The Era of Emerald

PS1: Today's update is here. I hope that all book friends will not pay too much attention to the update time, and I promise that there will be no continuous updates...

PS2: Let me talk about the book friend group here. The group numbers are three, seven, zero, five, four, nine, nine, one, nine. The verified answer is NTR Knight, um, that's it.

PS3: Here I would like to thank the book friends "zzllss", "Zhudao Layman" and "Paganini's Left Hand" for their rewards.

The fact that Fiorentina defeated Parma to win the European Super Cup did not cause much waves in European football. After all, most people can see that there is a considerable gap in the strength of the two teams, so they are also mentally prepared for this.In other words, if Fiorentina lost to Parma in the final, it would make their jaws drop.

After the game, the Fiorentina team happily flew back to Italy. They need to prepare as soon as possible for the league opener due to the postponement of the European Super Cup.As for the celebration after winning the championship... In the eyes of the Fiorentina players, a European Super Cup champion with little weight is not worth celebrating with great fanfare. A small celebration party in the club is enough.

Although the players returned to Fiorentina overnight after the game, the Fiorentina executives headed by Zhuang Mingge did not leave with the team.Because two days later, that is, the last day of August, the European Champions Cup group stage draw ceremony for the 03-04 season will be held in Monaco.

Therefore, when the head coach Heynckes needs to lead the team to prepare for the league, Zhuang Mingge, as the chairman of the Fiorentina club, naturally took over this task and represented Fiorentina to participate in the Champions League group draw ceremony.

Regarding the group draw, Zhuang Mingge was still a little worried.Because of Fiorentina's outstanding performance in winning six Champions League titles in the past eight years, this event, which represents the highest level of European football clubs, lacks a lot of suspense. Most of the media and fans have formed a mindset, that is Fiorentina Always the favorite to win the Champions League!

Therefore, although Fiorentina's reputation in the international football world has been greatly shaken by the achievement of six championships in eight years, making Zi Lily the strongest club in the hearts of countless fans, such a situation is not a good thing for the development of the Champions League itself. .After all, if an event wants to continue its good development, its internal competition must be fierce enough, and it cannot be dominated by one family for a long time.Otherwise, its attractiveness to fans and sponsors will be reduced, and its influence and commercial value will also be reduced, which will adversely affect its development and growth.

Some people may ask, why did Serie A still maintain a good momentum of development during Fiorentina's five consecutive championships, but the Champions League couldn't do this?Because although Fiorentina was invincible on the Serie A battlefield at the time, it does not mean that they will never lose, and the tragic competition among other teams well made up for the disadvantages caused by the long-term possession of the championship trophy by Fiorentina. A large number of well-known stars played by various clubs in Serie A and the fierce competition for European qualifications were the two most attractive landscapes of Serie A at that time.

In contrast, the Champions League has obvious shortcomings in this regard.Because unlike Serie A, which has a stable audience, the biggest selling point of this event is the final ownership of the championship trophy. The duel between stars and the confrontation between giants are secondary parts.Therefore, once the championship loses its due suspense, the value of the Champions Cup will decrease a lot.After all, there is no shortage of stars and giants in the four major leagues, and there is no need for fans to watch the Champions League.

From this point of view, it seems to be a matter of course that Fiorentina will be targeted by UEFA.

So, the day before the draw ceremony, Zhuang Mingge, who was worried, quietly visited Beckenbauer, who arrived in Monaco ahead of schedule, and wanted to find out from him how UEFA views Fiorentina so that he can make the next step for the club. development policy.

"Antonio, you are really worrying too much." After Zhuang Mingge finished telling his reason for coming, Beckenbauer handed the freshly brewed black tea to him, sat on the other side of the table with a smile, and said, "Indeed , Fiorentina's frequent victories in the Champions League have brought a certain negative impact on the promotion of the commercial value of this event, but this impact is not as big as you think. Don't forget, Fiorentina is not in the Champions Cup The winning experience of Manchester United and Real Madrid has given many teams confidence that they can also challenge Fiorentina's dominance in the Champions League."

"Uh, to hear what you said, Franz, did I think too much myself?" After hearing Beckenbauer's answer, Zhuang Mingge couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief, and said with some embarrassment, "If that's the case, Then I'm relieved..."

"However, in order to prevent other teams from despairing of winning the Champions League, we still need to take some special care for Fiorentina. For example, we will set more obstacles for Fiorentina in terms of the game schedule and the arrangement of opponents, and increase the number of expensive clubs. The difficulty of successfully defending the Champions Cup." Seeing that Zhuang Mingge was relieved, Beckenbauer changed the subject and said, "Of course, Antonio, you can rest assured. Although we will give Fiorentina problems in these two aspects, we will definitely not let them The referee blows the whistle in the game. After all, ensuring the fairness and impartiality of the game as much as possible is the essence of attracting fans in an event, and we will not do stupid things that destroy our foundation in order to achieve our goals."

Zhuang Mingge did not express any puzzlement or objection to Beckenbauer's statement.Because he knows very well that Fiorentina can indeed be regarded as the most powerful existence among all giants in terms of strength, so it is inevitable that UEFA will make it difficult for Viola in terms of schedule and opponents.In fact, Beckenbauer can guarantee that there will be no refereeing problems in the Fiorentina game, and Zhuang Mingge is already very content.

Thinking about my previous life, how many unjust, false and wrong cases were committed by UEFA during Platini's tenure, and the referee problem was frequently reported in the newspapers and criticized by people.Therefore, this guarantee from Beckenbauer is very important to Florence.Because even if Fiorentina loses the game and is eliminated from the Champions League, it can only be said that Viola is not as good as others or her own strength is not strong enough, rather than like Italy and Spain in last year's World Cup, which made people worry about UEFA. Dissatisfaction with life caused those players who were actively fighting on the field to be wronged and wronged.

In this way, on the evening of August 8, when the famous Real Madrid star who appeared at the draw ceremony as a special guest of UEFA, Di Stefano put the Eredivisie champion Ajax and La Liga runner-up Real Sociedad with a smile. , and when the Ukrainian giants Dynamo Kiev and Fiorentina were assigned to the same group, Zhuang Mingge did not show the slightest surprise, because he had already learned this information from Beckenbauer, the head of UEFA. And have enough mental preparation.