The Juventus football team, accompanied by the Club’s highest officials will be arriving in Malta on a chartered Air Malta flight from Torino tomorrow at 8.40pm.

The Juve visit to Malta has been long awaited by their numerous fans here in Malta, but these will not be able to see their favourites on arrival at the airport.

The organisers of the visit, Renaissance Productions yesterday made it clear during a news conference that the Head of Security at Malta International Airport, Mario Cuomo, had declined such a request, saying that because the airport authroties did not want past incidents and damge to the airport to be repeated.

Juve fans and supporters, however, will be given the opportunity of accompanying the branded Juventus coach along the streets to Le Meridien Hotel in St. Julian’s, where the full squad and the entire delegation will be accommodated during the whole week.

While encouraging the Juventus fans to give their favourite team a warm welcome, RPL directors, Dr Anton Tabone and Amabile Zammit have made an appeal to the fans to cooperate with the police and security personnel. The team will be passing through the MIA security gates and not through the arrivals’ lounge.

On their part, Juventus have also made it clear that all training sessions, except for that of next Tuesday, will be held behind closed doors.

However, the public will be able to see the full squad at the Sky Club event in Paceville on Monday at 8.30pm. At this star studded event, tickets for which will be available at the door, will include an appearance by all the Juventus team players accompanied by the management.

This event is unique as it is very seldom that Juventus accept to be present with all their players at such a function. The Juventus management did not wish to disappoint its large Maltese fan base and have accepted RPL’s invitation to participate with the full squad.

For this event, RPL have also recruited the services of Marco Dejana, more commonly known to all Juventus fans as DJ Nana’. Mr Dejana is the personality that colourfully animates and presents the Juventus squad before and after all football matches at Stadio Comunale in Torino. DJ Nana’ will be joined by Valeria Ciardiello, the popular presenter of Juventus Channel, who will be also animating the Valletta vs Juventus match at Ta’ Qali on 9 January 2008.

The whole Juventus delegation making the Malta trip is the following – Almeida, Tiago, Almiron, Olivera, Belardi, Chiellini, Birindelli, Iaquinta, Boumsang, Buffon, Legrottaglie, Camoranesi, Trezeguet, Nocerino, Del Piero, Grygera, Nedved, Marchionni, Zanetti, Molinaro, palladino, Salihamidzic, Zebina, Vanstrattan, Novembre.

The public will be able to attend the Juve training session of Tuesday, 8 January, at 3pm, which will be held at the National Stadium. Tickets will be available from the ticket booths at the West Side on the day, from 2pm, while entrance will be through West Side A and C (Enclosure). Admission is e5.

Tickets for the match will be available from Ta’ Qali cash booths on the West Side on Tuesday between 2pm and 6pm, and on Wednesday from 9am till 2pm. Due to the Euro changeover, the public is being kindly requested to present the exact amount (either in euro or Maltese liri) to avoid long waiting times.

Dr Anton Tabone, on behalf of the organisers, said yesterday that around 8,000 tickets had already been sold for Wednesday’s match against Valletta which starts at 8pm. Few tickets in the North and South stands as well as the VIP enclosure are still available.

Just a limited number of promotional tickets in the North and South Stands being sold at e28/Lm12 are still available. Once these tickets finish, the North and South Stands will be sold at last minute price of e34.90/Lm15; Millennium Stand @ e58.20/Lm 25; West Stand e81.50/Lm 35. There are just a few remaining tickets in [email protected]/Lm 45.

Dr Tabone confirmed that Juventus will be leaving the island on Friday evening, flying straight to Catania, where they are expected to play their next Serie A match the following day.

Tickets for the Sky Club event and the match against Valletta for the Betfair Cup (all areas and child tickets) are available from Juventus Club (Malta) – Fenech Homes in Hamrun – Tel. 7948 0851; Valletta FC – L-American – Tel 9945 8140; Simon Estates – Labour Ave, Naxxar and Le Meridien St. Julians – Tel. 7942 9090; Giftime Shop – Hamrun – Main Road – Tel 9949 8660; Bargate Bookshop Gozo 99447625. Match tickets (except child tickets) are also available from GO Mobile outlets. Ticket Hotline 7988 8828. Enquiries on juventus [email protected]