There's A Pretty Big Soccer Match Today, We Hear

We don't pretend to be Experts on soccer, but we do know one thing: When guys in masks threaten to shoot off your foot if you don't give them tickets, it's probably a pretty big match. Spain's Barcelona and England's Arsenal are scheduled to meet today in Paris (have met? We can't figure out this clock) in the Champions League final. By all accounts it will be the biggest match of the year until the World Cup itself gets underway (unless of course, it isn't). To illustrate how big, on Monday, according to Reuters, two armed men held up a suburban Paris council meeting at gunpoint, demanding free tickets.

The hooded men clambered up the walls of the council building and through the window of the fourth floor room where the meeting was being held, declaring: "We want to see the mayor, we want tickets." The two men put guns to the councillors heads, forced them to lie face down and threatened to shoot one in the foot. However, the mayor, who is traditionally granted a number of guest tickets, could not be found and the intruders left empty-handed.

The final is the eagerly anticipated matching of Barcelona's Brazilian world player of the year Ronaldinho against Arsenal striker Thierry Henry. We were just out at the black market while running errands and noticed that tickets for the match are reported to be selling there for between 1,000 and 2,000 euros ($2,561). If you're going, be sure to say hi to the mayor.

Arsenal-Barcelona Shapes Up As A Classic [MSNBC] Paris Gunmen Demand Champions League Final Tickets [Yahoo]