The Godfather of Greenery

Chapter 731 Premier League Chairman Summit
In the Premier League, there is a little-known tradition, that is, every three months, the Premier League will organize a Premier League chairman summit. Appeared at the summit site to negotiate and negotiate some Premier League matters.

In the past ten years, the Premier League chairman summit has been arranged to be held in the Landmark Hotel in the northeast of Hyde Park in London, because the name of this five-star luxury hotel is very interesting in English, called Milestone.

But this time, Richard Scudemore, the organizer of the Chairman's Summit, informed everyone in the phone call that the venue of the summit was changed for the first time, from the original Landmark Hotel to the Olympic Park The Zhenhua Hotel, this is the most famous top hotel in London in the past six months.

Moreover, unlike the eighth floor of the Landmark Hotel in the past, this meeting was arranged to be held in the private conference hall on the tenth floor, which also represents a good moral, that is, it is a higher level, and Rand The Mark Hotel is only on the eighth floor, but the Zhenhua Building is obviously taller and more top-notch.

Zhenhua Building and Tottenham Hotspur's Stratford Stadium are separated by Leaf Technology's data cloud. On the top sightseeing floor of Hua Building, looking at the wind turbines under your feet and overlooking the whole of London, that feeling will make you feel more energetic than ever.

Richard Scudemore came to the scene early to prepare. He is a frequent guest of this hotel, and although he organized this meeting, which is called a Premier League roundtable meeting by the outside world, he seldom spoke in fact. , unless he feels the need to remind the owners or chairmen of these clubs.

It is customary to hold a chairman summit at the beginning of the season, because in every season, three of the twenty Premier League teams will always be relegated, so at the beginning of each season, the owners and chairman of the three newly promoted teams that have entered the Premier League can Use the summit to meet other people and have some exchanges along the way.

The first chairman summit in the new season is obviously different, because Ye Qiu will attend in person.

In the past, Tottenham Hotspur's chairman summit was represented by club CEO Peter Kenyon. It was him, and Peter Kenyon would also accompany Ye Qiu, which showed the importance that Tottenham Hotspur attached to this meeting.

Not only them, Manchester United arranged for David Gill to attend the meeting, the Glazer family also personally arranged for a family member representative to attend, as well as Chelsea's Abramovich, West Ham United's Rebo Norlev, etc. People will also participate in person, and everyone is clearly aware that this meeting is unusual.

Scudemore can guess some, and it is estimated that it has something to do with the salary limit proposed by Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal.

Sometimes when I think about it, things in this world are really weird.

Scudemore started as the Premier League chief executive in 99 and participated in the Premier League chairman summit for more than ten years. At the beginning of the century, there were only a few who had the most say in the entire chairman summit. Liverpool chairman Rick Barry, he is the first chairman of the Premier League committee, he is a veteran, and his words have the most weight.

Then there is Manchester United, whether it is Edwards, Peter Kenyon or David Gill, they are the focus of the meeting, which also reflects the weight of Manchester United in the Premier League; Arsenal's former combination West David Dunn , He also plays an important role in the Premier League, but now Arsenal has gradually withdrawn from the ranks of the Premier League championship team.

The other two are former Chelsea boss Ken Bates and Leeds United chairman Ridsdale, both of whom are ambitious local owners, especially Ken Bates, who is full of vulgarity and arrogance.

However, Feng Shui has taken turns, and the situation in the Premier League has undergone tremendous changes in the past few years.

Tottenham Hotspur has suddenly emerged and become the most powerful and influential team in the Premier League, but Peter Kenyon is still the same as he was when he was at Manchester United, polite, full of gentlemanly demeanor, never in trouble He is in his early years, but he is very shrewd in his calculations.

In the past two or three seasons, Manchester City has become one of the best teams in the Premier League. Mubarak also represents the team at the chairman's summit every time, but he also believes in the same strategy as the professional manager Peter Kenyon. Not in the limelight, but as long as it concerns the interests of Manchester City, they will definitely fight for it.

In addition, there are teams like Newcastle, West Ham United and Liverpool who have changed their owners. Many of the representatives of these teams are also professional managers, which makes the Premier League chairman summit more rigorous and more formal.

After all, there are less careless rough men like Ken Bates, and more rational and calm managers. We sit together, discuss and study each other. Although we may quarrel, it is rare for the shrew to swear at the street. scene.

But it is precisely because of the restraint and prudent attitude of emerging teams such as Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City that the chairman's summit lost a very important value, that is, decision-making, because the Premier League began to lack leaders.

Looking at the previous active club owners, the three giants represented by Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal, plus Ken Bates, Ridsdale and Newcastle's Shepard, etc. represent the middle and lower reaches of the team. Among the bosses, although they quarrel endlessly, in fact they are the leaders of their respective interest groups.

In other words, as long as any decision is agreed by them and the opinions of these people are unified, it is basically considered successful.

But it’s different now, with so many decision makers, so many bosses, and so many powerful teams, there are almost no so-called leaders in the entire Premier League Chairman’s Summit. In many cases, this kind of summit is more like a social gathering, where everyone gathers for a drink , talk, leave as soon as the time is up.

Just like Tottenham Hotspur, Scudemore mentioned to Ye Qiu more than once that he and his Tottenham Hotspur should play a more important leading role in the Premier League, because they are now worthy of the name The most powerful team in the Premier League, it can even be said that they did not lose to the giants of Manchester United, and more importantly, almost everyone obeyed Ye Qiu.

But Tottenham Hotspur have always maintained a restraint. To put it nicely, this is called having no desire for power. When decisions are contested, Tottenham want to be the good guy.

For example, salary limit, is this a good thing?I believe that even among the fans, I am afraid that there are mixed reviews, and among all the Premier League teams, there are also mixed reviews, because everything has two sides, there is a good side, and there is a bad side, so every time the salary limit is raised , Manchester United, Chelsea and other teams are the most carnival, but Manchester City, Newcastle, West Ham United and other teams are the most unhappy, the two sides must be noisy.

Tottenham Hotspur play a neutral role, neither making noise nor making noise, neither supporting nor opposing, because they themselves insist on the salary limit, whether there is a salary limit clause is the same for them, so they don’t care .

Every time Scudemore was furious, he had a good relationship with Peter Kenyon, and Ye Qiu was also considered a good friend, but every time he couldn't do anything against Tottenham Hotspur.

But this time, Ye Qiu offered to participate in the chairman's summit, and Scudemore had a good premonition.

Perhaps this will be a turning point, because as the chief executive of the Premier League, he is very, very clear that the current Premier League is undoubtedly in a prosperous age, and it will still develop rapidly in the next few years, but under the prosperous age, there are incomparable Deadly potential crisis, if not handled properly, the Premier League will follow in the footsteps of the Bundesliga in 2001.

This is what he, as the chief executive of the Premier League, does not want to see, and I believe it is also what all Premier League club owners do not want to see.

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As the agreed meeting time approached, the bosses of various clubs arrived at the venue one after another.

Some bosses came alone, and some brought the actual managers of the club with them, but all of them were dressed in suits and leather shoes, and well-dressed gentlemen. Alphabetize the clubs to find the location of your team. The boss sits next to the round table, and the assistants are in the back row.

Scudemore greeted every club owner who came to the venue. He had a lot of dealings with these people on weekdays, so as the chief executive of the Premier League, if he didn't have some good skills, he wouldn't be able to do it for so long.

But the most important person has not yet appeared.

Ye Qiu actually came to the Zhenhua Hotel a long time ago, but David Jill gave him a call in advance, and the two parties made an appointment to meet beforehand, so after he and Peter Kenyon arrived at the hotel, they went directly to the private hotel. Room.

Both Manchester United and Chelsea are the most active supporters of the salary limit clause, and the other is Arsenal, but to be honest, this team does not have much weight in the Premier League now, and many people are even unwilling to deal with them. The 76-year-old old man Hillwood is still relying on the old to sell the old.

If Arsenal were still such a strong top giants back then, perhaps many people would tolerate it, but now Arsenal has missed the Champions League for many years in a row, and the team is also seriously lacking in competitiveness, which makes Arsenal's status in the Premier League decline day by day. The right to speak has also been severely weakened, and no one buys it.

What David Gill and the representatives of the Glazer family wanted to discuss with Ye Qiu was the salary limit issue. They believed that such unrestrained expansion of salary could not be allowed to continue. They proposed to limit the maximum salary and learn from the NBA salary cap system. Set a salary ceiling for all players, and no team can exceed this ceiling.

Or adopt a fixed model to limit the salary increase, such as no more than a few percent per year.

Their remarks are also very reasonable, because if the current situation continues, next season, after the implementation of the new broadcast contract, players' salaries will usher in another wave of increases. If the Premier League's maximum salary reaches 35 pounds If the weekly salary even reaches 40 pounds, it will be a disaster for all Premier League teams.

"Now the top salary in the Premier League is 25 pounds a week, which forces you Tottenham Hotspur to have to raise your salary to 15 pounds. Double."

David Jill's words were very reasonable, and Ye Qiu couldn't refute them, because they were facts.

If the outside maximum salary reaches 40 pounds, then Tottenham Hotspur must at least give Messi and Ribery a weekly salary of 30 pounds, which means that the current salary expenditure of the team will be higher. Double the current ratio, which is definitely a disaster for Tottenham Hotspur.

Maybe someone will say, Tottenham Hotspur is like this, so other teams are also worse, so why do some people not want to limit salary?

The reason is simple. When the salary is fixed, the rich teams are more attractive in the same salary structure. Once the salary is fixed, Manchester City, Newcastle, West Ham United, and even if one day in the future, other big local tyrants buy some It will be difficult for Premier League teams to spend money to introduce superstars and improve the team's strength in a short period of time.

Because your maximum salary is limited, the same high salary, top stars will definitely choose giants instead of going to your second-tier team, so once the salary structure is capped, it will represent the entire Premier League giants and mid-lower teams. The class between the people is solidified, and it will be difficult to make changes in a short period of time.

Therefore, really don't think that Manchester United and Chelsea's advocacy of salary restrictions is just to consider financial considerations. In fact, they are also using salary restrictions to set up some obstacles to ensure the long-term status and consolidation of Manchester United and Chelsea.

Of course, according to the news that Ye Qiu got, Manchester United was really miserable, because in the past few years, on the surface, their income of the team had increased substantially, but the crux of the problem was that the part they increased, Basically, it was transferred to the pockets of players and agents, so the interest on the Glazer family's debt that the team paid every year caused the team to lose money.

Under such circumstances, the value of Manchester United is undoubtedly being weakened step by step. Once the team cannot get rid of the current predicament, the team will pay interest on debts, resulting in a gradual increase in debt and an increase in interest. Manchester United will undoubtedly face a debt crisis, or even bankruptcy.

Many people admire the salary cap of the NBA, but few people have heard a word. The NBA has always had two battlefields. One is the open battle between teams on the field, and the other is the secret labor battle between players and owners. .

In 2011, a very important reason for the suspension of the NBA was labor disputes, which was an extreme situation created by the salary cap.

After Ye Qiu sent off David Jill and representatives of the Glazer family, he sighed deeply, leaned on the soft sofa, raised his head, and looked at the ceiling, "It's because of these things that I That’s why I don’t like getting involved in it!”

When talking, Ye Qiu couldn't hide the depression in his heart, this kind of thing was too complicated, especially when it was related to interests.

It can be foreseen that if you support the salary cap proposal of David Gill and others, on the surface it is good for the Premier League, but in fact it is a kind of slow suicide, because under the limitation of the salary cap, the strength of the team is seriously restricted. If it is restricted, the middle and lower teams will lose their vitality, and it will be difficult for teams such as Manchester City, Newcastle, and West Ham to appear again, and it will also be difficult for Swansea, Southampton, etc. to appear stunning dark horses.

If you don't limit your salary, the Premier League is also slowly committing suicide, because you must clearly know that Sky TV has given such a high price for broadcasting, and their huge sum of money is not out of their own pockets, they are just using this sum of money Passed on to consumers, in the end it will lead to another result, forcing more people to stay away from the Premier League.

Of course, you can say that the Premier League is the only one in the UK. Everyone is used to watching the Premier League, but you must know that habits will change, especially when you have no money in your pocket, you have to change it.

It seems that in recent years, many Premier League teams have accused the fans of lack of enthusiasm and no longer like to go to the stadium to watch the game, but they have never considered that if you want the fans to go to the game, why the ticket price is set so high? If you are willing to watch it, it means that your ticket price has been so high that the originally loyal fans are forced to leave you.

This is the case for watching the game live, so with the re-enhancement of broadcasting rights, is it possible that one day, fans will not only not go to watch the game live, but even skip the live broadcast of the game and just watch the highlights of the BBC.

Conversely, assuming that Sky TV did not increase the price significantly in consideration of the pressure on the fans, but the broadcast fees paid to the Premier League on this side will increase substantially, what will be the result?
The result is that Sky TV has swallowed the price difference in the middle, and once the price difference reaches a certain level, Sky TV will declare bankruptcy, just like the Kirsch Group, which won the Bundesliga broadcast rights and the Korea-Japan World Cup broadcast rights at the beginning of the century, declared bankruptcy.

Kirsch's bankruptcy led to a frantic signing in the late 90s and early 21st century. The Bundesliga, which is invincible in European football, almost fell into an extremely embarrassing situation, and finally forced the Bundesliga to take a healthy management route.

These are all forced out. Don't think that the Germans are so calm and rational, and have such brilliant foresight!

The past of the Bundesliga may be the future of the Premier League.

Therefore, a salary limit is necessary, but the question is, how to limit it?
It is very, very difficult to limit salaries and prevent the Premier League from becoming a stagnant and uncompetitive situation. At the same time, it is necessary to give the middle and lower reaches of the team or some new investors enough motivation and prospects. one thing.

This is why the salary limit has been shouted for so many years, but it has not been able to reach a result and consensus.

"Scudemore can't figure it out, so he hopes we can stand up!" Peter Kenyon has not spoken, but he has listened to all the conversations between Ye Qiu and David Jill, and he is also very clear that the current The time has come for the Premier League to make a change.

No more delay, no more hesitation, and the Premier League is bound to embark on the old path of the Bundesliga.

Sometimes history is like this. If unfortunately, the Premier League really repeats the mistakes of the Bundesliga, there will be countless people in the next few years who will ridicule the stupidity and short-sightedness of these decision makers in the Premier League, but they are not in it, they I don't know how hard and difficult it is for all the decision makers to make this decision.

This world is like this, reform, even if it is only a very small reform, is enough to implicate everything.

"This is our chance, isn't it?" Ye Qiu looked at Peter Kenyon with a smile.

The bald man in Manchester smiled, "Didn't you always plan to participate?"

Ye Qiu stood up from the sofa, "I know, you have always wanted to be the vice chairman of the FA, and I also think that we should not continue to be silent, we want to make Tottenham Hotspur The strongest club in the Premier League, isn't it?"

The so-called strongest is not only the strongest, but also the most influential and most important.

Undoubtedly, the Premier League chairman summit is the stage that can best reflect this kind of strength.

(End of this chapter)