Chapter 263 Champions League semi-finals, the Galacticos are coming!

The five major leagues are all coming to an end, but except for the Bundesliga, the championships of other leagues are still in suspense.

Manchester City's early victory makes them the second team in the top five leagues to win the championship early after Bayern.

Among the remaining three major leagues, the La Liga championship situation is confusing.

Barcelona, ​​which had a poor performance in the last game, had a difficult comeback at home in this round to defeat Athletic Bilbao and got the valuable 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 matches to May 8. With one game less, Real Madrid is currently two points behind Barcelona and has temporarily fallen to third place in the standings.

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

The situation in Ligue 1 is similar. After defeating Yvion, Paris Saint-Germain is 10 points ahead of the second place. If they win in the next round, they can win the championship three rounds in advance.

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

If we say that in the previous few seasons, people's impression of Manchester City was a mercenary team with a lot of money but average performance.

This season, after Manchester City's brilliant performance in the Champions League, the outside world's evaluation of them has become increasingly higher.

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

We won one of the two domestic cup competitions and reached the final of the other one, so we are on the verge of winning the championship.

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

The team that achieved this was not a traditional Premier League giant, but a new football upstart, a team built on money.

Those wealthy clubs who had been disdainful of money-driven football because Manchester City failed to qualify from the group stage for two consecutive times in the Champions League are inevitably feeling nervous at this time.

Manchester City’s great success this season is the great success of money-driven football.

This makes them worried. What if other wealthy tycoons follow suit and rush into the football world waving checks like Manchester City did? Will European football be in chaos because of these tycoons?

So, these giants united and put pressure on UEFA to investigate Manchester City's financial situation to see if they had violated the UEFA Financial Fair Play Act, which was just implemented last year.

The best way to limit the tycoons’ behavior of squandering money in football is to formulate rules to financially limit their investment.

The Financial Fair Play Act is such a product.

According to UEFA regulations, teams participating in UEFA's various competitions must achieve a balance between financial revenue and expenditure, and the loss of any team must not exceed 5 million euros.

According to this regulation, a wealthy team like Manchester City, which has no background but spends money like water, is definitely in violation of the Financial Fair Play Act.

The cost of violating the law is salary caps, restrictions on transfer investment and huge fines.

Obviously, these giants hope to limit Manchester City's strength through this method, preventing them from continuing to attract stars with high salaries, and even breaking up their current team lineup.

When the news reached Manchester City, the entire club was on high alert.

"UEFA will soon send someone to check our financial situation. What is the current financial situation of the club?"

After receiving the news, the club's chairman Fahim immediately found the club's financial director to inquire about the situation.

"Our transfer expenses this season are 120 million euros, salary expenses are 290 million euros, broadcasting revenue is expected to reach 117 million euros, and the income from jerseys, tickets, sponsorship fees, etc. will add up to 180 million euros..."

Fahim rubbed his forehead and asked, "So, we are still about 110 million euros short of meeting UEFA's regulations?"

This number is not a small amount. Many teams in the top five leagues do not even have this much revenue in a single season.

"It's like this. Lin's commercial value is very high and there is a big market in the Far East. If we can take back some of Lin's portrait rights, then we can make up for this gap to a large extent..."

"Don't mention this kind of thing again. Lin was signed by the big boss himself. The 100% image rights were promised by the big boss. Don't think about this anymore."

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

The club would rather pay a fine than have a disagreement with Lin Quan over this matter.

To offend Lin Quan is almost equivalent to offending the big boss. As a group of workers, there is no need for them to joke about their jobs.

"Yes, Chairman, I understand. In addition to this method, we can also use the rules to do something!"

"What rules?"

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

"Besides that, this law only came into force last year, so UEFA has relaxed some additional restrictions.

When the club received capital injection and could fully make up the deficit, the team's maximum loss between 2013 and 2015 could be 45 million euros! "

As expected, professional matters should be left to professionals. After listening to the other party's words, he suddenly had a solution to the problem that was originally a headache.

"Okay, if we follow your plan, how much is the maximum fine the club will be?"

The difference of 100 million euros is still too large, and it is too difficult to make up for it completely, so Manchester City is likely to not 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 said tentatively:

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

Transferring money from the left pocket to the right pocket? This is not impossible, but if a new sponsorship contract is signed under the name of the parent company at this juncture, the intention is too obvious.

This is totally treating UEFA as a fool! "I will go back to the UAE and meet the big boss first!"

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

After listening to Fahim's report, Mansour nodded slightly and began to think.

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

By making certain commercial exchanges of interests and then letting these partners sign sponsorship contracts with Manchester City, UEFA's investigation can be effectively avoided, so as not to give people the feeling of transferring money from one hand to the other.

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

After hanging up the phone, Mansour nodded to Fahim and said, "The problem has been solved. Don't let this news affect the team's preparations when you go back. I will be there to watch the next game against Real Madrid."

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

After hanging up the phone, Fahim was filled with emotion: the problem that had been giving him a headache was solved by just one phone call from the boss.

When it comes to the ability to exploit loopholes, the people under these financial groups are really not vegetarians! …

4 on the 23rd, Etihad Stadium.

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

Although Real Madrid is the number one favorite to win the Champions League this season, it does not underestimate its opponent Manchester City at all.

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

This level of importance is even more outrageous than the last time Barcelona took it!

"Real Madrid is coming with great force!"

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

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

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

In Real Madrid's lineup, the only player with a slightly lower reputation is probably Isco, the European golden boy, but his current market value has reached 45 million euros!

What does star-studded mean?

Just look at the Real Madrid team on the field! The total value of the starting eleven of Real Madrid exceeds 600 million euros, which is definitely the best in football!

It is said that Manchester City is a wealthy club that spends money lavishly in the transfer market, but in fact, Real Madrid's transfer investment last season was even more exaggerated than Manchester City's! Real Madrid spent 100 million pounds just to buy Bale. Of course, the account book is the transfer fee of Bale and other players combined.

But we are not fools. We can all see that the other players are just extras added by Tottenham. Those players are definitely not worth millions or tens of millions. Their existence is just to help Bale share some of the transfer fees.

In addition to Bale, Isco, Illarramendi, Calhaeva and others cost Real Madrid more than 70 million euros in total.

All in all, their transfer inflow exceeded 190 million euros, which is one-third higher than Manchester City!

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However, Real Madrid also sold a lot of players while buying them. 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 commercial development and operation capabilities, it is not difficult to fill the gap in transfer spending.

Therefore, they will not be restricted too much 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 the World Cup this summer!

The opponent's strength is so strong that Manchester City fans are very nervous.

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

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

Playing the first round at home is a very unfavorable schedule.

In the first round, the two teams should be testing each other's strength.

In this situation, the party who is under pressure to achieve good results is likely to become impatient.

Real Madrid is particularly good at seizing opportunities, so being too impatient would be equivalent to giving Real Madrid opportunities.

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

Instead, he absorbed and learned from Mourinho's strengths in tactics and then incorporated his own understanding.

The full participation of all players in offense and the layered layout in defense allow Real Madrid to have both speed and impact while retaining strong control, greatly improving their control over the game.

This is very different from the Mourinho era!

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

The lack of top-level league experience and the limitations of his own abilities mean that Mourinho has serious shortcomings in how to teach players to play football compared to coaches like Guardiola and Ancelotti.

This can be seen in Mourinho's use of midfielders. Mourinho is not good at the layout of the midfield and the refinement of the offensive route, so his team plays defensive counterattacks most of the time.

It’s not that defensive counterattacks are not good. Mourinho’s record at Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid has proved that strong teams are very strong in defensive counterattacks.

However, this tactic often fails 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 and tiring work every day, they may be able to accept it at first, but they naturally won't be able to accept it after a long time.

What’s more, the officials and fans of the top clubs can’t accept it either. Isn’t it a waste of resources to let a Ferrari do the work of a tractor?

Fans of big 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 viewing experience.

Once his team fails to win, it will be inevitable that they will be purged.

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

Therefore, Real Madrid in the 13-14 season has made significant improvements in strength compared to the previous season.

This improvement is not only brought about by the joining of players of Bale's level, but also the result of Ancelotti's teaching according to the students' aptitude after taking over the Bernabeu, combining his own tactical understanding with Real Madrid's lineup!

Pellegrini has coached in La Liga before, so his impression of Real Madrid still remains in the Mourinho era.

But after watching the videotape of Real Madrid's games this season, the Chilean broke out in a cold sweat.

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

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

Even at home, Pellegrini is not sure he can beat Real Madrid.

But in their own home court, Manchester City must attack, because if they cannot beat them in their own home court, then they will be in trouble when they go away.

This is the disadvantage of playing at home first and then away! In the away team's locker room, Ancelotti also emphasized the importance of this game to the players! "Manchester City was able to beat Barcelona both home and away, which proves that they are very strong. This game is at their home ground, so we must be cautious. In the first half, we mainly used the tactics of defensive counterattack, and the formation was still 4231.

"Bale, you will start this game. Use your speed to attack Manchester City's flanks and suppress the assists from their full-backs!"

Bell nodded to show that he understood.

In the league and Champions League games, Real Madrid has relied on Bale's personal ability many times to break through the opponent's flanks and win the game for Real Madrid.

"C Ronaldo, you are facing Kolarov, whose defensive ability is not strong. You have many opportunities in this game, you must seize them and try to score more goals!

We can accept losing the game away from home, but we must score away goals, so that 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 instructing each player one by one, Ancelotti said:

"We haven't reached 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 Champions League Cup. However, before we lift the trophy, we still have three games to play 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 joined in the shouting.

He hadn't touched the Champions League trophy for five years. He almost forgot the feeling of winning the championship! "Very good, then go to the field and prove it to me with your actual actions!"

(End of this chapter)