Chapter 10: The Demise of the Toyota Cup!

The date is now as of November 20, 1998.

After 12 rounds of the Premier League, Manchester United ranked first in the Premier League with seven wins, four draws and one loss with 25 points, followed by Arsenal and Liverpool, who both had six wins, four draws and two losses with 22 points, but Arsenal had an advantage in goal difference, so it is now in second place.

Manchester United have just finished Sporting Lisbon at home in a Champions League qualifying fixture and are also top of the group with two wins from one match.

It can be said that this result is very satisfying to the fans.

Ling Feng still maintains the crazy trend of scoring goals in almost every game - but compared to last season, when he scored two or three goals at every turn, there is no doubt that Ling Feng's performance has not reached his peak level now.

This is also related to the fact that Ferguson always substitutes him in the second half, except for the first four rounds of games that he was unable to play due to injury, so far Ling Feng has played a total of eleven games for Manchester United (8 league games, 2 Champions League rounds, 1 FA Cup), and in these eleven games, Ling Feng only played two games.

Many people know that Ling Feng played better at the end of the game, and Ferguson did this, which caused Ling Feng's level to not play at the peak to a large extent.

In this regard, Ling Feng did not express any opinions, he was also happy to be idle, but there was one thing that Ling Feng himself knew, that is, Manchester United would definitely not be his most idealized club.

After all, Ling Feng is leaving next year, and Ferguson's mind remains, he is not as some people think, trying to squeeze Ling Feng's residual value in this year, but limiting his performance within this year to a level - just enough to help the team win, but not so good that it will steal the limelight from other players.

The captain and soul are still Cantona, the free kicks are all taken by Xiaobei because of Ling Feng's humility, and even the penalty kicks, Ling Feng has not been penalized, and all of them are given to other teammates.

"Whether it's me for Manchester United or Manchester United for me, it's just a passerby, and you can even say frankly that we have a relationship of mutual use." Ling Feng wrote in his memoirs: "I have a good personal relationship with the players of Manchester United, and I am not bad with the manager Ferguson, as for my ability to play the whole game, it seems that it has nothing to do with the private relationship." ”

"Manchester United is not Fiorentina, Ferguson is not Diego, in Fiorentina, except for Gabriel, Robbie and Costa, everyone else is that kind of lawlessness - except for Patrick [Vieira] and Lilian [Thuram], of course, but they mixed up with a few of us before they became famous, so it was naturally the black of the ink."

"Fiorentina is all about playing, playing as a pleasure, without too much pressure, but also with fun. Manchester United's squad is not much worse than Fiorentina's, but Ferguson is not Diego, he does not dare to play, and this part of the game is utilitarian. For example, when we were in Fiorentina, we were excited to score a dozen goals at any opponent, but that was not possible at Manchester United, and after three goals at most, Ferguson made a substitution and changed the main attacker in the team to avoid them getting injured. ”

"I can't say whether I'm for or against it, after all, Ferguson has his own reasons, but from my personal point of view, I don't like this arrangement, and I can't play well enough to give me more motivation, so I already knew before the halfway point of the schedule, even if I can win the Premier League, but I still failed because I did it wrong when I first chose a club, Manchester United is a great team. But alas, I will never be able to be a real part of them. ”

When he first joined Manchester United, the main idea that influenced Ling Feng was that in history, this year's treble was won by Manchester United, and they were the first team in history to achieve such an honor.

Ling Feng had already led Fiorentina to win this honor in advance, but in his heart, he still felt that he was a little sorry for Manchester United, because when Charlton came to him, there was also Cantona as a guarantee, Ling Feng agreed after a little consideration, but now, I have to say - Ling Feng regretted it.

Joining a top team with his quality is a mistake in itself, especially when there is no manager in that top team who dares to let him play.

However, Ling Feng doesn't plan to transfer now, life can't always be completely proud, not to mention that he can't be said to be disappointed now, after all, the top scorer list in the Premier League is still occupied by himself, mix, mix, mix this year, go to Spain next year to choose a team that is not so strong.

The leagues of various countries are going on in an orderly manner, and the first half of the competition is coming to an end, so it can be said that the current game is also tense, but compared to the national leagues, the most eye-catching thing is a clash of the century.

Toyota Cup.

European Cup winners Fiorentina take on Copa Libertadores winners River Plate.

It's called a cup race, but there's just one match, and the top finishers from Europe and America will face off in a life-or-death battle at the Tokyo National Stadium, with the winner picking up the trophy and the best player taking home a Toyota car.

This kind of competition has nothing to do with most clubs, but this year's Toyota Cup has attracted the attention of the world.

Because, this year's is not the Toyota Cup......

Because of Ling Feng's hostility towards Japan, he has to work hard to destroy all the roads that are conducive to the development of football in Japan, and the publicity of a Toyota Cup for Toyota is very terrible, not to mention, such an event that can be regarded as a top cup is held in Japan every year, which in itself makes Ling Feng very unhappy.

Ling Feng didn't have that strength before, nor did he have that capital, but now it's different.

The winner of last year's European Champions Cup was none other than his family's Fiorentina!

Then Ling Feng's crooked idea came out.

The first was to contact the River Plate team, and after giving them a huge sum of money in private, the River Plate people happily accepted Ling Feng's suggestion.

The Toyota Cup is on November 27 - the second day of the last week of November, and before that, the Toyota Group has made considerable preparations for this Cup, but a week before the start of the competition, the champions of the two continents have joined forces to announce that they will give up their qualification to participate in the Toyota Cup due to the tight schedule!

Fiorentina and River Plate have both received invitations from Shanghai Volkswagen to play a new cup match at Shanghai Hongkou Stadium on November 27, with the name of the match being the "World Club Cup"!

And the style of the trophy is a glittering feminine shape - Nuwa Cup!

In addition to these two teams, there are also last year's Asian Club Cup winners Shanghai Shenhua, CONCACAF Club Cup winners América Mexico, African Club Cup winners Egypt's Al Ahly, Oceania Super Cup winners Australia's Sydney, UEFA Cup winners Parma and European Cup Winners' Cup winners Chelsea.

Eight of the best teams from all continents gather in China for a draw – the rules of the tournament are a knockout round, with unseeded teams randomly selected and eight teams divided into four groups to determine the winner in four months!

The world was shocked!

The predecessor of the Toyota Cup was the "World Club Cup" jointly organized by UEFA and South American Football Confederation, and the first edition was held in 1960, but due to various reasons, the game declined until 1980, when the Japanese Toyota Company sponsored the original home and away games into a winner-or-loser - but the venue of the game must be located at the Tokyo National Stadium, and the name of the cup became "Toyota Cup".

Although Siyue's current value has reached a height that is difficult for ordinary people to look up to, it is absolutely impossible for her to fight with Toyota for a cup alone, but when Fiorentina won the European Champions Cup, the situation was different.

UEFA and South American Football Conmebol both have contracts with Toyota, but Fiorentina does not - the revenue from the Toyota Cup will be distributed between the two participating clubs and the football federations on two continents, but Siyue is very shrewd and did not sign this contract, and River Plate was bought before and did not sign one.

The slogan of both teams is "tight schedule", UEFA and South American Football Confederation can only blow their beards and stare at them, plus FIFA has been opened by Ling Feng, so after everything is planned, Toyota is caught off guard by this kind of digging into the wall!

Because no one in the world could have imagined that a club would give up its interests in the face of the danger of a lawsuit - the appearance fee of the Toyota Cup is very high!

After the news broke, the Toyota Group immediately appealed, saying that UEFA and CONMEBOL unilaterally tore up the contract.

The football federations of the two continents wanted to cry without tears, they never dreamed that Ling Feng would play so badly!

In fact, this plan was already underway, Ling Feng had been going on for a long time.

The Toyota Cup was cancelled by FIFA in 2006, the reason is that the single name "Toyota" makes the commercial value less and less, a Toyota, a game that allows South America and Europe to share the spoils, so that FIFA does not have a little oil and water, so that the name of the replacement cup has become "World Club Cup", in order to attract more teams, more businesses to join.

So Ling Feng privately contacted FIFA President Blatter, and after promising various benefits, Blatter acquiesced to this reform - this year will be the first competition of the new "World Club Cup", and the expansion will be carried out later.

The fact that such a big tournament was announced only a week before the tournament made it clear to everyone that the organizers were working against Japan.

Although the leagues in various countries are busy, but the competition is divided into four months, even if it is the champion, there are only three games in total, plus the remuneration is quite generous, the three teams in Africa, Central and North America and Oceania agreed without thinking about it after receiving the invitation, as for Asia - Shenhua won the Asian Club Cup for the first time last year, then their own family must not worry, the biggest obstacle is the European and South American giants, they are willing to take the time to play this game.

Florence naturally needless to say, it was opened by Ling Feng's family; Although the River Plate team is famous, after all, the financial resources of the Club of America are much worse than those in Europe, and Si Yue promised a lot of benefits in the past, so he naturally agreed.

As for Chelsea and Parma, they didn't have much friendship, but they took a lot of time to talk about it, and finally paid some sponsorship fees, and maybe Nuo sent them a few powerful Chinese players for free from the Fiorentina training base.

Now Chinese players are very sought-after! It's not just a matter of strength, these clubs know that once there is an outstanding Chinese player in the team, it is equivalent to opening up the Chinese market, and the financial resources are rolling in!

For such a huge cup competition, the sponsor cannot only be Dell, which is owned by Siyue, but Ling Feng has to keep it secret before the game, which cheapens many large groups that have a good personal relationship with Ling Feng, such as Pepsi, Li Ning, Volkswagen and other companies.

And this is what Siyue once proposed, the real predecessor of the World Club Cup!

In the past, the Club World Cup was monopolized by South America and Europe, but this time, although Europe has three teams, all other continents except for the Penguin brothers from Antarctica have received a piece of the pie.

And the best thing is that although there has been no publicity in the early days, but with the reputation of the Toyota Cup, the two cups collided hard, which produced more benefits than any advertisement, and for a while fans around the world were discussing a question - "Did you hear, the Toyota Cup is over, and the new World Club Cup is about to begin." ”

Toyota's appeal was finally lost under the joint suppression of several major forces - joke, Ling Feng has received the full support of the state, and FIFA has to act according to his face, not to mention such a new model, which broke Toyota's monopoly for nearly 20 years in one fell swoop, several major sponsors have joined forces to oppose Toyota, General Motors of the United States, BMW of Germany, Volkswagen and other companies are competing for the car reward for the best player, who will care about your broken Toyota?

In this way, Ling Fengbing gave Toyota a knife without blood, and the Toyota Cup, which was held for 17 years since 1980, became history, and the first match of the Nuwa Cup will kick off at Shanghai Hongkou Stadium seven days later!