Dig out your Italian phrase books, grab a bottle of Aperol Spritz and prepare to gaze once more at the majestic Piazza del Duomo because FC United are heading to northern Italy again as we’re pleased to announce that the Fenix Trophy Final 4 - featuring the three group winners and the best second placed team in this season’s Fenix Trophy - will take place in Milan on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th June.
The two semi-finals will be played in the historic Arena Civica – home of Brera FC and the oldest stadium in Europe – on the evening of Wednesday 7th June with the first semi-final kicking off at 6pm and followed by the second semi-final which will start at 8.30pm. More than three hundred FC supporters made the trip to Milan a year ago for our group match against Brera in the wonderful Arena Civica and it was a belting Euro away day in one of Europe’s finest cities.
And then, in what is quite a coup for the Fenix Trophy, the final will be held at the San Siro, the largest stadium in Italy and one of Europe’s most iconic football venues, at 5pm on Thursday 8th June and will be preceded by the third place play-off match which will kick off at 12pm. With its capacity of nearly eighty thousand the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in Milan’s San Siro district should be able to accommodate the supporters of the four teams competing in the Fenix Trophy Final 4. And it is, of course, the home of AC Milan and Inter Milan and is a ground that many Reds of a certain age will have visited before with Manchester United having taken huge away followings there on the way to the treble in 1999 and again in 2005.
Indeed there’s even an intriguing little bit of FC United history connected to the San Siro too. Those supporters with a penchant for banners and flags will no doubt recall the ‘We’re Too Sexy for Milan’ flag in ‘99 but adjacent to it in the San Siro that evening was a flag that’s been a familiar presence at FC United – the ‘Colwyn Bay Red Army’ flag which has adorned the walls of Course You Can Malcolm at Bury and Broadhurst Park for many years.
The San Siro has hosted many prestigious matches over the years including Champions League and UEFA Cup finals and it was also one of the venues for the 1990 World Cup when it hosted six matches including the opening match of the tournament when Cameroon famously upset the odds by beating the defending champions Argentina 1-0 on 8th June 1990 – exactly thirty-three years before this year’s Fenix Trophy Final on the same ground.
FC United are currently the only team in the Fenix Trophy to have secured a place in the Final 4, having won all four of our group games, and there are six other teams still in with a chance of qualifying with group matches due to conclude in May - last season’s runners-up Prague Raptors and AFC DWS from Group B; BK Skjold, Brera and FK Miljakovac from a still wide open Group C; and KSK Beveren from our own Group A.
The draw for the semi-finals will be a free draw so FC United could draw any of the other three teams – including KSK Beveren from our own group – and it will take place soon after the group games have concluded in May. The order in which the matches are played will be determined later on and will be dependent on the travel arrangements of the various teams.
Further details will be announced in due course once the group games have concluded in May.