The fixture is pencilled in for the second Saturday of the new season. Manchester City at home to Manchester United; Sven Goran Eriksson crossing swords with Sir Alex Ferguson; the Nordic iceman against the Gorbals firebrand.
It is an encounter to make Eriksson a hero - if just for one day - in the half of the city in which his welcome has been somewhere between lukewarm and tepid. That may have something to do with the fact that five years ago he almost became manager at the other place. Ferguson, having decided to stand down at the end of the 2001-02 season, believes Eriksson agreed to take the job before Ferguson changed his mind.
In a subsequent interview, he mocked the Swede, adding: "He sails along. Nobody falls out with him." But the pair almost did, Eriksson revealed on Friday, over the question of using players in England friendlies: "Alex and myself were friends almost all the time and then we had different opinions about small things, but that's life, and I understand because I was the same with [Italy's] Arrigo Sacchi when I was at Lazio."
Turning Lazio into Italian champions was the other occasion on which Eriksson was in charge of underdogs in a major city, and he hopes a similar transformation can be brought about with the backing of another rich owner. "Lazio hadn't won anything for 25 or 30 years and suddenly [Sergio] Cragnotti decided he wanted to compete with the big boys and we did it. I know the target is to make this club bigger and I know Dr Thaksin wants to do that."
The controversial new owner, Thaksin Shinawatra, has promised major funds for transfers, though officials in his native Thailand want to know where the money to buy City came from. They want the former prime minister extradited, and should he be found guilty on corruption charges later this month, the Premier League must decide whether he can pass their "fit and proper person" test. Whether Eriksson is the proper person for City is for the moment an equally subjective judgement.
My Football News Link - Sven to lock horns with Red Devils