Victory players celebrating a goal

Melbourne Victory has confirmed it will take on Juventus in a one off friendly match at Telstra Dome on May 30.

The 2006-07 Hyundai A-League premiers and champions have secured a prized match with the Serie A powerhouse on Juventus' tour of South East Asia and Australia. Juventus will play in Shanghai, Hong Kong and in Melbourne on its three match tour.

"We're very excited to have secured a game at Telstra Dome against Juventus," club chairman Geoff Lord said. "It will be a major spectacle, and a major sporting event for the whole of Melbourne."

"It's significant in two ways, firstly the fact the Juventus, one of the biggest clubs in the world, is coming here to play. Secondly, it fits into the club's ambition to host major international clubs on an ongoing basis," he said.

Football Federation Australia, the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Australia, the Victorian state government and the two clubs have been involved with the deal along with the event's promoter MP and Silva.

The event will also be broadcast throughout the world, with MP and Silva also the television rights distributor for the Serie A. The Australian broadcast deal is yet to be finalised.

"For us this is a great celebration, and an opportunity to promote the city of Melbourne. This game will be going live to a massive TV audience in Asia, Europe and many other countries around the world," Victory CEO Geoff Miles said.

Miles confirmed the players have been asked to defer the start of their annual leave to compete in the match which falls nine days after the end of the group stage of the Asian Champions League.

"It's a great opportunity for our players to go out and compete against the world's best and we thank them for agreeing to take part. It's been a long campaign for them," he said.

Lord was hopeful that the match would attract a capacity crowd of 55,000 given the Victory's strong following and the strong Italian community in the city. He said the costs of holding the match would be met with a crowd of around 30,000.

Juventus manager Claudio Ranieri, who played in Australia for a touring AC Milan side in 1980, said he was looking forward to the clash.

"Melbourne Victory is one of the top teams from the A-League, and I'm definitely looking forward to playing the upcoming match in Melbourne," said Ranieri.

"The club also has a large pool of fans in Australia and we are looking forward to meeting our fans there."

Juventus has signed an agreement to include all high-profile players so long as they aren't called up to national squads ahead of Euro 2008. Five players, goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, midfielders Mauro Camoranesi and Diago, defender Zdenek Grygers and striker Vincenzo Iaquinta are likely to fall into that category.