The five major leagues are coming to an end at this time, but except for the Bundesliga, the champions of other leagues are in suspense.

And Manchester City's early championship made them the second team in the five major leagues to win the championship in advance after Bayern.

Among the remaining three leagues, La Liga's title is confusing.

Barcelona, who fell off the chain in the last game, won a difficult home victory over Athletic Bilbao in this round and got three valuable points, but they are still four points behind Atletico Madrid.

In order to prepare for the Champions League semi-finals, Real Madrid postponed this round of matches to May 8 in advance, and Real Madrid, who have one game less, is currently two points behind Barcelona and temporarily fell to third place in the standings.

On the Serie A side, Juventus defeated Bologna 1:0, currently 8 points ahead of the second place, and the championship situation is very good.

The situation is similar on the Ligue 1 side, with PSG 10 points clear of second place after beating Ivian and a win in the next round to win the title three rounds in advance.

At a time when several big clubs are still fighting for the title, Manchester City's four rounds of early victory immediately attracted a lot of attention from the outside world.

If in previous seasons, people had the impression that Manchester City were a very rich but mediocre mercenary army.

So this season, after Manchester City's shine in the Champions League, the outside world's evaluation of them is getting higher and higher.

The Champions League broke into the semi-finals and became the only seed in the Premier League.

One of the two domestic cups won the championship, and the other reached the final, and the championship is imminent.

Such a record, let alone in the Premier League, even if it is placed in any other league, it is worth boasting.

And it is not the traditional giants of the Premier League who have done this, but a football upstart, a team built up on money.

Originally, those giants who were disdainful of Jinyuan football because Manchester City failed to qualify from the group for two consecutive times in the Champions League inevitably felt nervous at this time.

Manchester City's great success this season is the huge success of Golden Yuan Football.

This makes them worried, if other rich tycoons follow suit and wave cheques like Manchester City to enter the football world, will European football be made into a miasma by these local tycoons?

So the giants banded together to put pressure on UEFA to investigate City's finances and see if they had breached the UEFA Financial Fair Play Act, which was implemented just last year.

The best way to curb the money swinging in football is to set rules that will limit their financial commitments.

And the Fiscal Fair Play Act is just such a product.

According to UEFA regulations, teams participating in UEFA competitions must balance their finances, and no team can lose more than 5 million euros.

According to this regulation, Manchester City, a local tycoon team with little background but spending a lot of money, must have violated the Financial Fair Play Act.

The cost of violating the bill is salary caps, transfer restrictions and hefty fines.

Clearly, these giants are hoping to limit City's ability to continue to attract stars at exorbitant wages, and even to break up their current squad.

When the news reached Manchester City, the club was on the verge of rivalry.

"UEFA is going to send someone over to check our finances, how are the club's finances doing?"

After receiving the news, the president of the club, Fahim, immediately approached the person in charge of the club's financial affairs and asked him about the situation.

"We will spend 120 million euros on transfers this season, 290 million euros on wages, 117 million euros in broadcast revenue sharing, and 180 ......million euros in jerseys, tickets, sponsorships, etc."

Fahim rubbed his forehead and asked, "In other words, we are still about 110 million euros away from UEFA regulations?" ”

This is not a small number, and many teams in the big five leagues do not earn this number in a season.

"That's right, Lin's commercial value is very high, and there is a market in the Far East, if we can take back some of Lin's portrait rights, then we can make up for this gap significantly......"

"Don't mention this kind of thing in the future, Lin is a player signed by the big boss personally, and 100% of the portrait rights are a promise given by the big boss, don't play this idea in the future."

Fahim interrupted the person in charge and said to him with a serious expression.

The club would rather pay a fine than be unhappy with Lin Quan in this matter.

Offending Lin Quan is almost the same as offending the big boss, they are part-time workers, there is no need to joke about their jobs.

"Yes, Chairman, I see, in addition to this method, we can also make some articles with the rules!"

"What rules?"

"UEFA's Financial Fair Play Act exempts some youth training spending, and we can allocate this part of the expenditure to the parent company, which can reduce the club's expenses and enjoy UEFA's exemption!"

"On top of that, the bill came into force last year, so UEFA has eased some additional restrictions.

When the club receives a capital injection and can fully cover the deficit, the team's maximum loss in 2013-2015 can be 45 million euros! ”

Sure enough, professional matters have to be handed over to professionals to be responsible, and it was originally a headache, but after listening to the other party's words, he suddenly had a bottom in his heart.

"Well, according to your plan, how much will the club be fined at most?"

The difference of 100 million euros is still too large, and it is still too difficult to make up for it completely, so Manchester City will most likely not be able to escape being fined.

"We have done professional calculations, and the amount of fines can be controlled within 60 million euros!"

Seeing that Fahim was still frowning, the person in charge tentatively said:

"If we can re-sign a sponsorship contract with the parent company, this 60 million can also be waived!"

Transferring money from the left pocket to the right pocket?

This is not impossible, but the intention of signing a new sponsorship contract in the name of the parent company at this juncture is too obvious.

This is a complete fool of UEFA!

"I'll go back to the UAE and meet the big boss!"

Abu Dhabi, UAE.

After listening to Fahim's report, Mansour nodded slightly and thought about it.

It is not convenient for the Abu Dhabi consortium to come out in person, but they have many business partners.

Swapping a certain amount of business interests, and then letting these partners sign sponsorship contracts with Manchester City, can effectively circumvent UEFA's investigation, and will not give people the impression of being left to right.

Thinking of this, he picked up the phone and called an acquaintance.

After putting down the phone, Mansour nodded to Fahim and said:

"The problem has been solved, don't let this news affect the team's preparation after you return, I will go to the next game against Real Madrid to watch it."

Soon after Fahim returned to Manchester, he received a new sponsorship call.

Putting down the phone, Fahim sighed with emotion: his headache was solved by the big boss with a phone call.

In terms of the ability to exploit loopholes, those people under the hands of these consortia are really not vegetarians!

……

4 on the 23rd, the Etihad Stadium.

The first leg of the Champions League semi-finals is about to begin.

Although you are the top favourites to win the Champions League this season, Real Madrid did not take Manchester City lightly as an opponent.

Not only did they opt to postpone the La Liga league fixture, but they also arrived in Manchester three days early to prepare for the game.

This level of attention is even more outrageous than the last time at Barcelona!

"Real Madrid is menacing!"

On the pitch of the Etihad, seeing the Real Madrid players warming up on the field, Manchester City fans couldn't help but worry.

In terms of the luxury of the squad, Real Madrid is definitely one of the best on the planet.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Di Maria, Luka Modric, Xavi Alonso, Ramos, Pepe, Coentrão, Casillas and others are all football superstars.

In Real Madrid's lineup, the slightly less famous is estimated to be Isco, the European golden boy, but his current value has reached 45 million euros!

What is Starlight Glimmer?

Just look at this Real Madrid team on the field!

The combined value of Real Madrid's starting eleven is more than 600 million euros, which is the first in football!

It is said that Manchester City is a local tyrant and spends a lot of money in the transfer market, but in fact, Real Madrid's transfer investment last season was even more exaggerated than Manchester City!

Real Madrid spent £100 million just to buy Bale, and of course, on the books was the transfer fee for Bale and the other players combined.

But everyone is not stupid, they can see that several other players are added by Tottenham, those players are definitely not worth millions of dollars, and they exist only to help Bale share some transfer fees.

In addition to Bale, Isco, Ilia Ramendi, Calhava and other three together also spent more than 70 million euros on Real Madrid.

All told, their transfer burst exceeded 190 million euros, a third higher than Manchester City!

However, Real Madrid also sold a lot of people when they bought people, and the transfers of Ozil, Higuain, Albiol, Callejon and others brought them about 120 million euros in transfer income.

In this way, Real Madrid's net investment is not very high, only 70 million euros.

With Real Madrid's strong commercial development and operational capabilities, it will not be difficult to fill the gap in transfer spending.

Therefore, they will not be too limited by UEFA's Financial Fair Play Act!

This is very different from Manchester City, which means that Real Madrid can continue to strengthen the team after this summer's World Cup!

The opponent is so strong that Manchester City fans are worried.

Although Manchester City has crossed the threshold of Barcelona, they have no bottom in their hearts whether they can cross the threshold of Real Madrid.

Before the game, in the dressing room, Manuel Pellegrini continued to decompress his players.

Playing at home in the first leg is a very unfavourable schedule.

In the first round of the competition, the two teams should test each other's strength.

In this case, the party under the pressure of performance is prone to impatience.

And Real Madrid's ability to seize opportunities is particularly strong, and being too impatient is equivalent to giving Real Madrid a chance.

After Ancelotti joined Real Madrid, he did not completely negate Mourinho's tactics.

Instead, in Mourinho's tactics, he absorbed and borrowed his strengths, and then integrated his own understanding.

The full involvement in attack and the layered layout in defense allowed Real Madrid to have both speed and impact, but also retain strong control, and their control of the game has been greatly improved.

It's very different from Jose Mourinho's time!

Jose Mourinho has a huge weakness in that his career has not been smooth, he has not played in the top five leagues, not even in the Portuguese Super League.

The lack of top-flight football experience and the limitations of his own strength make Mourinho have serious shortcomings in how to teach players to play compared with coaches such as Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti.

This can be seen in Mourinho's use of midfielders, Mourinho is not good at the layout of the midfield and the refinement of the attacking line, so his team is mostly playing defensive counter-attacks.

It's not that defensive counter-attacks can't be done, Mourinho's record at Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid proves that strong teams are strong on counter-attacks.

However, this tactic often fails after a team enters its third year.

The reason is simple, the players can't stand it.

If you let a group of superstars do the dirty work every day, they may be able to accept it at first, but they will naturally not be able to accept it after a long time.

And the officials and fans of the giant club can't accept it, you let a Ferrari do the work of the tractor, isn't this a tyrannical thing?

Fans of the big clubs are very picky, they don't just want to see wins, they win beautifully.

Jose Mourinho's side can bring victory, but the spectacle is hard to guarantee.

If his team is unable to bring victory, a purge is inevitable.

However, these problems are completely absent here at Ancelotti.

Therefore, Real Madrid in the 13-14 season, compared with last season, has a very obvious improvement in strength.

This kind of improvement is not only brought about by the joining of players of Bale's level, but also after Ancelotti joined the Bernabeu, he taught according to his aptitude, combined his tactical understanding with Real Madrid's lineup, and adjusted it!

Manuel Pellegrini used to coach in La Liga, so his impression of Real Madrid is still stuck in the Jose Mourinho era.

But when he watched the videotape of this season's Real Madrid game, the Chilean broke out in a cold sweat.

This Real Madrid team really has the strength to win the Champions League.

Encountering them early is undoubtedly the biggest test for Manchester City!

Even on his home turf, Manuel Pellegrini is not sure he will be able to beat this Real Madrid side.

But on their home turf, City have to attack, because if they can't beat them on their home turf, they will have to go away from home.

That's the disadvantage of putting the host before the guest!

In the visitors' dressing room, Carlo Ancelotti is also emphasizing the importance of this game to the players!

"Manchester City were able to beat Barcelona home and away, which shows that they are very strong, this game is on their home turf and we have to be careful, the first half is dominated by defensive counter-attacking tactics, the formation is still 4231.

"Bale, you start this game and use your speed to attack City's wings and suppress the assists of their full-backs!"

Bell nodded, indicating that he understood.

In the league and Champions League games, Real Madrid has repeatedly relied on Bale's personal ability to break the opponent's wing and win the game for Real Madrid.

"Cristiano Ronaldo, you are playing against Kolarov, his defensive ability is not strong, you have a lot of opportunities in this game, you must seize the opportunity and try to score a few more goals!

We can accept losing away from home, but we have to score away goals so that we can get back to the Bernabeu and we can take the initiative!

Of course, if you can completely suppress Manchester City and end the suspense of the game in one leg, then I will give you a round of applause and be proud of you! ”

Ronaldo nodded heavily, signaling that he understood!

After admonishing each player one by one, Carlo Ancelotti spoke:

'It's been 12 years since we've reached a Champions League final and I know your hunger for the Champions League trophy!'

"I, like you, have a hunger for the Big Ears Cup, but, before lifting the trophy, we have three more matches to beat, two opponents to beat, and only by beating them will we be able to stand on the championship podium!"

"Now, let me ask you, do you have the determination to win the championship?"

"Yes!"

The players shouted in response, and even Cristiano Ronaldo shouted along.

He hasn't touched the Champions League trophy for five years, and the taste of winning the championship is so long ago that he almost forgets it!

"Very good, then go to the arena and prove it to me with your actual actions!"

(End of chapter)