Golden Greenery

The predecessor of the Club World Cup was the 1 Intercontinental Cup, which was renamed the Toyota Cup after being exclusively sponsored by 1.

In 2005, FIFA officially took this pinnacle competition of European and American football under its umbrella, not only making it an official competition with official endorsement, but also expanding the scale of participation to the world.

But quantity is far less important than quality. As South American stars flock to Europe at an accelerated pace, the strength of the clubs on both sides is no longer on the same level. The Club World Cup is far less competitive than the Toyota Cup.

Although it cannot be said that the champion of the Champions League will face the South American Copa Libertadores champion, there have been three unexpected defeats: Liverpool lost to Sao Paulo in 2005, Intercontinental 2, and Chelsea lost to Corinthians in 2012, but honestly speaking, it is still hanging on. The Club World Cup, which is known as the 'World Champion', is the least competitive of all major trophies for the Champions League champions.

The World Super Cup is far less difficult than the European Super Cup and Domestic Super Cup, and the opponents are of a lower level.

Internacional Brasil in 2010 and Atlético Mineiro in 2013, as well as Atlético Nacional de Medellín last year, the three teams even failed in the semi-finals and failed to reach the Champions League champions.

In addition, the championship bonus is not attractive at all. To be honest, the European champions do not attach much importance to the Club World Cup.

But Manchester City, the new Champions League champion in 2017, attaches great importance to this Club World Cup. This is not only the first time in their lives, but more importantly, it is because the Club World Cup is held in Abu Dhabi.

The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is the largest tribe in the United Arab Emirates, accounting for 87% of the entire UAE. The city of Abu Dhabi is the capital of the emirate and the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Abu Dhabi and Dubai are similar to Beijing and Shanghai in China, New Delhi and Mumbai in India, and Berlin and Munich in Germany.

The owner of Manchester City Club is the Abu Dhabi Consortium, and Sheikh Mansour is the fifth prince of the Abu Dhabi royal family. Therefore, Manchester City's participation in the Club World Cup this time is equivalent to returning to their hometown to perform. The championship must be won.

The day after the Manchester Derby, the entire Manchester City team arrived in Abu Dhabi on a special plane. There is no winter break in the Premier League. For this Club World Cup, Manchester City has postponed the 17th and 18th rounds of the league.

However, 1 Manchester City has already secured the half-time championship in advance. Although Manchester United is still ranked second after losing, the point difference with Manchester City has widened to double digits of 11 points.

Further on, Chelsea 32, Liverpool 30, and Arsenal 2G8 Leicester City only have 23 points, which is exactly half of Manchester City. The division of strength in the Premier League is intensifying.

The boss's attention means that everyone pays attention to it, and Zhuo Yang also wants the Club World Cup. There are already six Champions Leagues and only two Club World Cups. The contrast is quite big.

One was the one he won against Boca in Yokohama with AC Milan in 2007, and the other was the one given to him by Real Madrid in 2014, which was the one he had given to him at London Bridge Hospital.

The Nurai water villa is not good. That thing is definitely luxurious enough, but it is relatively scattered and inconvenient for the team to manage. The entire Manchester City team stayed at the eight-star and eight-diamond Abu Dhabi Palace Hotel, which was full of Arabian style and instantly brought a group of European hicks back to the Alibaba era.

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The Club World Cup actually has seven teams with a total of four rounds, but the Champions League champion and the Copa Libertadores champion do not need to play qualifying and quarter-finals.

Instead, it starts directly from the semi-finals, and only needs to play two games before and after.

In addition to Europe and South America, there are also Asia, Central and North America and the Caribbean, Oceania, and Africa. The six champions plus the host wild card team make a total of seven.

When Manchester City and South American champions Gremio arrived, the first two rounds of the Club World Cup had already been played. The host Abu Dhabi Peninsula Club, also known as Al-Jazira, first defeated the Oceania champion Auckland City from New Zealand 1:0 in the qualifying round, and then won 1:0 in the quarter-finals AFC Champions League Urawa Red Diamonds made it to the semi-finals and faced Manchester City.

This year's Chinese Super League teams performed mediocre in the AFC Champions League. Shanghai SIPG eliminated Jiangsu Suning and Guangzhou Evergrande all the way, and was defeated by Urawa Red Diamonds in the semi-finals.

The Concacaf champion Pachuca from Mexico defeated the African champion Morocco Casablanca 1:0 in the quarter-finals and came to Gremio.

There are a total of 12 teams in the Emirates Super League, five each from Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Just like their country, apart from these two cities, there is nothing left.

The UAE and the national football team are old rivals, but because the two teams were not divided into the same group in the 2018 World Cup preliminaries, regardless of the top 40 or the top 12, Zhuo Yang is already quite unfamiliar with the UAE players, not to mention Abu in the country. Zabi Peninsula.

But I don’t know any of the players, but there is no shortage of acquaintances either. The head coach of the Peninsula team is the former chief assistant coach of the Chinese team and the Dutchman Henk Tenkat.

Tenkat once assisted Rijkaard in the Dutch national team and Barcelona. In 2008, he came to the Chinese national team with Jieshuai.

After returning from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa with great success, Jieshuai's entire coaching staff renewed their contracts and received salary increases. However, a year later, Tenkat revealed that he wanted to pursue a solo career.

If Zhuoyang hadn't spoken, Tenkat wouldn't have been able to leave. Chinese people make money easily, but if they want to breach the contract, they can't just open their mouths.

In October 2011, Tenkat left the national football coaching staff. His chief assistant was replaced by Sforza, and Warnes was also added to the coaching staff.

Tenkat was first hired by Qatar's Umm Salal Club with a high salary, and then went to Shandong Luneng the following year, but was fired before the end of the season because of his poor record.

Tenkat later returned to the Netherlands to coach Sparta Rotterdam, and last year came to the United Arab Emirates to take up the coach of the Abu Dhabi Peninsula.

The Emirates Super League is a multi-year league, and Tenkat showed his coaching skills here. He led Peninsula to win the 201st place, and also won the League Cup double championship, so he was fortunate to participate in this Club World Cup as a wild card.

After all, they are old friends who have contributed to Chinese football. After meeting, Zhuoyang and Tenkat chatted affectionately for a few words. They were polite but not very nutritious.

The coach of the U23 youth team of the Abu Dhabi Peninsula is no ordinary person. Former Serie A and Premier League star and Romanian ‘Viper’ Adrian Mutu became a superior and subordinate to Tenkat in January this year.

Mutu 3 retired. He was quite unlucky. He couldn't write the word "Mu" twice in one stroke, but he was the first star in the world to fall out with Mourinho, and was subsequently expelled from Chelsea for taking drugs.

Originally he went to Juventus and Fiorentina and played well, but Mutu couldn't figure it out and filed a complaint against Chelsea. As a result, Abramovich was angered. After collecting evidence, Chelsea countersued Mutu and asked him to compensate the club for 28 million losses.

The FIFA Dispute Resolution Tribunal supported Chelsea's evidence and ruled that Mutu should compensate Chelsea 17,173, plus 5% interest every year, starting from September 2008.

Mutu was a prodigal son who spent a lot of time and was as poor as a lamp before he retired. His highest annual salary when playing football was 3.35 million euros before tax at Chelsea.

Nine years later, Mutu cannot afford to pay a penny, but the compensation including principal and interest has reached 24 million euros. For nine years, Mutu could only rely on constant appeals to delay his debts. He had almost exhausted all the courts where he could appeal.

After his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) failed and was dismissed two months ago, Mutu is currently preparing to go to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court next year and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) the year after that. In this way, it can be delayed for at least another two or three years.

Abu Dhabi is such a great place to live in a state of intoxication.

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