The Young Lion

G14 itself does not want to be too public during the UEFA campaign, and wants to be low-key, which can dilute Johnson’s impression of fighting G14 during his past ruling. After all, UEFA has been reforming for years and has the influence of the G14 will behind the scenes.

But after Platini made public his election platform, G14, especially the upper elite, could not be silent.

Let’s take a look at Platini’s campaign program, or the reform policy he promised.

Except for some beautiful words on the mouth, what is the most important thing, such as "returning football to players", "unity of the football world", "against racial discrimination and doping", are actually two points.

First: Say no to G14!

This shows the position!

Second, reform the Champions League!

As he said: "Europe is not the United States, nor can the UEFA Champions League learn from the NBA. Since any member of UEFA can participate in the European Cup, so should the Champions League. Since Andorra has the right Ford is against England, and the Malta club players are also eligible to see Ronaldinho at home."

If it is implemented, what will be reformed?

Relentlessly want to cut the number of giants!

There can be at most 3 teams in a country in the Champions League!

It is certainly not possible to do this directly, but he also came up with a compromise!

Eligibility to advance directly to the Champions League! And the qualification draw rules!

In the past, there were only 16 places directly entering the Champions League, and Platini will increase to 22, which includes giving directly to the 11th to 13th countries in Europe. The championship team will Get a straight pass to the Champions League!

The qualifier rules will be changed to "no seed team"!

This means that in the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, and Bundesliga, in the top four and top five European leagues, teams that have qualified for the Champions League play-offs, there is a high probability that they will directly talk in the play-offs!

As a result, the number of giants entering the race will be relatively reduced!

Relatively speaking, the relatively weaker teams entering the qualifying game will have a lower chance of encountering the giants, and the probability of entering the main game will also increase!

At this point, the G14 is not alone, in addition to the giants to warn Platini not to change the rules without authorization, the media from the football powers are also on the G14 side.

For example, the BBC predicts pessimistically: if Platini fulfills all his promises, when that day comes, Platini will be blamed the most in his life, and only then will fans know that they are familiar with The Champions League that I loved has been ruined.

Originally, the gap between the strength and weakness in the Champions League is already obvious, just like the top Millwall can use all substitute players to complete the qualifying in the group stage. There are more and more dragon sets to accompany the prince to read. The Champions League, this The gold content of the "championship" will be greatly reduced!

There must also be differences of interests within the G14. Like Lyon, despite the completion of many years of domestic rule, in the Champions League, they have always been either dark horses or soy sauces. Their strength has not been widely recognized, and their economic interests have fallen. great.

Will Platini's reforms benefit Lyon?

Have!

He is the class leader in Ligue 1 and he can directly enter the Champions League without playing a play-off.

Then there are few powerful players in the Champions League, for example, the top four teams in the Premier League, Millwall needless to say, Lyon will definitely die if he meets! Chelsea also abused him without consultation, Manchester United took it seriously, and it was nothing to crush Lyon. Liverpool won the fourth last season. Prior to Arsenal, these two teams, Lyon met, it is hard to say that they are absolutely sure, even fearful. of!

If Liverpool playing in the playoffs this season or a team in the future Premier League title group encounters an Italian or Spanish team in the playoffs, they are eliminated, or no matter who is eliminated, who is promoted, it is equivalent to help Lyon improve In the Champions League, going further increases the probability of a small margin.

Coupled with Platini's French background, Lyon can't wait to choose betrayal!

Lyon's blatant rebellion has little effect on the UEFA presidential campaign, but it still has some impact.

Looking at all Europe, the envy and jealous hats of the G14 are all over the place. Platini said no to the G14, that is, to cater to the weaker masses of these league-strength teams. Platini is not yet in position, Lyon So it turned out, which made these people see the hope of G14's downfall! Of course, he will support Platini more firmly!

After the UEFA elections, the G14 held a temporary summit. At this meeting in Brussels, Millwall represented Carter as the rotating chairman and faced off the members of the three clubs in France. Even the dirty words were scolded for export!

And Millwall's allies, those elite clubs that also resisted Platini, stood on the side of Millwall. The meeting that day was more like a fighting conference, and finally Carter even made a ruthless speech.

"If you can't unite with us! Okay, you get out of G14, we will have new members to join in!"

The trend of G14 is also followed by outside media.

At the end of the meeting, Carter left the hotel the same as the other delegates. The other people were expressionless, making people wonder what was discussed in the meeting, while Carter was smiling, judging from his previous outrage in the meeting. Two people.

This is the basic rule of the football circle: internal problems, internal solutions!

Premier League boss's round table meeting is also such a tradition, not surprising.

In secret meetings, stabbing each other with a knife, and leaving the meeting with a unified position can still talk and laugh and give the outside world an illusion.

This is also an important reason why the Premier League can fight against the FA for a long time and be independent.

Unity! Unity for the benefit!

But just after Carter returned to London by plane, he just got off the plane, he received a call from his assistant, and suddenly yelled: "UEFA can't be so shameless! Ask me the best team of lawyers, if you can't, just call them. lawsuit!"

The Champions League knockout is about to take place. Before that, there will be a ceremony. Millwall needs to return the Champions League trophy won last season to UEFA because it is a genuine trophy. At the same time, UEFA will give Millwall a reduced version. Replica trophy for club collection.

So, when UEFA chose the place and time to return the trophy, they sent a fax to Millwall Club to officially inform them about it!

The problem is coming!

In 2004, 2005, and 2006, Millwall won the Champions League consecutively, three consecutive championships!

They have the right to keep this UEFA Champions League trophy forever!

UEFA want to get it back now?

Aldridge and Carter stood in the club meeting room window smoking.

In the conference room, the staff is busy, the focus is on UEFA's rules for the Champions League.

It was already evening, and Carter came back to the club in the afternoon to deal with it.

Aldridge spit smoke out of the window, and sighed with interest, "Politics..."

The UEFA Champions League is the most important brand under UEFA, and as the organizer, UEFA must have absolute authority.

Imagine that there is only one UEFA Champions League authentic trophy, but Millwall has two authentic trophy. UEFA is not happy to see this happen, plus Platini will suppress the G14, reform the Champions League, etc. Factors, UEFA is now making such a thing, Aldridge is not too surprised.

A staff member suddenly stood up and said: "Boss, UEFA’s rules are ambiguous. UEFA’s official response is: when Millwall won the Champions League for the fifth time, the statistics of the number of times the authentic trophy was retained were cleared. We are now two consecutive championships, not three consecutive championships."

Carter rushed to the crown and said angrily: "Fuck! I don't know if I will postpone the propaganda plan for engraving the name on the trophy! UEFA, shamelessness must have a limit!"

In fact, Carter has studied the rules before, so most of them can understand what word game UEFA is playing.

Teams that have won three consecutive championships or accumulated five consecutive championships have the right to retain the Champions League authentic trophy, and after the team has achieved three consecutive championships or accumulated five championships, the statistics are cleared.

In other words, Millwall’s 2004 Champions League championship was listed as the zero clearing limit for a total of five times.

In fact, combined with the context of rules, this cumulative five times should refer to the time when the Champions League authentic trophy is retained!

But when setting the rules that year, in addition to Real Madrid, only a few teams have achieved three consecutive championships, and only Real Madrid has accumulated more than 5 championships!

Therefore, when the rules were determined at that time, there was not much problem, and even if there were problems, it was not something that those in power should worry about.

Now being used by UEFA, Millwall can only eat a dumb loss, trophy, to be returned to UEFA.

Carter was annoyed that in the summer of 2005, when Southgate retired, Millwall had just displayed a Champions League authentic trophy with the name of the legendary player engraved on it, and got another one in the summer of 2006. The club intends to push back The method of engraving the player's name on it is not only to hang the appetite of the player, but also to avoid the same publicity strategy for two consecutive years to make the outside world tired, and the effect is definitely not optimistic.

Well now, Millwall is going to return the trophy to Zhao. If it is true that UEFA has notified them to return the trophy, they will go alone and engrave the name on the trophy, it is a tear with UEFA!

"Okay, so be it."

Aldridge waited for an unexpected result. Although UEFA has done this ugly, it must have been prepared to allow Millwall to slap in the face, then everyone in UEFA can White lived.

Moreover, even if there is controversy now, it is only temporary. After a year or two, the smoke disappears, and no one will care about what happened today.

However, before Aldridge led his team to Italy to challenge Inter Milan, he smiled lightly before the UEFA Champions League press conference: "Maybe we and UEFA have differences on the retention of the UEFA Champions League trophy, but it does not matter. , Millwall cooperated with UEFA, we returned the trophy to UEFA, as long as we continue to defend the Champions League this year, we can get the second UEFA Champions League trophy, huh, unless, UEFA in the next three months Immediately changed the rules for the retention of the Champions League trophy, and no longer keep the authentic trophy for the club forever."