The Godfather of Football

"Mr. Liu, Mr. Ren, and everyone, welcome to North London!"

Outside the gate of Tottenham Hotspur's White Hart Lane Stadium on Haig Road in North London, Ye Qiu, wearing a rare straight and solemn Versace suit and black leather shoes, greeted the members of the Chinese Entrepreneurs Club delegation who walked down from the luxury business bus with a smile on his face.

This is an exchange activity that has been going on for many years. Almost every year, there are Chinese entrepreneur delegations visiting Europe, and every year there are also some European entrepreneur delegations visiting China, but in the past few years, they have never come to Tottenham Hotspur. It's just that this time they specially added a plan to visit Tottenham Hotspur in their itinerary.

Not only that, before they came to White Hart Lane Stadium, they also went to Chinatown and Stratford Stadium in the south of the financial district, as well as Zhenhua Building next to the stadium. They are all very famous landmark buildings in London, and there are strong Chinese elements behind them.

Chen Zhong is also a member of the delegation, but he is younger. So although Huangtian Group is already the best among private enterprises, it still lacks reputation and influence. This time, the delegation is led by Lenovo Holdings Chairman Liu Dong.

Peter Kenyon, as the team's CEO, and Ron Gourley made a special trip to Stratford Stadium to receive this group of entrepreneurs from China, and accompanied them all the way to White Hart Lane. After shaking hands with Ye Qiu one by one, a group of people walked into the stadium under the attention of the media and reporters on the scene.

From the fan stand channel to the stands, and then walked down the stadium, I personally experienced the atmosphere of the home stadium of the Premier League.

"If there is a chance, let's organize a football match for domestic entrepreneurs and play a good game!" Lenovo Group's Liu Dong felt quite good about White Hart Lane. The football atmosphere here is very strong. From the fan stand channel to the inside of the stadium, all are creating a professional football atmosphere.

"I'm afraid that many people will not be able to hold on for a few minutes and shout that they can't bear it!" Huawei's CEO Ren laughed in a loud voice.

Ye Qiu also laughed, "It doesn't matter, you will still be in London tomorrow night, then come and experience it!"

Coincidentally, this time their visit to the UK will only last for a week. During this week, Tottenham Hotspur played two consecutive away games, but in the third round of the Champions League group stage in the middle of the week, they played at home against Genk of Belgium, so Ye Qiu invited them to come to White Hart Lane to watch the game in person.

The Champions League game, and Tottenham Hotspur's Champions League group stage, is definitely an opportunity that countless domestic fans don't want to miss, so when Ye Qiu mentioned it, this group of people, whether they are fans or not, immediately agreed one after another.

After visiting White Hart Lane, everyone returned to the administrative office of White Hart Lane.

"To be honest, I insisted on coming here this time, mainly to thank you!" After a group of people walked into the conference room, after the staff brought tea and coffee, Director Liu said with emotion.

Ye Qiu smiled slightly. He knew what he meant. Because YeZi Technology has been taking good care of domestic enterprises in the past few years, apart from other things, it has given very generous treatment to several domestic enterprises, such as Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE and other domestic mobile phone manufacturers, for mobile phone systems and patents.

This has also led to the rapid development of Chinese smartphone manufacturers in the past few years. They generally take the low-end route and have little competition with the high-end route of YeZi Technology. Even if YeZi Technology acquired Nokia and took the mid-end route, the competition pressure between them is not particularly great.

Moreover, for YeZi Technology, the most important thing for Nokia is the map business and patents. The mobile phone business or mobile phone brand is dispensable for YeZi Technology.

Another thing to thank is that Lenovo is currently the only authorized dealer of YeZi Technology's Android PC system in the world. In other words, among all computer manufacturers in the world, only Lenovo can produce ultrabooks and laptops equipped with Android systems, which will bring Lenovo a new round of rapid development.

This was not something Ye Qiu had deliberately arranged, but because Lenovo had always cooperated with Leaf Technology. After Leaf Technology decided to enter the ultrabook market, Lenovo expressed interest, and the two sides quickly entered into negotiations. Ye Qiu and Leaf Technology executives felt that Lenovo, which was the first to dare to enter the ultrabook market, should be given some preferential treatment.

But soon after, computer manufacturers including HP, Dell, Asus, Acer, etc. are expected to enter the ultrabook market one after another, but whether they will adopt Leaf Technology's Android system is unknown, after all, the two sides are still in the negotiation stage.

"Before, I talked to Mr. Ren. Now, electronic digital products, whether computers or other, are manufactured in China and sold in Europe. The whole process is very convenient. The European market is becoming more and more important to us, so we have always hoped to further expand the European market!"

Ye Qiu understood that with the construction and commissioning of the three Eurasian Continental Bridges, the logistics of the Eurasian continent in the future will change from relying on sea transportation in the past to relying more on land transportation. For example, many electronic products such as computers and notebooks are packed from Chongqing and shipped to Germany and the Netherlands via the Eurasian Continental Bridge, which takes more than half a month.

In this case, the EU market is indeed very important to Lenovo. A year ago, President Liu once shouted in France that he hoped to let half of the French know the Lenovo brand in five years.

Similarly, I believe they also hope to further promote their brand influence in Europe.

What is the most powerful promotion channel in Europe? Without a doubt, football!

"This time I came to your stadium specially. I not only hope to have the opportunity to communicate with you face to face and gain some experience from you to help us open up the European market, but at the same time, we also hope to reach an agreement in the next few days and sign a sponsorship cooperation with you Tottenham Hotspur!"

Ye Qiu was a little surprised. Huawei wanted to cooperate with Tottenham Hotspur. This was something that the two parties had agreed on before. Huawei would be one of Tottenham Hotspur's first-level sponsors, but Ye Qiu did not expect that Lenovo also had such an interest.

But it is no wonder that Tottenham Hotspur's influence in the European and global markets is getting bigger and bigger. Once a cooperation agreement is reached with Tottenham Hotspur, it will be of great benefit to the international promotion of both Huawei and Lenovo.

"We welcome it very much!" Ye Qiu immediately made a statement. After all, this is good for Tottenham's business development, and he is willing to cooperate now, but the specific details of the cooperation, such as how to sign the sponsorship contract, the sponsor's authority, and the sponsorship amount, will be handed over to the people below to discuss.

For example, the agreement reached between Huawei and Tottenham before, the annual sponsorship fee is about 7 million euros, and the authority is that Huawei becomes Tottenham's first-level partner, that is, Tottenham will no longer be able to sign other partners that compete with Huawei.

If you think that the first-level partner is more expensive, it doesn't matter. You can sign a second-level partner, which is a relatively low-cost sponsorship level, but the scope of the exclusive clause will not apply to the world, but will be obviously regional.

For example, Tottenham has signed six or seven telecom operators in the Middle East and Asia before, which are all outside the scope of Vodafone, so there is no conflict in the exclusive clause.

Now, if Huawei is included, Tottenham Hotspur has a total of eleven first-tier partners and thirteen second-tier partners. Together with important partners such as Qatar Airways, Adidas and Vodafone, Tottenham Hotspur's entire sponsorship system has become a key foundation for Tottenham Hotspur to maintain profitability.

The team's performance has ups and downs. For example, in the past two seasons, Tottenham Hotspur was in the semi-finals and quarter-finals of the Champions League, and its revenue dropped by tens of millions compared to the two seasons when it won the championship. Therefore, running a club must be divided clearly. Business development and match day income are the basis of a team's operation and determine the team's lower limit of operation, while the income brought by the game results is floating and determines the upper limit of a team.

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Because British Prime Minister Cameron decided to meet with the Chinese entrepreneur delegation in Downing Street, and London Mayor Boris Johnson was going to host a banquet for them in the evening, and Ye Qiu and his wife were also invited to attend, so the details of the cooperation were not discussed much by each other, but were intended to be left to their subordinates to negotiate.

After visiting the White Hart Lane Stadium, Ye Qiu sent them on the bus to 10 Downing Street. He met with Peter Kenyon and Ron Gourlay, conveyed Lenovo's cooperation intention just now, and also revealed that there may be other potential partners in the delegation.

To be honest, Europe is now suffering from the pain of the European debt crisis. All knowledgeable people know that this is a crisis, but also an opportunity, so many companies also hope to take this opportunity to enter the European market.

In addition to discussing sponsorship matters, Ye Qiu also talked about a very critical issue, that is, the adjustment of the player salary structure, the first thing to bear the brunt is to increase the upper limit of the team salary.

Ye Qiu has always been reluctant to easily change the team's salary structure in the past, because once it is changed, it means a substantial increase in the club's operating costs, because you can't just raise one or two people. Once it is loosened, the salary structure of all the team members will have to be raised.

If calculated according to normal thinking logic, Tottenham Hotspur makes money almost every year, and the players play very well. Normal logic should not be that the team should give the players higher salaries? Just like Real Madrid gives players high salaries!

Yes, this is indeed normal logic, but the problem is that after the salary is given out, it is basically difficult to get it back.

Just like the social welfare in many European countries, it is almost impossible to get back the promises made, so the Greeks who are going bankrupt would rather the country go bankrupt than sacrifice welfare. The reason is very simple. They think this is part of what they deserve.

In fact, there is such a trend in the entire European football world now. Salaries have become uncontrollable and are rushing up like a volcanic eruption.

Tottenham Hotspur has not followed this trend in the past few years. The team would rather sell stars one by one than give them a large salary increase. This is because Ye Qiu knows very well that after the salary goes up, it is basically impossible to reduce it.

Just like Chelsea, after the Blues sold Shevchenko and Ballack, did their overall salary decrease? No!

Arsenal sold those big-name stars, and their salary is still among the best. With that lineup, is it reasonable?

There are also Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, West Ham United and Newcastle. These teams will eventually find that player salaries have become a burden that cannot be removed, a heavy burden on the team!

Ye Qiu has never advocated participating in the arms race, but he advocates reasonable salaries, so in the past he divided the player's salary into two parts, one is the player's salary, and the other is the commercial operation income. The player's salary also includes basic salary and the players' participation in the game, as well as floating income determined by the team's performance.

But now, the team's business conditions, especially the outstanding performance of the business operation, make the team fully capable of bearing higher player salaries, so it is necessary to raise the players' salaries.

"Ron and I have considered it, and we basically agree with your suggestion to increase the salary and benefits, but we are generally more than 200,000 pounds a week compared to other teams. Even 300,000 pounds, there will definitely be a big gap!" Peter Kenyon has been complaining about those big tycoons who burn money for a long time.

That group of guys, relying on their endless money, offered players a weekly salary of up to 300,000 pounds. This is simply deadly. Who can compete with them? Even when Yaya Toure transferred to Manchester City, the salary offered by the other party was also frighteningly high. Tottenham Hotspur would definitely not be able to imitate this.

"We plan to arrange the first salary at 150,000 pounds a week!" Ron Gourlay expressed his thoughts.

150,000 pounds, perhaps at first glance, this weekly salary is very low, especially in the context of the general soaring salaries of players in the Premier League and European football. For example, Torres' salary after transferring to Chelsea was as high as 180,000 pounds, and Chelsea's Ashley Cole's salary was as high as 200,000 pounds, not to mention those top superstars.

"This is just the salary paid by the club. According to our commercial operation of players in the past few years, the income from players' image rights, sponsorship and endorsements has increased by more than 30% almost every year. For example, Ramsey's commercial income in the past six months is more than twice his entire 2010."

Ramsey has become a main player in Tottenham Hotspur and his performance is getting better and better. The reason why this player is valued by Ye Qiu is that his ability to improve and learn is very good. He is improving in almost every game. The same is true for Vidal. The Chilean's progress is also very obvious.

This improvement is due to the players themselves, but the targeted guidance and a series of auxiliary means of the Tottenham Hotspur coaching team are also important reasons. As the players' performance improves, they are valued more and more by sponsors.

In less than half a year since he became a main player, Ramsey has signed thirteen sponsorship contracts, including some big-name sponsors such as Nike, so he is now wearing Adidas and stepping on Nike. Once he continues to maintain this momentum of improvement and continues to perform well, his income in this area will also increase.

Ye Qiu thought for a moment and asked, "Can the team finances afford the salary increase?"

"According to our current preliminary judgment, if we enter Stratford Stadium in 2013, the revenue for one season is expected to increase by at least 150 million pounds, of which the ticket revenue alone will exceed 70 million pounds. Add to that a series of other revenues such as shops, restaurants, and advertising, and there should be no problem in increasing by 150 million pounds." Ron Gourley explained.

After listening, Peter Kenyon took over the conversation, "This does not take into account the team selling the stadium title. If we sell the stadium title and the training base title, it is expected that the annual revenue will increase by about 35 million to 45 million pounds, but we have no plans to start this plan yet!"

To say that there is no such plan is actually that there is no suitable offer. After all, for a team like Tottenham Hotspur, the Theobald training base and the Stratford Stadium platform cannot be without potential interested sponsors, but there is no offer that Tottenham Hotspur can accept.

Now, in the four major European leagues, except for Serie A because the stadium does not belong to them, La Liga, Bundesliga and the Premier League have generally set off a stadium naming craze. From the later situation, Arsenal sold the Emirates Stadium naming for less than 7 million pounds a year, which was definitely a loss.

But there is no way to regret it now, who made you rush for money?

So, sometimes the first person to eat crabs may not be a sure win.

Ye Qiu opened the report submitted by Peter Kenyon and Ron Gourlay, which clearly analyzed the current salary structure of Tottenham Hotspur, and the cost increase brought by the team's operating pressure after the team's salary structure increased, which would cost Tottenham Hotspur about 20 million pounds a year.

This will also allow Tottenham Hotspur to surpass Arsenal and become the seventh in the Premier League salary list after Manchester City, Chelsea, West Ham United, Manchester United, Newcastle and Liverpool, which are currently at the top of the list.

But from the current perspective, salaries only account for about 40% of the team's operating income, and the team's transfer income is not included, otherwise it will be lower. Therefore, no matter from which angle you look at it, Tottenham Hotspur's finances are very healthy.

Just like Chelsea, their salary accounts for 82% of operating income, Manchester City is even more outrageous, accounting for 116%, Manchester United and Arsenal are relatively reasonable, 46% and 49% respectively, but the healthiest operation is still Tottenham Hotspur.

And this is after the players generally get a salary increase!

When the team won 58 games without losing, Ye Qiu decided to throw out the nuclear weapon of the team salary increase. The purpose is also very simple, that is, to make all the players work hard and keep working hard!