is true to his word that his club is only a small portion of his business empire and he only wants what is best for Australian football, he should save himself the angst of having to deal with FFA's so-called fat cats and do us a massive favour by going away and letting the game pick up the pieces of the wreckage he will leave behind.

Even a nine-team competition would be much better than having Gold Coast in its midst, although that might not be the case after reports have surfaced that the A-league is having secret talks with a group of wealthy businessmen with the view of forming a second club in Sydney.

This is a very sad state of affairs especially for the young players who will have no football club if Gold Coast ceases to exist.

But such is the genuine talent within the group that they will not be without a club for too long, that's for sure.

It is so unfortunate that the Gold Coast experiment has come to this but the unequivocal fact is that Palmer has given nothing but trouble and bad headlines to the game except for a handful of polished team performances in season one and a few home truths on Monday night.

North Queensland was another major blunder on FFA's part.

The good people in Townsville did their darndest to make it work but they failed and when Fury folded everyone felt sorry for the club.

There is no such sympathy for Gold Coast and no one outside the Glitter Strip would weep at its demise.

Football simply cannot afford to let this farcical situation drag on and on.

It's time to move on, Mr Palmer. Let us football people manage our own little game so you can concentrate on your big business ventures.

He catches us unawares and before we know it we are gobsmacked by the sheer magnificence of his game.

I'm talking about Central Coast Mariners sensation Tom Rogic, who has set the A-League alight in only four senior games.

Rogic, who hails from Canberra, was thrust into the limelight by Mariners coach Graham Arnold, who is never afraid to give promising footballers a chance to show what they're made of on the big stage.

”You never know how good they are unless you give them a chance,” Arnold said last season when asked what he thought of young Mustafa Amini's impact on the competition.

Arnold had no hesitation in giving 19-year-old Rogic his big opportunity.

Boy, didn't he take it!

In the last two rounds, Rogic struck two extravagant goals, could have scored two more that would have been equally memorable and left his mark with a cultured game one would expect from a quality No 10.

Attacking midfielder Rogic's outstanding performances understandably have thrilled many commentators and pundits.

Hype, hoopla and hyperbole have gone into overdrive.

The precocious lad has already been declared a star, been compared to another famous Canberran Ned Zelic and is already seen as a future Australia player.

For goodness sake: the kid has only played four games!

And, as he told The World Game last week, he still has a lot of things to learn and he is “definitely not the finished product”.

If we are not careful we will put so much pressure on Rogic and talk him up so much that he could buckle under the weight of massive expectation.

This is a risky approach and is what is worrying the Mariners.

The club said it has no problem with Rogic doing media work because he appears to be very comfortable with it.

But it is concerned that young players like Rogic might read too much into viewers' and readers' comments on stories that appear on television, newspapers and the internet.

The Mariners have every reason to protect their prodigy, who is on a five-month contract.

It should be remembered that for every promising player who becomes a star there are a hundred of others who fail to make it and end up playing second division football in Scandinavia or eastern Europe.

So it might just be an idea to hold our breath in terms of our appraisal of Rogic, however hard it might seem at the moment because he has the capacity to take your breath away.

By all means we should support and encourage him and recognise and rejoice in his feats because he obviously is something special and a natural if ever there was one.

But our treatment of Rogic should be handled with care and foresight because the game in Australia desperately needs crowd-pulling heroes and it simply cannot afford to let somebody like Rogic slip through our fingers and fall by the wayside.

The world's most coveted club competition returns this week with the knockout stage involving the last 16 teams.

The blockbuster between Italy's AC Milan and England's Arsenal is the most eagerly awaited tie.

The two clubs have played a major part in creating the UCL's rich legacy that spreads well beyond the European borders.

Milan and Arsenal have a huge following around the world and their two meetings should captivate a global television audience that will run into tens of millions.

Real Madrid on the other hand will be only too happy to fly under the radar - if that is at all possible with human headline Jose Mourinho running the show - and concentrate on its job of beating tricky opponent CSKA Moscow.

The Madridistas are leading Spain's La Liga with a 10-point buffer over Barcelona.

Barca, the master of tiki-taka football, has helped Madrid's cause by unexpectedly dropping points against Getafe, Villarreal, Real Sociedad, Sevilla and Osasuna.

Madrid has been more consistent this season and there can be no doubt its incredible forward line has the power and flair to crack open any defence, even Barca's.

Mourinho is inching Madrid closer and closer to Pep Guardiola's Catalan side in terms of performance, although the playing styles are as disparate as can be.

Barcelona tests your nerve with a constant precision passing game designed to break the opponent's resistance while Madrid operates mostly on short, sweeping spells of flamboyant, unstoppable attack.

Most neutral observers agreed that Madrid was somewhat unlucky not to knock out Lionel Messi's decorated side in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals in January.

After losing the first leg 2-1 at home, Madrid could only draw 2-2 at the Nou Camp in a tempestuous affair.

Mourinho was devastated at getting so close to Barca without reaping any reward but he admitted that many of his players did not really believe they could win at the Nou Camp fortress.

Madrid technically has only three forwards in its star-studded squad: Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain.

But defenders and midfielders Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Angel Di Maria, Kaka, Mesut Ozil and young Esteban Granero have scored several goals this season and have proven to be as dangerous going forward as most other strikers.

The team from the Bernabeu has found the net 75 times in 22 league matches.

Madrid also breezed through its UCL group stage, winning all matches against Lyon, Ajax and Dinamo Zagreb.

And it is tipped to make it a magnificent seven when it faces CSKA although a match in February at the hostile Luzhniki Stadium in freezing Moscow can never be an easy assignment.

Madrid would be encouraged by the fact that CSKA is two months into its winter break and obviously will lack competitive match practice.

Zenit St Petersburg will have to overcome the same handicap when it faces Portuguese league leader Benfica.

It is a perennial problem Russian clubs have to face every season at this time of the year, which is when they are at their most vulnerable.

Things should improve next season when the league championship will run in tandem with the other European leagues.

Real Madrid's obsessive quest to steal a march on holder Barcelona and snare its 10th European crown has history on its side.

No team has retained the Champions League title since Milan in 1990.

So this may well be Real Madrid's year, after all.

No wonder there's a whiff of wild expectation hovering around the Bernabeu.

:: For all it's worth, my tips for the quarter-finals are: Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Benfica, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Lyon and Real Madrid.

The UEFA Champions League round of 16 line-up:

Wednesday 15 February and Thursday 8 March: Bayer Leverkusen v Barcelona and Lyon v Apoel Nicosia.

Thursday 16 February and Wednesday 7 March: Zenit St Petersburg v Benfica and AC Milan v Arsenal.

Wednesday 22 February and Thursday 15 March: CSKA Moscow v Real Madrid and Napoli v Chelsea.

Thursday 23 February and Wednesday 14 March: Basel v Bayern Munich and Marseille v Inter Milan.

The governing body has lifted a moribund game at club and national level to unprecedented heights under trying circumstances since it came into office less than a decade ago.

However it also raised many eyebrows in the last few years by its penchant to get things blatantly wrong when commonsense appeared to suggest a different course of action.

The North Queensland Fury, Gold Coast United, World Cup bid fiascos are still fresh in people's memories.

FFA has now baffled us all again.

Australia's under-23 team is fighting for a place in the 2012 London Olympics and on Sunday night (AEDT) it played group leader Uzbekistan.

As if facing the Uzbek side in its own backyard in Tashkent was not a hard enough assignment, the Olyroos had to contend with sub-zero temperatures that forced organisers to make an eleventh-hour decision to bring the match forward from its original 8pm kickoff to 3pm local time.

So with the prospect of playing in freezing conditions on an icy surface, where do you think the Australians chose as a base to prepare and acclimatise for the match?

Surely, it had to be somewhere cool … like China or Korea Republic.

Nope, FFA's choice of base camp for the match was … wait for it … Dubai!

The average temperature in February in the United Arab Emirates is a high of 25 degrees and a low of 15 degrees and last week in Dubai it was no different.

Tashkent was hit by extreme conditions this weekend.

The barometer read minus 11 degrees on the day of the match which was a fall of 31 degrees for Aurelio Vidmar's boys from last week's average temperature.

Even if the weather in Tashkent were to be typical of this time of the year and not so extreme as it has been the last few days, FFA should have known beforehand that the Uzbek capital in winter is hardly a tropical island paradise.

Tashkent's temperature in February usually is still a high of eight degrees and a low of minus two degrees.

And, remember, the match was originally scheduled for the evening.

FFA is believed to have picked Dubai as the Olyroos camp for the following reasons:

Firstly, it wanted to stay as little as possible in Uzbekistan because of the risk of food problems after Jason Culina and Jade North had a nasty experience during the Socceroos' visit to Tashkent for a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier.

Secondly, the extreme weather conditions in Tashkent would have made it practically impossible to train adequately and often enough.

Thirdly, the Olyroos were unsure if they could have 'confidential training' at a venue provided by the Uzbek FA and under the prying eyes of the local football intelligentia.

And fourthly, Tashkent is only a three-hour flight from Dubai and is in a similar time zone.

These are valid reasons but they do not explain why a Chinese or Korean venue was not chosen ahead of Dubai.

My point is they should have avoided Dubai not spend more time in Tashkent.

Not surprisingly, the bronzed Aussies were severely handicapped by the icy and impossible conditions in Tashkent but they nonetheless offered stiff opposition to the locals, who won 2-0 only after goals from Jason Hoffman and Mitch Nichols were controversially disallowed.

The Olyroos' defeat puts their participation in the London Games in serious jeopardy.

Only a sporting miracle, it seems, can save the Australians because they have yet to score a goal after four matches and are clearly struggling.

Having only three points, they are bottom of their group that also features United Arab Emirates and Iraq.

One would have expected FFA to show a bit more smartness in its preparation for the campaign.

It is not the first time that meticulous manoeuvres off the pitch helped various Australian representative teams overcome massive odds on the international scene.

The FIFA World Cup playoff with Uruguay in 2005 springs to mind.

FFA organised a special charter from Montevideo designed to make sure that the Socceroos arrived in Sydney for the return leg in total comfort and well before the South Americans so as to get a better preparation for the match.

It was a tactical and psychological triumph over a crafty street fighter that may have contributed to an epic victory on penalties that gave Guus Hiddink's Australians their ticket to Germany.

The Olyroos would have every right to feel that FFA dropped the ball as their campaign to qualify for the London Games was reaching its climax.

The poor lads had a snowball's chance in hell of surviving their ordeal in central Asia and they deserved better after all the hard work they had done.

Not good enough, FFA.

In other words, is Brisbane's highly popular approach too cavalier and too elaborate for its own good?

Postecoglou has steadfastly refused to abandon the entertaining style that brought Brisbane the premiership and championship double last season and a record 36-match unbeaten record in the process.

However, immediately after completing this rare feat in Australian sport, Brisbane went off the boil.

It was like a batsman making a century and getting out next ball.

A five-match losing streak and patchy form have virtually killed off Brisbane's hopes of winning the Premiers' Plate.

The distance from table-topping Central Coast Mariners is 11 points and even if Brisbane was to reverse current form and beat the Mariners in Gosford on Saturday, it is very hard to see Graham Arnold's men crumble now that the finish line is in sight.

Throughout this traumatic period that saw Brisbane's roar turn into a whimper, Postecoglou admirably kept faith with his philosophy when it would have been tempting to hang in there, play it safe and grind out results.

He did this essentially because he believes in his system and the players' capacity to practise it.

However his problem is that Brisbane has somehow lost its ability to pummel the opposition into submission, often winning matches in the last 10 or 15 minutes.

It still plays an exemplary type of game that is pleasing on the eye but the cutting edge in attack is not there any more.

In its first eight matches leading up to the record established against Perth Glory at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane scored 22 goals but in the 11 matches since it has scored only 12 times.

The reason is that several teams seem to have worked out how to stop the Brisbane juggernaut.

They are doing this by allowing Brisbane limited space and time in the last third of the field, trying to catch Roar's square defence with penetrating balls straight down the middle and nullifying the influence of midfielder Erik Paartalu.

Opponents are getting plenty of joy by sitting back, applying pressure on the forwards and letting Brisbane indulge in its highly efficient passing game that suddenly has become unproductive.

Saturday's Suncorp clash against Newcastle Jets was a classic case in point.

The Jets were quite happy to put many bodies behind the ball when Roar had possession and were not afraid to let the opposing fullbacks overlap because they knew that Ivan Franjic and Shane Stefanutto would never cross the ball but try to play it back to somebody facing goal.

Brisbane was still able to play its customary triangles on either flank but real openings hardly ever materialised because its attacking players were pounced upon and crowded out as soon as they got the ball and were forced to play it backwards, which of course suited the Jets to a tee.

The Jets won 1-0 with a first-half goal from captain Jobe Wheelhouse.

Brisbane bombarded the Jets in the second half and threw everything at them bar the kitchen sink.

Yet frustrated Postecoglou could only bury his head in his hands as his players failed to find a way past central defenders Tiago Calvano and Nikolai Topor-Stanley, who were immense on the ground and in the air.

So this is the dilemma facing Postecoglou: push on regardless with a system that has brought the club acclaim and success or go back to the drawing board and devise new ways how to win matches.

Postecoglou is the sort of coach who would never contemplate urging his team to try to win ugly if necessary to get out of its predicament. It's just not him and not after all the work he has done the last two years.

But perhaps a less cavalier approach, a more direct style and a little bit of pragmatism in key moments of a game might just do the trick.

The players' quality and will to win are still there and a few tweaks certainly would not rob the team of its greatest asset: an ability to play non-stop, attacking football of the highest level.

Postecoglou has earned plenty of plaudits for the way he transformed a Brisbane side that could never win into one that would never lose.

But the good coaches are not necessarily those who win matches and trophies but the ones who react wisely in trying times and change things around.

This might be the toughest challenge facing Postecoglou in his relatively young coaching career.

After yet another unsavoury brush with authorities, the question again must be asked if Clive Palmer's little-loved club that still can't draw more than a few hundred paying fans to its home games and that often makes news for the wrong reasons should be allowed to stay in the competition beyond this season.

Its latest stoush involves German player Peter Perchtold, who has won $340,000 in damages after his contract with Gold Coast was torn up.

Perchtold effectively won his case because Gold Coast did not even bother to show up at the hearing and to add insult to injury the club so far has failed to pay up.

It does not take rocket science to put two and two together and realise what collateral damage Gold Coast's action – or inaction – is causing the image of the A-League at home and abroad.

This is the sort of problem some Aussie players have had to face over the years when they plied their trade in some remote, developing nation with dodgy clubs and even dodgier officials.

Not one you would associate with such an advanced country as Australia where labour laws and conditions are among the best and fairest in the world.

How could any Australian player who yearns for a career abroad be persuaded to delay his departure as long as possible when he hears about these shenanigans?

How would any foreign player who might be interested in coming here react to the news that contracts can be freely ripped up by clubs, seemingly with the acquiescence of Football Federation Australia, which to date has done nothing to protect Perchtold?

Disturbingly, an Australian player who joined the A-League is believed to have rued his decision to come home, although it is unclear if the Perchtold case was the reason for his regret.

This unsavoury episode involving Perchtold comes after it was revealed late last year that Gold Coast had failed to insure returning Australia star Jason Culina when he traded the Eredivisie for the A-League in 2009.

Culina and his current club Newcastle Jets are suing FFA for compensation after the midfielder suffered a serious injury during the AFC Asian Cup in Qatar in 2011 and has not played since.

Many fans who love the game and who must cringe at the depressing sight of a quasi-empty Skilled Park whenever Gold Coast's matches are shown live would be entitled to ask if enough is enough from the A-League's bete noir.

In three seasons it has brought precious little positive to the league except for a few eye-catching performances in its first season when it played arguably the finest football in the competition and a few memorable press conferences from its colourful coach Miron Bleiberg.

The overriding theme of its participation in the competition has been one of embarrassment, frustration and possibly even anger at the way the club has been allowed to drag down the image of the league.

It raises the strong suspicion that no proper due diligence was ever made on Gold Coast's application in 2008 to join the competition and that it was approved largely because of a misguided policy that, hey, you don't knock back a mining billionaire who is willing to put money in the game, even if the club was to be based in such a football backwater as Robina.

Gold Coast United was an interesting experiment but it also was a bold gamble that never really paid off and it has become an unequivocal fiasco.

FFA chief executive Ben Buckley and A-League chief Lyall Gorman are among those who are understood to feel uneasy with the hardly edifying spectacle provided by Gold Coast's home crowds.

And they can't be too comfortable with their relationship with the eccentric Palmer.

The club's erratic behaviour of late has given Buckley and Gorman a glorious opportunity to cut their losses and put themselves and the rest of the football family out of their misery.

This would be a crying shame because Bleiberg and his players, to their eternal credit, have always done their best under difficult circumstances and presently with limited resources to portray the game in the best light and their positive attitude since day one has been beyond reproach.

Captain Michael Thwaite's boys certainly do not deserve to become the innocent victims of their club's ineptitude and intransigence.

But there is also the bigger picture to consider.

The future of the A-League is at stake here and there is no point in prolonging the agony by delaying the inevitable.

It is not uncommon for members of the considerable colony of Aussies abroad to flag their intention to come home by telling us they are doing it essentially to repay the game for making them rich and famous.

Australia star Harry Kewell is one of them.

Fans and commentators are not privy to Kewell's reasons behind his stunning decision to trade European football for the A-League.

But one thing is certain: Australian football's golden boy who achieved hero status in Europe has lit up the competition with his electrifying performances for his fourth club Melbourne Victory.

After a hesitant start to the final chapter of his career, Kewell finally has hit his stride with glimpses of the blistering form that made him a Premier League sensation a decade ago.

Watching Kewell unleash his smorgasbord of pace (he's slowed down a bit but he's still pretty quick for A-league defenders), dribbling, vision and jaw-dropping passing, it is hard to understand why Victory can manage only a mid-table position at the moment, well behind leader Central Coast Mariners.

Kewell's all-round form in the last few weeks has been nothing less than magnificent and his understanding with born-again striker Archie Thompson is becoming telepathic and lethal.

The only thing missing from his repertoire is goals.

So far he has found the net only twice … from a penalty against Gold Coast United in a 3-2 win and a well-taken shot against Brisbane Roar in a 3-1 defeat.

However stats often do not tell the whole story.

In 14 matches in the competition, Kewell has left his mark by creating just as many genuine scoring opportunities, some of which were taken and many more wasted.

But perhaps Kewell's finest and most eye-catching contribution has been the two 'goals' he did not score.

The first came in the game against Wellington Phoenix on 18 December when he waltzed across the edge of the penalty area, beating man after man with exquisite body feints, before missing the bar with a rising shot from his usually deadly left foot.

The second took place in the weekend game against Adelaide United when he killed a long punt from defence with his right thigh and from mid-pitch showed fullback Antony Golec a clean pair of heels on the right wing before cutting in towards goal and unleashing a venomous shot that stamped the bar with Eugene Galekovic hopelessly beaten.

Both strikes would have been worthy of goal of the season.

They showed clearly that fit-again Kewell, who has been the face of Australian football for more than a decade and was involved in the highest points of our recent football history, was delivering the goods in arguably the toughest test of his career.

Not so much in terms of the standard of competition but more so in the way he is perceived by the football family.

Many might have suspected that Kewell had nowhere else to go after his contract with Galatasaray in Turkey came to an end last year and he had everything to gain by seeking greener pastures in Australia.

Yet others might have felt that he had everything to lose by coming home because he could so easily have tarnished his reputation by failing to adust to what he has termed as “a far more difficult competition” than he expected.

So far, fingers crossed, he has proven the sceptics wrong and if he maintains this level of performance for the rest of the season, few would be brave enough to regard his stint in Australia as anything short of a resounding success.

The way he's going, he could end up winning the Johnny Warren Medal, too.

Kewell's bravery in risking all by coming to Australia, where the tall poppy syndrome is still alive and well, is to be commended.

He has let his football do the talking and has been a box-office hit in Melbourne and around Australia and has given the A-League the fillip it desperately needed.

He also showed that any Socceroos player who might be thinking of finishing his career back home would be entitled to feel confident about his move as long as he made sure he was fit enough and delivered the goods.

Veteran goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer caused a storm last year when he declared that finishing up in Australia was akin to football suicide because of the massive expectations placed on our stars.

He brought up the example of striker John Aloisi who was crucified when he performed poorly at Sydney FC three seasons ago.

Kewell's form in recent weeks would suggest that no Socceroos player should worry about being unable to adjust to life in the A-league and being treated badly by its fickle fans.

As long as they put in and do not give fans a reason to suspect they are being taken for a ride, that is.

Kewell is ticking all the boxes so far.

The former Northern Ireland midfielder was given the reins of the troubled club at the weekend after Mehmet Durakovic was unceremoniously dumped by Victory's board.

Many expressed dismay that the A-League's biggest club was unable to attract a better quality coach to lift it out of the doldrums.

They said Victory deserved more than a relative rookie whose claim to fame is a moderately successful two-year stint in the Championship with Ipswich Town from 2006.

What could possibly be learnt from this guy from Northern Ireland, they asked, conveniently overlooking the fact that he was a decent and respected box-to-box player who wore the Southampton jersey in the Premier League in the 1990s.

Some even suggested Magilton's appointment was a throwback to the 1970s and 1980s when any Tom, Dick and Harry with a British-sounding name could walk straight into an Australian club and start coaching its team.

Some also asked why should Victory go for a foreign coach, anyway, when there are so many locals waiting for an opportunity.

For goodness sake, who do we think we are?

Have we forgotten that Australia is still a relative novice in the game and still trying to find its way among the big men?

Who did some people expect Victory to sign … Pep Guardiola or Arsene Wenger?

And what happened to that good old Australian ethic of giving somebody a fair go?

Surely, we should be as friendly, fair and welcoming to our visitors as we purport to be and give Magilton a chance to prove himself before we start criticising his appointment.

Seriously, does anyone really believe that a man who has played 130 games for Southampton in arguably the world's toughest league does not know a thing or two about football and how to win matches?

His coaching record is limited but should that be a deterrent?

The wildly fluctuating world of football is littered with examples of unknown coaches becoming instant heroes thanks to the right move at the right time.

John Kosmina was given the Adelaide United job on the basis of a long playing career that included four games for Arsenal in the late 1970s.

Magilton played a total of 213 games in the Premiership for Southampton, Sheffield Wednesday and Ipswich and 52 times for his country, yet people are questioning his right to be here.

And, please, let's not start getting ahead of ourselves and dismiss the Northern Ireland team for its consistent failures on the international stage, whether it's the FIFA World Cup or the UEFA European championship.

Northern Ireland would be far more successful in its quest to play in major tournaments if its toughest qualifiers were against Japan, Korea Republic or Iran rather than Spain, Germany or Netherlands.

So before we start asking who the hell is Jim Magilton, what knowledge can he possibly impart on Victory's players or what contribution can he make to the A-League, let's accept the club's brave decision to hire him, adopt a wait-and-see attitude and judge him on his merits.

Many pundits said the same thing when Holger Osieck was named Australia coach in 2010.

”Holger who?” was the general reaction to his appointment.

Osieck proved the sceptics wrong by taking the Socceroos to the 2011 Asian Cup final and restoring the zip in the national team that had lost its way under his predecessor Pim Verbeek.

It was even suggested that the naming of Han Berger as national technical director in 2009 was all part of a “Dutch mafia” at work.

Some even asked why should Australia be so infatuated with Dutch coaches and their methods when the Netherlands has yet to win the World Cup, ignoring the fact that the Socceroos would be the big winners on the world stage if they became as strong as the Dutch 'losers'.

Berger has since distinguished himself with a lot of good work behind the scenes and hardly anybody questions his credentials now.

So for all we know, Magilton could end up as the best thing that happened to Victory.

And we all appreciate what a successful Melbourne Victory with its fantastic support base means to the A-League.

As a football family we have to know our place in the world and stop being such snobs because our big-headedness and crass attitude towards foreign coaches will get us nowhere.