[Chief Rum]

September 1, 2002

London Times

Champions Cup Groups, Fixtures Set

LONDON-- Four United Kingdom clubs discovered their destinations for the vaunted Champions League competition Saturday when the group stage was announced.

Arsenal will play in Group A, Manchester United in Group B, Liverpool in Group F and the Celtic of Scotland in Group H. None will have an easy road to the Champions League playoffs.

Arsenal may be in arguably the toughest grouping, where they are grouped with thw top two sides from France and Germany in Lens and FC Bayer, respectively.

Manchester United, who had to win through the last qualifying round to get in, will have to face off with Deportivo from Spain and Leverkusen of Germany, among others.

Liverpool has AEK Athens and Lyon from France, and they may end up with UEFA Cup holder and Dutch side Feyenoord, too--Feyenoord faces off with Lithuanian club Kaunus in a Super Cup delayed qualifying match on Wednesday to determine the last member of the group.

Celtic, which, like Man Utd, had to win their way into the competition, get no favors from the draw, with powerful top Italian side Juventus in their grouping, along with top Russian club Spartak Moscow and Norway's Rosenborg--which defeated Newcastle in two qualifying legs to get this far.

Outside of the groups holding British sides, the most oustanding appears to be Group E, which includes top Spanish side and defending Champions Cup holder Real Madrid, powerful Italian club Inter, and top notch PSV from the Dutch Premier Division.

All four British clubs will play their first matches on Thursday.

Arsenal's first match will be a road tilt with FC Bayern in Munchen, Germany. Manchester United gets Latvian side Skonto at home. Liverpool will host AEK Athens. And Celtic goes to Trondhiem to play Rosenborg.

Here are the groupings:

Group A-- Racing Club Len (France); Arsenal (England); FC Bayern München (Germany); SK Sturm Graz (Austria)

Group B-- Bayer 04 Leverkusen (Germany); R.C. Deportivo de la Coruña SAD (Spain); Manchester United (England); FK Skonto Riga (Latvia)

Group C-- AFC Ajax (Netherlands); Valencia C.F. SAD (Spain); Fenerbahçe SK (Turkey); FC Partizan Belgrade (Yugoslavia)

Group D-- AS Roma (Italy); Olympiakos Piraeus (Greece); Sporting Club de Portugal (Portugal); Lokomotiv Moscow (RUS)

Group E-- Real Madrid C.F. (Spain); PSV (Netherlands); Internazionale (Italy); Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine)

Group F-- Liverpool (England); Olympique Lyonnais (France); AEK Athens (Greece); Feyenoord (Netherlands) or FB Kaunus (Lithuania)

Group G-- Borussia Dortmund (Germany); Galatasaray SK (Turkey); F.C. Barcelona (Spain); Slovan Liberec (Czech Republic)

Group H-- Juventus (Italy); Spartak Moscow (Russia); Celtic (Scotland); Rosenborg BK (Norway)