Chapter 630: Too Simple
After listening to James Murdoch's introduction, a sentence popped up in Yang Huan's mind.
Don’t seek death and you won’t die!
The root of the matter may have to start with the FIFA presidential election.
In order to win re-election, Blatter made solemn promises to all parties with voting rights.
Therefore, after being successfully elected, he had to start fulfilling his promise. After all, who doesn't have some dirty information on the other party if they are in the business? If they really fall out, no one will benefit.
It is strange that Blatter, a man in his seventies or eighties, was so blind as to think he was in complete control of the situation.
That's why the interesting thing happened after the World Cup in South Africa, when the hosting rights of two Olympic Games were decided by vote at the same time.
Throughout the entire process, vote-buying and shady dealings have been constantly reported in the newspapers, making these two World Cup hosting rights votes the most controversial in history.
With the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States and the European debt crisis in Europe, the economies of both the United States and the United Kingdom are generally depressed.
Under such circumstances, hosting the World Cup will undoubtedly greatly stimulate the domestic economy and drive a series of supporting industries in the country, especially the sports industry.
Never underestimate the commercial value of the sports industry!
Needless to say, the benefits of hosting the World Cup are numerous. The English Premier League is itself one of the best professional football leagues in the world and has a significant influence around the world.
What about the United States? The sports industry in the United States can create huge commercial value for the country. Although football is relatively weak, it is developing rapidly. By organizing the World Cup, it is undoubtedly a good thing to greatly develop domestic professional football.
Therefore, the United States and the United Kingdom attached great importance to the hosting rights of the two World Cups, especially the United States. Former President Clinton and former Secretary of State Kissinger personally served as ambassadors for the World Cup bid. The application documents alone weighed as much as 873 kilograms, nearly one ton, and were shipped to Nyon, Switzerland by sea in two containers.
What's the result?
Britain lost to Russia, and the United States lost to Qatar!
This time FIFA has angered both the former and current world hegemons.
So, while the UK took the lead in criticizing FIFA's vote-buying scandal, the US was already secretly making moves.
Under pressure from public opinion around the world, FIFA had to come forward to explain and pretend to launch an internal investigation.
Unfortunately, the person in charge of the internal investigation chose an American lawyer with an FBI background.
Well, they were hired by FIFA to conduct an internal investigation, but they were secretly leaking information to News Corporation, using News Corporation's newspapers in the UK and the US to spread the inside story.
This made James Murdoch say with a sigh, there are so few smart people playing professional football!
Even though Blatter and others are already quite old, they can still handle things within the FIFA framework with their abilities. But when they step out of the football field, their skills are just trifling and even extremely clumsy!
Just talk about vote buying!
How did they bribe voters?
Either pay in cash or transfer money through the accounts of relatives and friends, but can all this escape the government's eyes and ears?
It is said that the US government has been following up on this matter quickly, and its target is those bank accounts.
When Yang Huan heard this, he shook his head and sighed. What else could he say?
"If you don't have that kind of ability, don't try to do this kind of thing. Even if you are a fool, don't treat the whole world as an idiot!"
James Murdoch slapped his thigh vigorously and nodded, "Isn't it? Tell me, who else does this these days?"
Yang Huan smiled but said nothing.
A large part of the salaries and bonuses of Southampton's star players are now paid through Monaco.
The reason is simple, tax-free!
This alone saves Southampton a lot of money every year.
Don’t the Premier League and UEFA know?
I know! But what else can I do?
Southampton did not break the law or violate the regulations, they just cleverly used the rules.
So, they just turned a blind eye and pretended not to see it.
Anyway, there is nothing we can do about it unless they change the rules. But every time there is a policy, there is a countermeasure.
Yang Huan dared to guarantee that as soon as his policy was released in the morning, Southampton would be able to come up with a response strategy in the afternoon.
The reason is very simple. Yang Huan hired a group of professionals who do nothing but find your loopholes. What can you do?
In this day and age, if you still play these empty tricks, aren't you just courting death?
Besides, would it be reasonable to accept bribes just for a few hundred thousand, or even tens of thousands of dollars?
Yang Huan wanted to laugh whenever he thought of this. Isn’t it too cheap?
At the very least, you FIFA executive committee members could have a little bit of moral integrity and not be so easily bribed, okay?
"I think this incident is enough to make FIFA suffer!"
James Murdoch seems to be a bit of a watcher of the show.
Anyway, his family is in the media business, so the more lively it is, the better it is for them.
Yang Huan smiled and shook his head, "I don't think so. Britain and the United States are not clean themselves, so how can they control it?"
If we really talk about vote buying, who hasn’t done it?
Among all the countries that have hosted the World Cup, who dares to say that they did not bribe voters?
In order to host the World Cup, the United Kingdom specially invited the Trinidad and Tobago national youth team to come to the UK for training and competitions. All expenses were paid by the English Football Association. Is it because the level of this national youth team is very high?
Don't be kidding!
Because the FIFA Executive Committee members from Trinidad and Tobago have the right to vote!
In addition, the UK paid £35,000 for dinners for the voting Caribbean executive committee members.
Damn, spending more than 30,000 pounds on a dinner is quite luxurious!
So, when it comes to vote buying, no one is clean!
It’s just that now those who have failed are feeling unwilling to accept the result.
"You are so naive!" Yang Huan shook his head and smiled.
James Murdoch was depressed.
A man in his thirties was pointed at by a boy in his early twenties and told, "You are so naive." How did that feel?
Damn, has the world completely changed?
"Don't be dissatisfied. There is no need to say anything else. You just need to answer me one question. If FIFA is finished, who will replace it to manage football and the World Cup around the world?"
This time, James Murdoch was speechless!
Yes, FIFA is finished. Who will manage such a huge football industry in the world?
The US government certainly wants to, and wants it madly, but does it have the ability to do so?
Even if he wanted to, would other governments listen to him?
In addition, the ownership of a large number of events such as the World Cup and the Club World Championship belongs to FIFA, and other national football associations are nominally subordinate organizations of FIFA.
Just on this point, if FIFA is gone, what will happen to the national football associations?
Don't treat people who play football as fools!
Those sponsors are as shrewd as devils, don’t they know the dark side of FIFA?
Wrong, they know it better than anyone!
But they all know very well that if they want to use these high-quality resources in FIFA's hands to promote their own brands, they have to endure these messes of FIFA, because they have no other choice!
Even a powerful organization like UEFA can work alone without FIFA?
Don't be silly. If we really talk about football, the level of the European Champions League is far ahead of the World Cup, but can its influence and commercial value be compared with the World Cup?
In the hearts of football fans all over the world, which one is more important?
Why does Messi have to win a World Cup to be crowned the king?
Therefore, Yang Huan initially judged that in this turmoil, no matter how serious or fierce it was, FIFA was still FIFA, but there might be a redistribution of power.
Thinking of this, Yang Huan suddenly raised his eyebrows and a plan came to his mind.
Since it is a redistribution of power, he doesn't mind taking part in it.
Anyway, if he can get some profit, then it's a profit. If he can't, he won't lose anything.
The worst that can happen is that you have to sacrifice some time and have some fun!
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The discussion between Yang Huan and James Murdoch in the stands obviously had no impact on the course of the game.
The Barcelona coach and general were at odds, and the scene looked quite bad and ugly.
Southampton has just undergone major adjustments, but the midfield and backcourt have basically remained unchanged, especially the back line and the double defensive midfielders formed by Modric and Toni Kroos, which are becoming more and more stable and tacit.
This allows the Saints to remain as good as ever on defense and organization.
In addition, in the midfield, James Rodriguez started in the first half and performed well, making three threatening passes and also planning the team's two goals.
In particular, the Colombian had a very high-quality shot, but it was saved by Valdes.
In the second half, Bielsa replaced James Rodriguez with Pogba, but the French midfielder did not have any eye-catching performance except for a long shot that made the whole stadium exclaim.
This is probably related to the fact that Bielsa replaced Modric early, and then replaced Toni Kroos, and used Matic and Kovacic on the field. After all, Matic is a defensive player, and Kovacic is relatively young and lacks experience in standing on his own.
In the frontcourt, Bielsa started with a combination of Hazard, Ibrahimovic and Sturridge. As a result, Ibrahimovic and Sturridge each scored a goal in the first half.
In the second half, Suarez, Sanchez and Ravel Morrison were brought on respectively. Although the team still created a lot of opportunities, they were still unable to convert them into goals.
Especially Suarez, the Uruguayan striker still performed like a hard-working man, but he was somewhat out of tune with his teammates.
Liverpool's tactics are somewhat different from Southampton's. In addition, when he was at Liverpool, his teammates revolved around Suarez, so after the Uruguayan moved to Southampton, he had to make some adjustments in both his mentality and playing style.
So, although Southampton defeated Barcelona 2-0 in this game, in Yang Huan's opinion, there is really nothing worth writing about.
In the final analysis, this is a game of who is in worse condition and has worse coordination.
In the end, Southampton managed a narrow win.
But this game attracted a total of more than 85,000 fans to the scene, filling the entire Washington FedEx Field to the brim. The scene was even more lively than the Washington Redskins' home games.
It is not difficult to see from this that after several years of publicity and preparation, football matches, at least football matches among Europe's top teams, still have a very wide audience among young people in the United States.
As the top battle between Southampton and Barcelona ignited the horn, the wave of the International Champions Cup quickly swept across North America. Almost every game was very popular and was once again sold out.
After all, all eight teams in the International Champions Cup are popular and powerful teams in Europe.
This not only attracted more and more American fans to the scene, but also attracted countless fans to stay in front of the TV to watch the live game, and the ratings also continued to rise.
Compared to the booming International Champions Cup, the performance of another event seemed mediocre.
It can even be said to be unsatisfactory!