English teams ´not English´, says Lippi

Italy coach Marcello Lippi has played down the Champions League dominance of Premier League sides Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United by claiming that they are not really English.

An English team has reached the final of Europe’s premier cup competition for the last five years in a row, while Liverpool and United tasted glory in the tournament in 2005 and 2008 respectively.

Italian sides, by contrast, have enjoyed flagging fortunes of late.

AC Milan are the only Serie A club to have won the tournament this decade and there could be no Italian representation in this year’s quarter-finals if Inter Milan fail to overcome Chelsea in the second leg of their last-16 tie on Tuesday.

“English football is represented by Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal,” said Lippi, who was speaking to reporters here about Italy’s preparations for the World Cup in South Africa.

“These teams have foreign owners, foreign coaches and most of their players are foreign. What’s English about them? Not much.”

Lippi, though, conceded that multi-nationalism was a prominent feature of all the top European sides, including those from Italy.

“Is there any Italian in Inter, with all their nationalities and a foreign coach, or in Milan, even if they have some (Italian) players?” asked Lippi, who guided Juventus to the 1996 Champions League trophy.

“They’re Italian teams but they’re not the embodiment of Italian football. Italian football is Palermo, Cagliari, Genoa or Chievo, teams that play good football, as well as the national side.”