Chapter 987: Surrounding the City with the Countryside

There have been many rumors about the disbandment of the G14 organization.

Some people say that Chelsea turned from love to hate and originally wanted to join the G14 organization, but was not accepted, so it finally turned to UEFA.

But this statement is not true.

By 2008, the G14 organization had realized that a crisis was coming and wanted to expand its forces, rapidly increasing from the original 18 teams to 40 teams in order to enhance its ability to compete with UEFA.

Chelsea was included in the expansion list at that time.

But Peter Kenyon, who was then Chelsea's chief executive, eventually declined G14's invitation, as did several other teams.

This sudden change eventually led to the temporary shelving of the G14 expansion plan, and internal morale plummeted.

Some say that Barcelona is a traitor within UEFA and disintegrated the G14 organization from within. Therefore, as soon as the G14 was disbanded, Barcelona immediately won the triple crown, became the strongest team in Europe, and established the Dream Team III dynasty.

But is this statement reliable?

If there are no conflicts within the G14 organization, what big waves can Barcelona make alone?

You know, although Barcelona's chairman Laporta was one of the vice-chairmen of the executive committee when the European Club Association was established, he did not have much say in European football, not to mention that there was a chairman of the executive committee above him.

Even within the G14, Barcelona does not have much say at all.

It can only be said that the dissolution of the G14 organization was more due to the fact that internal conflicts of interest could not be effectively balanced and controlled, coupled with the failure of expansion, and eventually it fell apart under the inducement of UEFA.

Rummenigge and others have reflected on the reasons for the dissolution of the G14 organization many times, and when establishing the European Club Association, they learned lessons and appropriately delegated power to the mid- and lower-level teams, which led to the current set of European Club Association charters.

Not only that, the European Club Association appears to be more open and tolerant than the G14 organization.

They have given the green light to new capital players such as Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur.

Because they know that if they are not accepted, sooner or later, this group of new capital elites will, like Chelsea did in the past, use new forces to compete with the European Club Association.

Even the tragedy of the G14 organization's dissolution may happen again.

There are also some dissidents, and the European Club Association has also absorbed them.

For example, Hannover 96 in the Bundesliga.

In the Bundesliga, no matter how you line up, Hannover 96 will not get a spot in the European Club Association, right? Not to mention that there are old powerhouses such as Frankfurt, Wolfsburg, Hamburg and Werder Bremen ahead of them.

But unfortunately, this piece of pie that fell from the sky hit Hannover 96.

Why him?

Because Hannover 96 is a die-hard dissident in the Bundesliga, Martin Kind is committed to abolishing a series of restrictive clauses in the Bundesliga, such as fifty plus one. What is the purpose of this series of clauses?

That is to ensure Bayern Munich's dominance in the Bundesliga.

Just imagine, if the Bundesliga opens up capital and attracts foreign investment, will Bayern Munich still be able to maintain such a transcendent status as it is now?

Last season, the rise of Hamburg almost brought down Bayern Munich. If there were more teams, such as Red Bull from the German second division, a Middle Eastern consortium, an American consortium, or even African and Asian consortiums, what would Bayern Munich do?

As for financial health, OK, it's very simple. In front of professional financial people, it's as easy as playing house.

Therefore, if the Bundesliga wants to relax the restrictive policy of fifty plus one, the biggest resistance will come from Bayern Munich.

For dissidents like Hannover 96, Rummenigge believes that the best way is to bring dissidents under his jurisdiction.

Therefore, Hannover 96 became one of the five Bundesliga teams in the European Club Association, along with Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Schalke 04 and Leverkusen.

Over the past few years, the bigwigs of the European Club Association have been quite satisfied with the set of rules that they have worked so hard to establish. They are also constantly using this set of rules to absorb potential threats and continuously strengthen their voice in European football.

It should be said that they had a lot of fun and everything went smoothly until recently.

Just like all rules, there are loopholes.

In recent times, Manchester United's Ed Woodward has become very active within the organization. He seems to be very interested in the executive seat of the European Club Association and has attracted a lot of votes.

But this is not the point, because Manchester United is an established top team, so it doesn’t matter if he becomes an executive committee member.

According to the existing list, Arsenal is one of the four teams on UEFA's Strategic Committee. Even if Manchester United becomes one, it is no big deal as the Premier League will have two seats out of the fifteen executive committee members.

The point is that in the competition for seats on the executive committee, Monaco and Inter Milan are also making efforts to win votes, and their voices are very high.

When the European Club Association was founded, Inter Milan was one of the executive members, but in recent years it has been replaced by Juventus, while AC Milan's executive position has never been shaken.

Now, Inter Milan is making a comeback.

But it was a bit unexpected that Monaco stood up to compete with Lyon.

This is just the first tier.

According to the rules, the first tier is the leagues ranked first to sixth in European competition points, and a total of five executive members will be elected.

If we leave out Rummenigge, the unshakable chairman of the Bundesliga, that would be four.

Manchester United, Monaco and Inter Milan each have one, so who are the rest?

It is estimated that the old giants Real Madrid have the greatest possibility.

But that’s also not the point.

In the second tier, that is, the seventh to fifteenth leagues, there will be three places. As a result, Ajax of the Netherlands, Anderlecht of Belgium, and Basel of Switzerland have all come forward to compete.

You know, the second tier includes leagues such as Ukraine, Belgium, the Netherlands, Turkey, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, etc., and these teams are all strong teams in the second tier and have great reputations.

Especially Ajax, a veteran G14 team, is also considered a veteran team in the European Club Association.

In the third tier, Vienna, Austria also ran for election and its popularity was very high.

The other team is likely to be the Celtics in Scotland.

Then the problem arises.

What would be the result if teams such as Monaco, Inter Milan, Ajax, Anderlecht, Basel and Austria Vienna all got their desired seats on the European Club Association Executive Committee?

The result is that Yang Huan holds six executive committee seats!

There are fifteen seats in total, and you got six.

According to the European Club Association regulations, any decision must be agreed upon by more than two-thirds of the members of the Executive Committee in order to be effective. In other words, Yang Huan has a veto power!

From now on, what Yang Huan says may not count on any major matter of the European Club Association, but if Yang Huan does not nod, it definitely does not count. Then the other teams will have to come one after another to flatter you and curry your favor, right?

What's more, Manchester United and Arsenal are Premier League teams. Who knows how close their relationship with Southampton is?

Over the years, the Premier League has always had the ambition to surpass other leagues.

It can be said that Master Huan's move is even more rogue than that of a rogue, surrounding the city from the countryside!

Rummenigge knew before that Yang Huan was making great efforts to develop in Europe and expand his football empire, but he had never paid attention to what was going on with these teams that Yang Huan acquired.

But not long ago, when he heard that Peter Kenyon was actively mobilizing several teams under his command to run for executive committee, he suddenly realized and was shocked.

Damn, these teams were not bought randomly, they were all bought for the executive committee seats.

It can even be said that from the first echelon to the fourth echelon, there are Yang Huan's teams, or teams that have close ties with Yang Huan.

As for the fifth tier, with more than 20 teams competing for one seat, it was too uneconomical and was completely ignored by Yang Huan.

Rummenigge is well aware of how powerful Peter Kenyon is in European football.

This guy's connections, resources and ability to get things done are not inferior to his at all.

Therefore, Rummenigge is very clear that if Peter Kenyon gains control of these resources with the strong support of Yang Huan, even his position as chairman may be threatened.

In this situation, Rummenigge also felt that he should take action.

Therefore, he took the initiative to help contact and create conditions for Southampton to join the European Club Association.

Not only that, he also took the initiative to find Yang Huan, hoping to appease this upstart who has more and more say in European football.

But he never expected that Young Master Huan would remain unmoved.

He knew in his heart that Yang Huan was not as selfless as he appeared to be, because if he really had no desires, then why did he ask Peter Kenyon to do so many things?

Even more, how long has it been since the secret plan was made?

Therefore, it would be a lie to say that he has no desires. It can only be said that the stakes he offered are not high enough.

Thinking of this, Rummenigge suddenly smiled and said, "Master Huan, I wonder if you have heard about the reform of the UEFA Executive Committee?"

He dared to guarantee that Yang Huan must know it.

Because Platini and Infantino must have told him that a long time ago.

"Oh, do you want reform?" Yang Huan was obviously playing dumb.

Rummenigge exclaimed inwardly, "As expected, this Young Master Huan has a big plan."

"To be honest, Master Huan, UEFA is going to reform. I have reached an agreement with them before. Among the fifteen members of the Executive Committee, our club representatives will get two seats."

"Really?" Yang Huan asked in surprise.

But where was the slightest bit of surprise in his tone?

Rummenigge was depressed. It turned out that this UEFA executive committee member was nothing in the eyes of Young Master Huan!

You know, it is these fifteen executive members who control UEFA. The club was able to get two seats for the first time this time, which is quite remarkable and a great victory.

As long as we have this start, and then slowly plan and expand the club's influence in UEFA, who dares to say that there is no hope of controlling UEFA in the future?

You know, compared to those good-for-nothings, these people in the club are all capable elites!

Rummenigge knew in his heart that what Young Master Huan was aiming for this time was probably this spot.

To be honest, there are only two places to enter the power center of UEFA. Rummenigge must get one of them, and as for who will get the remaining one, he originally had to wait for the executive committee members of the European Club Association to fight for it.

Arsenal's Gazidis, AC Milan's Gandini, CSKA Moscow's Ginner and Barcelona's Bartomeu, these four people have entered the UEFA Strategic Committee and have no chance to be selected as executive committee members.

That is to say, the remaining ten executive members will compete for one of the seats.

When he thought of this, Rummenigge was stunned.

When the mid- and lower-level teams have no ability, and may not even have the ambition, who will compete with Young Master Huan for this spot?

Sure enough, when he suddenly realized what was going on, Yang Huan looked at him with a smile, and said word by word in a domineering tone that did not allow for discussion: "Karl, I want the remaining spot!"

At this moment, Rummenigge didn't even have the thought of refusing!

The mystery is finally solved!