Chapter 263 Champions League semi-finals, the Galaxy Battleship is coming!

The five major leagues are coming to an end at this time, but except for the Bundesliga, the championships of other leagues are in doubt.

Manchester City's early victory made them the second team in the five major leagues to win the championship early, after Bayern.

Among the remaining three major leagues, La Liga's winning situation is confusing.

Barcelona, ​​which failed in the last game, made a difficult comeback and defeated Athletic Bilbao at home this round and got precious three points, but they are still 4 points behind Atletico Madrid.

In order to prepare for the Champions League semi-finals, Real Madrid postponed this round of games to May 8 in advance. Real Madrid, with one game less, is currently two points behind Barcelona, ​​temporarily falling to third place in the standings.

In Serie A, Juventus beat Bologna 1:0 and are currently 8 points ahead of the second place. The situation is good for winning the championship.

The situation is similar in Ligue 1. After Paris Saint-Germain defeated Ivine, it is 10 points ahead of the second place. As long as it wins the next round, it can win the championship three rounds in advance.

While several major clubs were still fighting for the championship, Manchester City's victory four rounds ahead of schedule immediately attracted a lot of attention from the outside world.

If in the past few seasons, people's impression of Manchester City was that of a mercenary with a lot of money but an average record.

So this season, after Manchester City's brilliant performance in the Champions League, the outside world's evaluation of them is getting higher and higher.

Reached the semi-finals of the Champions League and became the only team in the Premier League.

One of the two domestic cups won the championship, and the other reached the final, and the championship is imminent.

Such a record, let alone the Premier League, is worthy of praise in any other league.

And it is not the traditional giants of the Premier League who have done this, but an upstart in football, a team built on money.

Those wealthy clubs that originally looked down upon Jinyuan Football because Manchester City failed to qualify from the group stage twice in a row in the Champions League inevitably felt nervous at this time.

Manchester City's great success this season is the great success of Jinyuan Football.

This makes them worried. If other wealthy tycoons follow suit and enter the football world with checks like Manchester City, will European football be brought into chaos by these tycoons?

As a result, these giants joined forces to put pressure on UEFA to investigate Manchester City's financial situation to see if they violated the UEFA Financial Fair Play Act, which was just implemented last year.

The best way to restrict those wealthy individuals from waving money around in football is to formulate rules to limit their financial investment.

The Financial Fair Play Act is such a product.

According to UEFA regulations, teams participating in various UEFA competitions must balance their financial balances, and any team's losses must not exceed 5 million euros.

According to this regulation, a tycoon team like Manchester City, which has little background but spends money like water, must have violated the Financial Fair Play Act.

The price for violating the bill is salary limits, transfer investment restrictions and huge fines.

Obviously, these giants hope to use this method to limit Manchester City's strength, prevent them from continuing to attract stars with high wages, and even dismantle their current team lineup.

When the news reached Manchester City, everyone at the club felt like they were facing a formidable enemy.

"UEFA will send people over soon to check our financial situation. What is the club's current financial situation?"

After receiving the news, club chairman Fahim immediately found the club's financial director and asked him about the situation.

"Our transfer expenditure this season is 120 million euros, salary expenditure is 290 million euros, broadcast revenue sharing is expected to reach 117 million euros, and the total revenue from jerseys, tickets, sponsorship fees, etc. can reach 180 million euros..."

Fahim rubbed his forehead and asked: "In other words, we are still about 110 million euros short of UEFA's regulations?"

This number is not a small amount. The income of many teams in the five major leagues in a season cannot reach this number.

"It's like this. Lin's commercial value is very high and there is a huge market in the Far East. If we can recover part of Lin's portrait rights, then we can significantly make up for this gap..."

"Don't mention this kind of thing again in the future. Lin is a player signed by the big boss himself. The 100% image rights are the promise given by the big boss. Don't think about this again in the future."

Fahim interrupted the person in charge and said to him with a serious expression.

The club would rather pay a fine than have trouble with Lin Quan on this matter.

Offending Lin Quan is almost the same as offending the big boss. There is no need for them to make fun of their own jobs as part-time workers.

"Yes, Chairman, I understand. In addition to this method, we can also make some use of the rules!"

"What rules?"

"UEFA's Financial Fair Play Act can exempt some expenditures on youth training, and we can allocate this part of the expenditure to the parent company. This can not only reduce the club's expenses, but also enjoy UEFA's exemption!"

"In addition to this, this bill came into effect just last year, so UEFA has relaxed some additional restrictions.

When the club receives a capital injection and can completely cover the deficit, the team's maximum loss between 2013 and 2015 can be 45 million euros! "

Sure enough, professional matters must be left to professionals. After hearing what the other party said, he suddenly felt reassured about the problem that was originally a headache.

"Okay, according to your plan, how much is the maximum fine the club will be fined?"

The difference of 100 million euros is still too big, and it is still too difficult to make up for it completely, so there is a high probability that Manchester City will not be able to escape being fined.

"We have made professional calculations and the amount of the fine can be controlled within 60 million euros!"

Seeing that Fahim was still frowning, the person in charge tentatively said:

"If we can sign a new sponsorship contract with the parent company, this 60 million can be waived!"

Move money from left pocket to right pocket?

This is not impossible, but the intention of signing a new sponsorship contract at this juncture in the name of the parent company is too obvious.

This is completely treating UEFA as a fool!

"I'll go back to the United Arab Emirates and meet the big boss!"

UAE, Abu Dhabi.

After listening to Fahim's report, Mansour nodded slightly and started thinking.

It is not convenient for the Abu Dhabi consortium to come forward in person, but they have many business partners.

By exchanging certain interests in business, and then asking these partners to sign sponsorship contracts with Manchester City, we can effectively avoid UEFA's investigation and avoid giving people the feeling of being left-handed and right-handed.

Thinking of this, he picked up the phone and called an acquaintance.

After putting down the phone, Mansour nodded to Fahim and said:

"The problem has been solved. Don't let this news affect the team's preparations after you get back. I will be there to watch the next game against Real Madrid."

After Fahim returned to Manchester, he soon received new sponsorship calls.

After putting down the phone, Fahim was filled with emotion: The big boss solved his headache with just one phone call.

In terms of their ability to exploit loopholes, the people under these consortiums are really not vegetarians!

…

4 on the 23rd, Etihad Stadium.

The first leg of the Champions League semi-finals is about to begin.

Although you are the number one favorite to win the Champions League this season, Real Madrid has not underestimated Manchester City as an opponent at all.

Not only did they choose to postpone the La Liga league, they also arrived in Manchester three days in advance to prepare for the game.

This level of attention is even more outrageous than Barcelona last time!

"Real Madrid is coming in force!"

At the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City fans couldn't help but become worried when they saw the Real Madrid players warming up on the pitch.

In terms of the luxury of the lineup, Real Madrid is definitely one of the best on the planet.

Ronaldo, Bale, Benzema, Di Maria, Modric, Xabi Alonso, Ramos, Pepe, Coentrao, Casillas and others are all football superstars.

Among the Real Madrid lineup, the less famous one is probably Isco, the European golden boy, but his current worth has reached 45 million euros!

What is Star Glimmering?

Just look at this Real Madrid on the field!

The combined worth of Real Madrid's starting eleven exceeds 600 million euros, ranking first in football!

It is said that Manchester City are wealthy and spend a lot of money in the transfer market, but in fact, Real Madrid's transfer investment last season was even more exaggerated than Manchester City!

Real Madrid spent 100 million pounds just to buy Bale. Of course, the book is the transfer fee of Bale and other players combined.

But everyone is not a fool. They can all see that the other players are added by Tottenham. Those players are definitely not worth millions and tens of millions. They only exist to help Bell share some transfer fees. That's all.

In addition to Bell, Isco, Illarramendi, and Calhava also spent more than 70 million euros on Real Madrid.

After all, their transfer revenue exceeded 190 million euros, one-third higher than Manchester City!

However, Real Madrid also sold many people when buying people. The transfers of Ozil, Higuain, Albiol, Callejon and others brought them about 120 million euros in transfer income.

Calculated in this way, Real Madrid's net investment is not very high, only 70 million euros.

With Real Madrid's strong business development and operation capabilities, it is not difficult to fill the gap in transfer spending.

Therefore, they will not be too restricted by UEFA's Financial Fair Play Act!

This is very different from Manchester City, which means that Real Madrid can continue to strengthen the team after this summer's World Cup!

The strength of the opponent is so strong, which makes Manchester City fans feel uneasy.

Although Manchester City has overcome Barcelona, ​​they are not sure whether they can overcome Real Madrid.

Before the game, in the locker room, Pellegrini continued to relieve pressure on the players.

Playing at home in the first round, this schedule is very unfavorable.

In the first round of the competition, the two teams should test each other's opponent's strength.

In this case, the person who is burdened with performance pressure can easily become impatient.

And Real Madrid's ability to seize opportunities is particularly strong. Being too impatient is equivalent to giving Real Madrid opportunities.

After Ancelotti joined Real Madrid, he did not completely deny Mourinho's tactics.

Instead, he absorbed Mourinho's tactics and absorbed his strengths, and then integrated his own understanding into them.

The full participation of everyone in the offense and the layered layout in the defense allow Real Madrid to have both speed and impact, but also retain strong control. Their control of the game has been greatly improved.

This is very different from the Mourinho period!

Mourinho has a huge weakness. His career has not been smooth. He has never played for a team in the five major leagues, not even a league like the Portuguese Super League.

The lack of playing experience in top leagues and the limitations of his own strength make Mourinho have serious shortcomings in how to teach players to play football compared with coaches such as Guardiola and Ancelotti.

This can be reflected in Mourinho's use of midfielders. Mourinho is not good at midfield layout and refinement of offensive lines, so his team plays defense most of the time. Fight back.

This is not to say that defensive counterattacks are not possible. Mourinho's records at Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid have proven that strong teams are very capable of defensive counterattacks.

However, this tactic often doesn't work after a team enters its third year.

The reason is simple, the players can't stand it.

If you ask a group of superstars to do dirty work every day, they may be able to accept it at first, but over time they will naturally not be able to accept it.

Moreover, the officials and fans of the wealthy clubs cannot accept it. If you let a Ferrari do the work of a tractor, isn't this a waste of resources?

Fans of wealthy clubs are very picky. They not only want to see a win, but also a beautiful win.

Mourinho's team can bring victory, but it is difficult to guarantee the enjoyment.

Once his team fails to bring victory, it is inevitable to be purged.

However, these problems do not exist at all with Ancelotti.

Therefore, Real Madrid in the 13-14 season has significantly improved in strength compared to last season.

This improvement is not only brought about by the joining of players of Bell's level, but also the result of Ancelotti's training in accordance with his aptitude after taking charge of the Bernabeu, combining his own tactical understanding with Real Madrid's lineup!

Pellegrini once coached in La Liga, so his impression of Real Madrid still remains in the Mourinho period.

But when he watched the video tape of Real Madrid's game this season, the Chilean broke out in a cold sweat.

This Real Madrid really has the strength to win the Champions League.

Encountering them in advance is undoubtedly the biggest test for Manchester City!

Even at his home court, Pellegrini is not sure he can beat this Real Madrid team.

But at their home court, Manchester City must attack, because if they can't beat them at their home court, it will definitely be a disaster in the away game.

This is the disadvantage of putting the host first and then the guest!

In the visiting team's locker room, Ancelotti was also emphasizing the importance of this game to the players!

"Manchester City was able to double beat Barcelona at home and away, which proves that they are very strong. This game is at their home court. We must be careful. In the first half, we mainly used defensive counterattack tactics, and the formation was still 4231.

"Bell, you start this game, use your speed to attack Manchester City's wings and suppress the assists of their full-backs!"

Bell nodded to show that he understood.

In league and Champions League games, Real Madrid has repeatedly relied on Bell's personal ability to blow up the opponent's wing and win the game for Real Madrid.

"Cristiano Ronaldo, you are facing off against Kolarov. His defensive ability is not strong. You have many opportunities in this game. You must seize the opportunity and strive to score more goals!

We can accept losing the game away from home, but we must get away goals. In this case, we can take the initiative when we return to the Bernabeu!

Of course, if you can completely suppress Manchester City and end the suspense of the game in one round, then I will applaud you and be proud of you! "

Ronaldo nodded heavily to indicate that he understood!

After admonishing each player one by one, Ancelotti said:

"We haven't been to the Champions League final for 12 years. I know how hungry you are for the Champions League trophy!"

"Like you, I am also hungry for the Big Ears Cup. However, before we lift the trophy, we still have three games and two opponents to defeat. Only by defeating them can we stand on the championship podium. !"

"Now, let me ask you, do you have the determination to win the championship?"

"have!"

The players responded loudly, and even Ronaldo shouted loudly along with him.

He has not touched the Champions League trophy for five years. The feeling of winning the championship has been so long that he has almost forgotten it!

"Very good, then go to the arena and prove it to me with your actual actions!"