FOOTBALL Live

17:50 There it is. A good draw for the English sides and another Manchester United-Celtic. You have to feel for Bate Borisov who are, quite literally, dead. Stick around if you want to know the footballer of the year. Here's a clue: It's Ronaldo.

17:40 Three pots down, one to go. Eusebio presents the best forward award to one of these men: Didier Drogba, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Fernando Torres. The winner, obviously, is Cristiano Ronaldo. He strolls up and says "I score many goals". Right, now for pot four as we complete the draw. Once more, eyes down...

17:30 That's pot two complete, and Group H is shaping up as a humdinger. OK draws for the English. Now for the midfielders, and Bobby Charlton is out on stage. Nominees: Michael Essien, Cesc Fabregas, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Paul Scholes. And the winner is.. Frank Lampard! More Chelsea! He's "very happy". Eyes down as the teams are drawn for pot three...

17:20 We'll keep the groups in the spots below once the draw resumes. For now, Franco Baresi comes out to present the defender of the year award. Nominess: Jamie Carragher, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Teary Terry and Carles Puyol. And boo hoo, John Terry's the winner! He says it is "an amazing achievement" for him to be a "great defender". Modest guy. On to pot two - eyes down.

H’ Real Madrid, Juventus, Zenit St Petersburg, Bate Borisov

G’ Arsenal, Porto, Fenerbahce, Dynamo Kiev

F’ Lyon, Bayern Munich, Steaua Bucharest, Fiorentina

E’ Manchester United, Villarreal, Celtic, Aalborg

D’ Liverpool, PSV Eindhoven, Marseille, Atletico Madrid

C’ Barcelona, Sporting Lisbon, Basel, Shakhtar Donetsk

B’ Internazionale, Werder Bremen, Panathinaikos, Anorthosis Famagusta

A’ Chelsea, Roma, Bordeaux, CFR Cluj

17:14 OK, we're about to draw the teams from Pot 1. It will have minimum suspense, consisting as it will merely of assigning a letter to each club.

17:11 David Taylor is out to explain the technical details, but I am distracted by an 89th-minute FC Midtjylland own goal that keeps Man City in the UEFA Cup. It's going to extra time.

17:09 OK, so I think what we're doing is drawing some teams, then doing another award. That's what happened last year, anyway. Bruno Conte is out on stage, and my goodness isn't he small next to Cech! He is here because this season's final is in Rome, a city whose police must already be looking forward to having an English team involved.

17:07 And the winner is... Petr Cech! He goes up wearing the ubiquitous scrum cap. Just kidding... Pedro Pinto asks him about the penalty shootout in the final. Cech looks more than displeased.

17:06 'Peeder Schmeichel' is here to present the goalkeeper award. Nominees: Manuel Almunia (!), Petr Cech, Manuel Neuer of Schalke, Pepe Reina and Edwin van der Sar.

17:05 Apparently Manchester United won last season. Thanks for the reminder. We start with the UEFA club football awards - a very average set of gongs, it must be said.

17:04 Some interesting sides in the tournament this time. Hands up if you know anything about CFR Cluj or Bate Borisov. And nice to see Atletico Madrid and Fiorentina back in the big time. I must confess I have a bit of a soft spot for those two.

17:03 Straight to a clip of goals from last season's competition. Come on, we all know what the Champions League is by now...

17:01 We're in Monaco's Grimaldi Forum, rather than the usual Nyon lecture theatre. Our hosts are Pedro Pinto and Melanie Winiger (pronounced, marvellously, 'Vinegar').

16:59 You've got to love the Champions League music. "Wir sind die besten...."

POT 1’ MANCHESTER UNITED, CHELSEA, LIVERPOOL, Barcelona, ARSENAL, Lyon, Inter Milan, Real Madrid

POT 2’ Bayern Munich, PSV Eindhoven, Villarreal, Roma, FC Porto, Werder Bremen, Sporting Lisbon, Juventus

POT 3’ Marseille, Zenit St Petersburg, Steaua Bucharest, Panathinaikos, Bordeaux, CELTIC, Basel, Fenerbahce

POT 4’ Shakhtar Donetsk, Fiorentina, Atletico Madrid, Dynamo Kiev, CFR Cluj, Aalborg, Anorthosis Famagusta, Bate Borisov

  Thanks to the demands of TV, the draw has a staggeringly complicated format to make sure, for example, there will be two English teams playing on each night, and that Arsenal and Chelsea are not both at home on the same evening. But let's not worry about all that. Jiggery-pokery aside, it is basically a very simple draw - eight groups, each with one team from each of the four seeded pots.