Super Marshal

Every year at the end of August, the eyes of football fans around the world are focused on the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.

Last year, Gao Han made an excuse not to participate because Manchester City missed the Champions League. But this year, UEFA not only sent an invitation letter, but also personally called the invitation. Gao Han couldn't resist, so he could only agree. He was also accompanied by Manchester United coach Ferguson.

The two first arrived in London, met up with Wenger, and then set off from London to Monaco.

Chelsea coach Luiz Felipe Scolari returned to Brazil for business this year and was unable to attend the draw ceremony.

Along the way, the topic of the three people never left football.

Since the Gunners were fourth in the Premier League last season, Wenger was once again nicknamed the "fourth-place finisher" by the fans. Therefore, Arsenal will play in the third round of qualifiers this season, which is just a piece of cake for Wenger. Successfully advanced to the group stage.

As a result, among the four teams in the Premier League this season, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea have all entered the first tier as seeded teams. This is not a good thing for the other five seeded teams.

The other five teams are Barcelona, ​​Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid and AC Milan.

These five teams are also feeling the pressure, because according to the avoidance principle of the same league in the group stage draw, Manchester City's opponents in the group stage will appear from these five teams, and no one is willing to meet Manchester City in advance in the group stage. .

But what’s even more terrifying is the teams in the second tier. Real Madrid, Lyon, Werder Bremen, Valencia, Marseille and other teams are all very strong. No matter who is unlucky to draw these teams, then It must be devastating.

Even if it is more unlucky... it may be the death group.

Because of this, all the major European clubs were in danger before the game, except for the top three in the Premier League who were gloating about the misfortune.

For Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea, as long as they can avoid Manchester City, it is a good sign.

The three arrived at the Grimaldi Conference Center and immediately attracted the attention of many media reporters from all over the world outside the venue. However, they did not stay outside the venue and entered the conference center directly after getting off the car.

In fact, there was no need to stay, because they all knew the questions asked by the media reporters and would definitely ask about the draw. However, Gao Han avoided it because he did not want to respond head-on to the La Liga strike.

As the referee committee, coaching committee and players union softened their attitudes, the Spanish Football Association fell into an isolated dilemma, but it still resisted, which forced the first round of La Liga in the new season to be postponed.

However, now everyone from the government, the Supreme Sports Council and professional leagues, to referees, coaches and players, to the most ordinary fans blame the strike on the greed of the Spanish Football Association, which makes the Spanish Football Association now The pressure is very high, and compromise should be a matter of time.

The professional league has even made harsh words. If the Spanish Football Federation persists, it will not rule out starting the competition on its own. The few powers that the Football Association originally held will be completely deprived of it. From now on, they will be completely reduced to a useless role, and even Worse than the FA.

Of course, this move is to draw money from the bottom of the cauldron and will cause many problems. The professional league is just putting pressure and will definitely not do it unless it is a last resort, but this can clearly see the pressure of the Spanish Football Association.

As soon as Gao Han walked into the conference center, he saw Guardiola, Simeone and Emery at first sight.

They knew Gao Han was coming soon through phone calls, so they stood at the entrance to block him.

"Ha, people who don't play in the league are really more leisurely."

As soon as Gao Han saw them, he immediately greeted them with a smile, but there was a burst of ridicule in his mouth.

"The main reason is because you are bigger names and always appear in the finale."

"Isn't that right? I couldn't even invite you last year."

"There's nothing I can do. I don't have the UEFA Champions League, so why bother to come?"

The three people immediately sneered at each other, and as a result, a group of people burst into laughter as soon as they met, attracting side glances from the entire audience.

Everyone present is either a club boss, a well-known European coach, or a famous European football star. When they go out, they are all dignified figures. But at this moment, seeing the circle around Gao Han, especially seeing more and more people When I came closer, I couldn't help but sigh.

In just ten years, Gao Han has risen from a nobody to the most influential figure in European football.

Not to mention anything else, among the four La Liga teams participating in the Champions League this season, Barcelona’s coach Guardiola is Gao Han’s disciple, Atletico Madrid’s coach Diego Simeone is Gao Han’s former favorite and highly recommended, and Valencia’s coach Unai Emery was also Gao Han's former right-hand man, and he understood the essence of Gao Han's tactical concepts.

Three of the top four teams are deeply affected by the cold, which shows how profound the impact of the cold on Spanish football is.

Not to mention the national team, Aragones and Del Bosque have high regard for Gao Han, and Gao Han still has the title of Technical Advisor of the Football Association on his head.

In addition to Spain, Inter Milan in Serie A and Bayern Munich in Bundesliga are also deeply affected by the cold. These two teams are now among the top teams in Europe, with amazing combat effectiveness.

Therefore, many media outside have said that the past ten years in European football have been a decade of extreme coldness. This is not an exaggeration at all.

Looking inside the venue, almost all the popular top coaches and big bosses from all the clubs came closer when they saw Gao Han's appearance. Gao Han's influence in European football is evident.

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The draw ceremony and the opening of the awards night were still hosted by UEFA Secretary General Infantino.

This bald man is familiar to all fans for hosting this annual event, and his opening is the same every year, which is to introduce in detail the main work of UEFA over the past year, especially the development of the Champions League.

For example, he will say every time that the UEFA Champions League has added several more countries and regions to broadcast, or how much the UEFA Champions League broadcast fees and team bonuses have increased. These are undoubtedly the concerns of many fans.

From Infantino’s mouth, everyone learned that last season’s Champions League bonuses reached a new high. Barcelona won the championship with a record bonus of 45 million euros, while Manchester United followed closely with 4,000 euros. Two million euros came in second place.

This is undoubtedly a quite surprising report card.

Ordinary fans often only notice the Premier League's outstanding performance in generating revenue, but ignore that the Champions League is also constantly generating revenue. Although the growth rate is not as good as that of the Premier League, the pace is more steady and the momentum is also very strong.

More importantly, the Champions League is the well-deserved highest platform for today's professional leagues.

The reason why Manchester United is able to rank second in the money list is due to the new broadcast contract signed by English broadcaster Sky TV and UEFA which is much higher than before, which makes the Premier League have four teams participating in the Champions League. The bonus has also been increased.

UEFA's bonus distribution in the Champions League is mainly composed of two parts. One part is the market bonus, which is the income from the Champions League broadcast rights in the country where the team is located, and is distributed by the participating teams in the country based on their performance.

For example, the market bonus of the Premier League is the broadcast fee obtained by UEFA from selling the broadcast rights of the Champions League in England to Sky TV. Most of the revenue is directly distributed to the four participating teams in the Premier League in the form of market bonus.

Therefore, the higher the cost of selling broadcast rights, the greater the income will be received by the country’s Champions League participating teams.

Of course, the number of participating teams must also be considered.

Another part is the participation bonus, which is the reward for participating in the Champions League, such as group stage appearance fees, winning bonuses and draw bonuses, etc.

In fact, in addition to these two parts of prize money, there is also a very important amount of income from game days and sponsors.

Compared with teams that only participate in the league, participating in the Champions League undoubtedly involves more games, and the tickets for the Champions League are often the most sold, and fans and sponsors are also very enthusiastic about it, so these two incomes are also quite amazing.

According to last season's performance, Liverpool was eliminated from the group stage, but also received a bonus of 27 million euros. Coupled with the match day income and sponsor income in the group stage, the total income is expected to be close to 40 million euros. .

But this season the Red Army failed to qualify for the Champions League and suffered heavy losses.

"To be honest, your Chinatown should compete for the Champions League as soon as possible."

Infantino gave a long speech on the stage, and Ferguson whispered to Gao Han in the audience.

Gao Han heard a wry smile, "Sir, you're not being kind to say that. You just poached Mkhitaryan from me, and you told me you want to compete for the Champions League. Did you mean it?"

Guardiola and others sitting next to the two men covered their mouths and snickered. Even Ferguson himself couldn't help it.

"I'm just kindly reminding you that the Champions League is the key. Only by reaching the Champions League can we retain people. And according to Spanish standards, the annual income is more than 30 million euros. What do you think?"

When people go to higher places, water flows to lower places. Gao Han knows this truth very well.

"Then do you know how much our matchday income is for a year? It's less than a fraction of your Manchester United's, and you want me to compete for the Champions League?" Gao Han almost beat the old man to death. He couldn't stand and talk without pain in his back.

"Haha, actually, what he meant was, stop coaching in the Premier League and go back and lead your team." Wenger revealed the truth with a smile.

Ferguson nodded tacitly towards his nemesis, as if to say, my parents are the ones who gave me birth, and Wenger is the one who knows me.

"If you continue to stay in the Premier League, we have no chance." Ferguson reluctantly admitted.

"I must win a Champions League in Manchester City!" Gao Han said very firmly.

After hearing this, Ferguson and others thought it was normal. They felt that Gao Han only did this after agreeing to Mansour.

But only Gao Han understood in his heart that he was here to complete the task of the championship collector in the coaching system. He always felt that the reward after completing the task would be very attractive.

And now, except for the Premier League and Ligue 1, he has completed them all.

Once he completes the tasks of these two leagues, Gao Han will seriously consider his future, because he has gradually discovered that with the rapid development of Chinatown, it is no longer possible for him to take care of both ends as before.

While everyone was talking in low voices, Infantino on the stage finally ended his long speech.

The first award ceremony was held for the best goalkeeper. Former Spanish national goalkeeper Zubizarreta took the stage to present the award. The person who received this award was Cesar who played for Inter Milan. This was mainly the goalkeeper of the two teams participating in the Champions League final. Neither Valdes nor Asenjo had a satisfactory and stable performance, so Cesar won this award.

Cesar and Zubizarreta also drew the eight seeded teams into eight different groups.

The next step was the best defender. This time Barcelona did their part. Pique won this award and the award was presented to him by former German defender Bremer.

When Pique took over the best defender award from Bremer, he entered the second-tier team draw.