The Godfather of Football

The news that Moon Sports Services was organizing the European Youth Champions League immediately appeared on major mainstream websites around the world after the press conference, which immediately attracted the attention and coverage of the media. The next day, it quickly landed on the pages of major newspapers and media around the world. Almost all newspapers that care about football were reporting on this major event.

UEFA President Platini personally signed a licensing agreement with Paul Newman, CEO of Moon Sports Services.

At the end of the press conference, Paul Newman also announced the 32 participating teams, including Ajax, Rennes, Sporting Lisbon, Marseille and other teams with excellent youth training, as well as Barcelona, ​​Real Madrid, Tottenham Hotspur and other top teams.

Moreover, this time, Moon Sports Services also specially recreated the logo and brand of the European Youth Champions League. This is obviously a conscious act, the purpose of which is to be able to distinguish it from the Champions League one day in the future, but for the time being, this event still has to cling to the Champions League.

Fans all over the world have given high praise to this move of Moon Sports Services. Many people even believe that if the competition for 19-year-old young players is well organized, the viewing experience will not be inferior to that of adult teams, because many adult teams now focus more on physical competition and their playing style tends to be conservative.

Moon Sports Services has its own set of plans for how to operate this event, but it will not consider expanding the army or forming the so-called European Youth League Cup in the short term. After all, it is better to bite off more than you can chew. The most important thing now is to build the European Youth Champions League first.

As long as this event is successful, then the so-called Youth League Cup or other series of events will be a natural thing. And if it is expanded blindly now, it is not a good thing.

Paul Newman said at the press conference that someone introduced him to Ye Qiu.

When Mark Wobenton and Frank McParland hoped that Tottenham Hotspur would support their plan, Ye Qiu had an in-depth discussion with them and asked them a series of questions. In the end, he was very optimistic about the plan and expressed his willingness to strongly support and even invest money.

Mark Wobenton and Frank McParland were not rich people, nor did they have any ambitions. The plan had been prepared for two years, but they could not find investors. So when Ye Qiu agreed to support it, they immediately realized that the opportunity had come, because Ye Qiu's connections and financial resources in European football were well known.

Later, Ye Qiu recommended it to Paul Newman. After all, if Tottenham Hotspur participated in such a thing, it would not be good. Instead, it was Moon Sports Services, which was getting bigger and bigger, and more and more competitive, and had enough resources and financial resources to independently operate such an event.

So now Moon Sports Services has set up a subsidiary to run this project.

Regarding this plan of Moon Sports Services, experts have said that if it succeeds, it will completely change the existing pattern of European football, especially for those young players aged 17, 18 or 19, who will receive great attention.

This has certain benefits for young people, but there are also great risks.

At the same time, this may greatly improve the mobility and value of young players. The reason is simple. If the European Youth Champions League is successful, they will form a transfer operation system similar to the existing European adult teams. The mobility of young players will become more frequent, and the value of players will also rise accordingly.

Of course, everything in the world has its pros and cons. What is good for you may not be good for others. It is impossible for you to be good for me and everyone to be good. Therefore, for the impact that this event may bring, everyone maintains a wait-and-see strategy, but they all believe that this is a progress.

In any case, everything still has to wait until the European Youth Champions League is successful before it can be done accurately.

But it is obvious that Tottenham Hotspur has made sufficient preparations in advance. As soon as the European Youth Champions League was announced and the group stage schedule was released, Tottenham Hotspur logged out the ticket booking window on the official website. The game will be held at the Theobald training base, where there is a stadium that can accommodate 12,000 fans, and if the attendance is hot, it can be further expanded.

Judging from the situation at the ticket booking window, Tottenham Hotspur's business department obviously locked the potential audience of the European Youth Champions League on teenagers, so their ticket prices are also very low, with adult tickets costing five pounds and children's tickets costing two pounds, which is really good value for money compared to the first-team events.

Tottenham Hotspur's youth team is quite strong. This season, players including Lucas Moura, Pogba, Coutinho, Neymar, Nick Powell, Varane and others may all participate in this event. After all, they are more likely to play as substitutes and participate in reserve team matches. If they can participate in this higher-level European Youth Champions League, it will also be a help for them.

Because of this, as soon as the ticket window for Tottenham Hotspur Youth Team appeared, it immediately became the object of fans' pursuit within a few days. Many people even bought all the tickets for the entire group stage in one go, that is, three home games. Even if calculated according to adult tickets, it was only 15 pounds.

Entering September, in just less than ten days, Tottenham Hotspur sold more than 7,000 tickets for the European Youth Champions League, which made other European teams feel far behind, because many of them even sold less than 1,000 tickets, while Tottenham Hotspur's tickets were so popular.

As early as last season's English Youth FA Cup final, Tottenham Hotspur played against Liverpool. This game was arranged to be held at White Hart Lane. The stadium was full and there were no seats left. Countless Tottenham Hotspur fans came to watch this game, and a group of young people led by Nick Powell defeated Liverpool and won the championship.

So, Tottenham Hotspur Youth Team is popular, and this is a tradition.

At the same time, Tottenham Hotspur officially announced the team's financial situation last season. Transfer income was not included in this financial statement. After all, Tottenham Hotspur is now privately owned, and the announcement of the financial situation is just to let fans know more about the team's situation.

In this financial statement, the team showed all Tottenham Hotspur fans the team's operating results in the past season. First of all, the player's salary decreased by 12 million euros, mainly from the club's sale of several core players including Yaya Toure, Fabregas, David Silva, etc.

But in the European arena, the team finally stopped in the quarterfinals, causing Tottenham Hotspur's revenue in the Champions League to drop sharply, which was almost exactly offset by the reduction in player wages.

In the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur successfully defended the title, and the income was basically flat, without much change. There was not much breakthrough in the match day income, but it increased by 3 million euros compared with the 09/10 season, which can be regarded as no progress. This also shows the bottleneck of White Hart Lane.

You know, in terms of stadium management and match day revenue, Tottenham Hotspur has about 70 million euros less than Arsenal in a season, and the gap between them and Manchester United is also about 70 million euros. It can be seen that Tottenham Hotspur's biggest problem is still in home stadium management.

The attendance rate is not a big problem, mainly due to the stadium capacity and the lack of potential to be explored. At least the rent of a restaurant in Arsenal is as high as 15 million euros a year, not to mention the ticket revenue, which is not available at White Hart Lane.

However, Tottenham Hotspur's commercial revenue this time is as high as 160 million euros, which undoubtedly set a record for the highest commercial operating revenue in Tottenham Hotspur's history.

Compared with other European teams, Bayern Munich is the leader in commercial operations, with 178 million euros, but this part includes the commercial operating income of the Allianz Arena, such as renting it out to others to host some activities, etc. If this part is deducted, the difference with Tottenham Hotspur is not very big, about 4 to 5 million euros.

Real Madrid has 6 million euros less than Bayern Munich, Barcelona has 156 million euros, and Manchester United has 114 million euros. If they leave out the commercial income of the stadium, they will all lag behind Tottenham Hotspur.

Manchester United's commercial income has not increased much, but this does not include the new training suit sponsorship contract of up to 10 million pounds signed by Manchester United. In addition, Manchester United has not made any major breakthroughs in commercial income in the past few years. David Gill is supporting Manchester United's financial situation on the surface, but in fact, the breakthrough is not big.

You know, Tottenham Hotspur's financial income has been setting new highs almost every year in the past few years, and teams such as Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Barcelona have also repeatedly set new highs, but relatively speaking, Manchester United has long lost the vigor of the beginning of the century, and the name of the Red Devils Business Empire is now somewhat unworthy of its name.

And what troubles Manchester United are debts and interest. They paid 51.2 million pounds in interest in the past season, and the cost of players has also increased by 36.4%. So although Manchester United has done a good job in opening up sources, saving is a problem.

In general, Manchester United is no longer the commercial hegemon of the past, but the brand value of the Red Devils is still quite high. In the field of commercial operations, the old teams Real Madrid and Barcelona have performed well, but Bayern Munich and Tottenham Hotspur are undoubtedly the newcomers in this field, especially Tottenham Hotspur.

If it were not limited by the stadium, Tottenham Hotspur would probably have become the highest-income football club in Europe.

Tottenham Hotspur's commercial revenue has reached a new high, mainly from the sponsor system.

BMW has re-signed a sponsorship contract with Tottenham Hotspur, with an annual amount of 12 million euros, which is the highest amount among all European car sponsorships, and also reflects the importance BMW attaches to Tottenham Hotspur.

In addition, in addition to the two major sponsors Adidas and Qatar Airways, Tottenham Hotspur also has ten chief partners, who all pay between 6 million and 12 million euros in sponsorship for the team every year. , including BMW, Coca-Cola, Yingli Solar from China, etc., as well as 15 first-class partners, with annual payment amounts ranging from 2 million to 4 million euros.

There are also a range of other sponsors and partners, such as telecommunications companies in the Middle East and Asia.

It is such a huge sponsor system that has built Tottenham Hotspur's business empire, allowing Tottenham Hotspur to achieve such outstanding business breakthroughs every year, and this business set led by Peter Kenyon The team will also continue to further develop and tap Tottenham Hotspur’s commercial potential.

As a model of healthy management in the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur has achieved high revenue, but the team is very frugal in expenditures. Player salaries rank behind Manchester City, West Ham United, Newcastle, Manchester United, and Chelsea in the Premier League. After Liverpool, they are only ranked seventh. This is after surpassing Arsenal after the past round of contract renewal.

It is precisely because of this that many media previously believed that Tottenham Hotspur had some financial problems. For example, the team has never announced the use of transfer fee income, and the team has recently There is a surplus every year, but where are the funds used?

But Tottenham Hotspur is not a listed company, so there is no need to announce it to the public so thoroughly, and almost no one would believe that Ye Qiu, who does not receive half a cent salary from the club, would use Tottenham Hotspur to make money. He is now worth an astonishing sum, and it is more than enough to buy ten Tottenham Hotspurs. Does he still need to rely on Tottenham Hotspurs to make money?

Therefore, fans mostly just find it funny or curious about the media bombardment, but they have no objection at all.

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After two weeks of national team matches, Tottenham Hotspur regrouped to prepare for the game against West Ham United at Theobald, while the team's youth team was preparing to welcome the youth team from Leverkusen. Challenge, this is also the first game of the European Youth Champions League, and the time is arranged in the blank time period between the Premier League and the Champions League.

This is also the cunning thing about broadcasters, using this time difference to gain attention from the outside world.

Ranieri's team has learned the lessons from the first two rounds this time. When playing Tottenham Hotspur, even if it is a home game, the Hammers still focus on defense and actively defend in front of their own goal. , and then use the opportunity to counterattack to sneak attack Tottenham Hotspur, hoping to defeat the opponent at home.

Tottenham Hotspur did not dare to underestimate this time. They sent out all their main players to play as a guest at the Upson Stadium. Although the team suffered a tenacious sniper attack from the Hammers, they also withstood the defensive pressure from the home team very well. , although the two sides tied 0:0 in the first half, the initiative and advantage of the game is still firmly controlled by Tottenham Hotspur.

In the second half, Tottenham Hotspur finally exerted its strength. With the goals of Cavani and Messi, they defeated West Ham United 2:0 away from home and won a not easy victory.

In this game, Tottenham Hotspur showed their steady side, with a 57% ball possession rate, which is in line with Tottenham Hotspur's consistent effective ball control, and the fourteen shots were higher than those of West Ham United. There were ten more shots, but only five shots were on target, which shows that West Ham United still did a pretty good job defensively.

Ranieri is indeed a tinkerer. He is very aware of the strength of Tottenham Hotspur and the free kick skills of Pirlo, Messi and others. Therefore, he must not only ensure defense, but at the same time Players are required not to easily give the opponent free kick opportunities within the thirty-meter area, especially frontal free kick opportunities.

You know, Pirlo is a monster who can take free kicks as penalty kicks.

West Ham United still did a good job in this regard. As a result, Tottenham Hotspur suffered 14 fouls from the Hammers throughout the game, but they failed to get a good free kick opportunity and 12 corner kicks. It also failed to create a threat.

As for the team's performance that seemed to have declined, Ye Qiu said at the post-match press conference that it was all within his expectations, "No team can maintain its best form, especially considering the players. I just traveled a long way to participate in the national team game, so I am very satisfied with this game! ”

Ranieri said that Tottenham Hotspur's current strength is unique in the Premier League, and other teams need to make more efforts to defeat Tottenham Hotspur, and he has repeatedly reiterated that West Ham The most important thing for United is to reach the top four in the league.

In this round, Liverpool lost to Stoke City 0:1 in an upset away game. The Red Army will also visit White Hart Lane in the next game, while Manchester United slaughtered Bolton Wanderers 5:0 away from home, showing their own strength. In a good competitive state, Newcastle played a boring 0:0 battle.

After the Premier League ended, Tottenham Hotspur's youth team welcomed the Bundesliga team Bayer Leverkusen's youth team at their home court on Monday, kicking off the European Youth Champions League, and this battle leaves Qiu also showed his sincerity. Players who failed to enter the Champions League starting lineup include Nick Powell, Lucas Moura, Varane, Nastasic, Phil Jones, Pogba and other players all started.

Tottenham Hotspur's young players are all under 19 years old, and they have enough experience to play in the game, but they also have rich professional experience. Leverkusen's youth team lost a terrible 0:7 in Theobald!

This battle once again made Tottenham Hotspur's youth army appear in front of all fans. All Tottenham Hotspur fans who came to the scene were so fascinated by it, and all media said that Tottenham Hotspur's youth team's biggest opponent should be Barcelona's La Masia, or Real Madrid's Castilla, or Ajax and other teams.

Two days after the end of the European Youth Champions League, that is, on Wednesday, Tottenham Hotspur defeated Leverkusen 2:0 at home.