Chapter 34 Champions League

In the UEFA Champions League, there is no player who does not regard participating in this competition and finally winning the championship as the ultimate goal of his career. The best clubs in Europe gather together to determine the king of Europe through repeated battles. Every point on the field , Every second is particularly touching.

After the end of World War II, football has been fully revived around the world. However, there are very few exchanges between national teams and club-level events. At this time, the Frenchman Gabriel Arnold put forward the idea of creating the European Club Cup.

Jarno is the founder of the European Footballer of the Year selection, and he also writes for the French "L'Equipe" and "French Football" magazines. He keenly foresees the possibility of a brand-new event that can bring together top European clubs.

He proposed to create a new competition with a league system by well-known clubs from various countries. Promoters of the European Club Cup have aggressively reached out to FIFA and UEFA, but the results have been disappointing, with both organizations showing little interest in non-national team competitions. But Jarno's plan has been warmly welcomed by several clubs such as Real Madrid, Anderlecht, Rapid Vienna and the Hungarian Football Association.

"L'Equipe" commissioned a head of its editorial department, Zao Jacques de Liswick, to organize a meeting attended by representatives of major European clubs at the time to determine the form of competition between European clubs. ?? Stadium Maniac 34

Although UEFA reiterated at the meeting of the Executive Committee in Vienna that it will not cooperate with non-national team competitions, it still cannot prevent various associations from sending representatives to Paris.

At this "historic" meeting, the various clubs reached an agreement on the competition system: the competition will be played by the league champions of various countries; The Champions League final must be played on a stadium pre-determined by UEFA; when playing in the team's stadium, ticket revenue, advertising fees and TV broadcast fees are handled by the host.

At this meeting, an executive committee was also established, with Real Madrid "chairman" Santiago Bernabeu as the first vice "chairman". The committee is responsible for drafting the main points of the European Club Cup and notifying FIFA for be understood.

UEFA's idea is to organize another cup to replace the European Club Cup proposed by L'Equipe and most of the European clubs. The participants of this cup are not clubs, but cities, the purpose of which is to close friendly ties and sports exchanges among European cities.

However, the development of the situation made FIFA change the view of the European Club Cup. They saw that the game was indeed like that, and the level of the teams participating in the competition was also relatively high.

On the other hand, after the World Cup held in Switzerland in 1954 was televised for the first time and was successful, it made it more likely that European television organizations would support the European Club Champions Cup, which means expanding influence and making money.

UEFA began to reconsider its attitude towards this European Club Cup. They proposed to the organizers of the cup that the power to organize the competition should be handed over to UEFA, and the participation of the club representative team in the competition must be approved by the national association where it is located.

After the proposed conditions were accepted, the UEFA Executive Committee held a meeting in Paris on May 21, 1955, and decided that UEFA would personally organize the event and name the event the European Football Club Champions Cup. Then use the original name "European Cup".

Before the 1991/1992 season, the format of the Champions Cup was pure knockout. This season, a group stage was set up in the top 8. In the 1992/1993 season, the Champions Cup was officially renamed the "European Champions League", and the game was also developed into every Tuesday and Wednesday.

In the next few years, the competition system of the Champions League has changed repeatedly, and the group round-robin system has gradually been applied to the games before the rematch. The participating teams are no longer limited to the league champions of various countries and the Champions League champions of last season. The league runner-up of the strong country can also participate. And all these changes are to increase the number of games, so that the participating teams can get more benefits.

In 1998, in order to prevent major clubs from establishing a European Super League, UEFA decided to carry out the biggest reform in the history of the three major European cups from the 1999/2000 season, and the European Cup Winners' Cup was cancelled.

According to the ranking of European club competition results, each country can send 1 to 4 teams to participate in the UEFA Champions League. Another round of group matches was added. In the first stage of the group stage, 32 teams were divided into 8 groups of 4 teams, and each team played 6 games.

The top two of the eight groups will enter the second group stage, and the third place will enter the third round of the UEFA Cup. In the second stage of the group stage, the top 8 will advance to the knockout stage.

In the 2003/2004 season, the UEFA Champions League canceled the second stage of the group stage, that is, after the top 16 was produced, the knockout rounds began until the champion was decided.

While winning huge honors, participating in the European Champions Cup also means that you will get huge benefits. This is more real, money! No one doesn't like it!

The UEFA Champions League in the 2005/2006 season has not yet started, and UEFA has already calculated the upcoming revenue from the Champions League and the European Super Cup this season, which will historically reach 1.3 billion euros.

75% of the income comes from UEFA's media broadcast rights and commercial contracts, which can reach a maximum of 500 million euros, and this part of the bonus will be distributed to various clubs.

At the same time, the remaining 25% will be used as a reserve fund for the development of European football. At the same time, it will ensure UEFA's organizational and administrative expenses, including UEFA's fixed payments to national football associations, clubs and leagues. funds.

82% of the prize money exceeding 500 million will be distributed to various clubs, and another 18% will be used for the development of European football and the UEFA purposes mentioned above. ?? Stadium Maniac 34

The revenue from the play-off stage alone will amount to 55 million euros. The 20 participating teams will receive a fixed prize of 2.1 million euros. After deducting the bonuses that need to be distributed to participating teams in the play-off stage, the revenue of the Champions League and UEFA Super Cup is expected to reach 1.2 billion euros.

The income of participating teams will be mainly divided into two parts, of which 500 million euros will be fixed income, and the other 400 million euros will adopt a flexible mechanism. The market share will be distributed according to the different proportions of the market share occupied by the football associations to which participating clubs belong.

All 32 teams participating in the UEFA Champions League group stage this season will receive at least 8.6 million euros in bonuses. The winner of the championship will receive more than 30 million euros in prize money, which does not include the market share distribution.

In the group stage, 32 teams will receive a basic bonus of 8.6 million euros. According to the performance of the game, winning a game will get 1 million euros, and a tie will get 500,000 euros.

The teams that advance to the round of 16 are expected to receive €3.5 million, the quarter-finals €3.9 million and the semi-finals €4.9 million. The champion will receive 10.5 million euros and the runner-up will receive 6.5 million euros.

As the domestic league champion, if he fails to qualify for the UEFA Champions League group stage, he will receive 200,000 euros. In addition, if the teams participating in the first round of qualifiers fail to advance to the group stage, they will receive 150,000 euros. At the same time, the teams that participated in the second qualifying round and failed to enter the group stage will receive 175,000 euros. The teams eliminated in the third qualifying round will receive 200,000 euros.

The huge benefits are enough to stimulate all European teams to go crazy for the UEFA Champions League. This is why in the previous life, when the news of the Italian phone call was exposed, Berlusconi did not hesitate to pull his face and threaten the Italian Football Association. If AC Milan cannot be guaranteed If he can participate in the Champions League in the 2006/2007 season, his media group will not broadcast the Italian Serie A.

In the final analysis, it is still a question of interests.

Degan likes money, but he doesn't really care about money. He is eager to participate in the Champions League, but he just wants to prove himself on a bigger stage and let everyone know that he is the best one on the field.

It's just that Ancelotti will not satisfy Degan's yearning for the Champions League. On the day before the start of the game, when the squad for the next day was announced as usual, Degan was still excluded.

The goalkeeper is still Dida. His performance this season is very stable. The right back is Cafu. After getting a rest in the last game, this game will return to the starting lineup. The central defenders are Nesta and Maldini , Stam's poor performance in the last game made him lose his starting position. The left back is Karadze. Serginho, who performed "excellent", chose the Georgian who has more outstanding defensive ability but is in a bad state. From this, it can be seen that Ancelotti's rotation remarks are simply farting. In terms of position, Gattuso returned to the starting lineup, and his partners were Pirlo and Ambrosini. In the forward position, Ancelotti chose Kaka, and Shevchenko is a well-deserved striker The main force, but his partner was beyond everyone's expectations. Vieri, who didn't get a minute of game time in the previous game, actually entered the starting lineup.

Not to mention Degan, even Vieri was taken aback when he heard that he had entered the starting lineup. He hadn't gotten a minute of playing time in the league before, and now he is going to play in the Champions League. Still starting?

Could it be that good steel cannot be used on the blade?

Vieri thought shamelessly, and then there was an even more shameful climax!