Chapter 1: Champions Cup Reform

August 15, 1998.

Under Cantona's leadership, the newly formed Manchester United team defeated Arsenal 2-1 at Wembley Stadium, bringing the Red Devils' first trophy of the season.

Cantona's performance after his comeback was quite eye-catching and scored his first goal in the game.

The Red Devil King, who was wearing the No. 7 jersey, rejected Beckham's behavior of returning the No. 7 jersey to him, and put on the extremely huge number of No. 77.

This action caused many reporters who were looking for trouble to bombard Comrade Beckham again, calling him unqualified to wear the No. 7 Red Devils battle robe, and pointed out very harshly that it was because of Beckham's insistence that the No. 7 battle robe did not return to the king.

As we all know, Cantona's favorite number is 7. After he announced his retirement, Beckham, who was originally No. 10, took over Cantona's No. 7 jersey - this was beyond refutation, but the problem now is...

Comrade Beckham did a stupid thing at the World Cup, and now he is the public enemy of the whole of England.

A foolish kick to Simeone caused Comrade Beck to be sent off with a red card. Since that day, the media has never stopped bombarding him. Many fans even ran to Comrade Beck's doorstep all day and threw rotten eggs into the handsome guy Beck's house.

"David is innocent!" Cantona and Ling Feng stood up at the same time to defend Comrade Beckham. Of course, Manchester United coach Ferguson, these three people have now become loyal supporters of Comrade Beckham. In addition, the most important supporter has to be mentioned, that is the hot girl Victoria, the wife of Comrade Beckham.

"I hope Hodel will not attribute the team's mistakes to a player." Ling Feng was interviewed with a sarcastic look in the wheelchair: "The battle of the century in the Battle of the Ying-A Century gave us a wonderful game, but the sinner was not David who was sent off. Hodel tried to use David as his scapegoat because he lost at Argentina."

After England lost in the World Cup, head coach Hodel said at a post-match press conference: "The disadvantage of the number of people on the field is the reason why England fell into a passive or even lost the game."

It was his words of shirking responsibility that led the sporadic "Beckham Theory of Sinners" to a height that the whole nation had turned against each other, and Ling Feng expressed deep disdain for this.

"As the head coach of a national team, Hodel would not even have the minimum sense of responsibility, it would be disappointing us," Cantona also made a public statement: "His decision was not correct in the World Cup. His conservative style of play made England lose to Romania, which is the source of all mistakes."

"No one would want to be the second qualifier in the group, which itself means that he will encounter a strong opponent in the first game of the knockout round," Ferguson also issued a statement, but of course his tone was much gentler than the lawless guys Ling Feng and Cantona: "Also as the head coach, I think Hodel had some small problems in the previous platoon arrangement."

"It's more than a small problem," Ling Feng and Ferguson sang a double act at this time: "I can say this very responsibly. If we played against England in the World Cup a month ago, I would definitely be confident that I would beat the lineup against Romania, but I wouldn't be sure of the lineup against Argentina. If Paul had no idea what was going on, I would have no confidence in the lineup against that game.

If Gask is in the team, I will choose to give up that game."

The three of them were so poisonous. After the game, Hoddle pushed the blame to Beckham, but Ling Feng and the other two transferred the responsibility back to Hoddle. Although they might not be able to lower the accusations against Beckham, they at least diverted part of their attention.

Fergson has nothing to do now. After all, he has never won the Triple Crown. He is not a Jazz yet. His words are inevitably partial and not very heavy.

But Ling Feng and Cantona, God bless, among the active football hooligans, they only add one more Maradona to be the top figure.

Maradona certainly wouldn't come to help Beckham - it would be worse if he helped him, as England hated him to the core. If he helped, the more he helped, the more he helped.

Ling Feng and Cantona are both the kind of person who will never take Hodel seriously. It can even be said that among the players in England, except for a few veterans, there are no other roles that can be a little heavy in the eyes of these two bosses.

So, Hoddle was scolded, but to put it bluntly, even if he was scolded, he didn't even dare to make a fart.

Beckham is now very low-key. He gave up his vacation and drove to the training ground as usual during the day. He stayed at home with Victoria at night, basically not even going out of the door.

He also did not accept interviews from any media, and did not respond to the vicious attacks of fans and media. Even Ling Feng and Cantona were talking to him, so he did not stand up and chew on him.

According to rumors, when Beckham returns home every night, he will lie in his wife Victoria's arms and cry...

This looks really bad.

Ling Feng, Cantona and Ferguson talked to Xiao Bei every day. Even that week, Ling Feng and Siyue ran to Xiao Bei's house for dinner every day, but there was no improvement. Victoria shrugged, and she had no choice.

Perhaps, it is only possible for Beckham to give those media a strong counterattack with their strength in the game!

Ling Feng was injured and could not participate in training, but he was not honest. If Ling Feng sat alone in the house for a day, he would definitely suffocate him to death. So since he arrived in Manchester, Ling Feng did the most things he did was to take Lele everywhere.

From head coach Ferguson to goalkeeper coach Cotton, from Cantona to Schmeichel and then to the homes of many substitutes, the biggest advantage of Ling Feng's meal in the past month was that he didn't spend a penny - he was having a meal at Ferguson's house at noon, and ran to the Neville brothers' home in the evening...

And he was idle, so Ling Feng went to see Sun Jihai who lived not far away. He joined Manchester City after the World Cup - this was what Ling Feng suggested to him. In general, the Chinese Suns lived a very comfortable life in Manchester City.

It is Ling Feng's key to getting along well with his teammates and even coaches. Although he is very famous, he cannot show his high posture. When Ling Feng goes to the homes of his teammates, he always brings them some Chinese specialties - such as tea, small porcelain and handicrafts. This behavior made Ling Feng quickly integrate into Manchester United.

Although some of the teas that Ling Feng brought are valuable, his gains are also huge - in addition to the friendship between his teammates.

"This is Peter (Schmeichel), this is Ryan (Gigs), this is Robbie (Keen)..." Ling Feng held a large car key in his hand and marked it with interest while counting it, and then put it into a box. There were four bundles of keychains in the box. The first bundle was relatively small, and it said: Fernandez, Lai, Yuri,

The names of Djokav and others.

The second bundle is slightly larger, the names on it are: Haidong, Koltz, Baron, Ivanoskas...

The third bundle is the largest, with Maradona, Batistuta, Baggio and so on...

The fourth bundle is also relatively large, but it is quite messy. Ling Feng took the bundle of keys into his hand and played with it, saying, "I stole too many at once, and even the keys of those guys' doors were stolen..."

There are several thrilling names written on this bundle of keys - Bailey, Marco Van Basten, Baresi, Beckenbauer, Cruyff...

May God forgive this shameless soul! Ling Feng has developed a habit. The first thing he does after shaking hands with someone is to steal the keys in the other party’s pocket, copy them and put them back...

Maybe Ling Feng can hold a key auction in the future. Uh, I believe these things can be sold at a good price easily...

On August 29, 1998, the UEFA Champions League group draw ceremony was held in Monaco.

Sixteen top European clubs gathered in Monaco, and the grouping situation is as follows:

Group a: Florence, Barcelona, ​​Dortmund, Vienna Fast;

Group b: Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain, Sporting Lisbon;

Group c: Juventus, Lens, Real Madrid, Benfica;

Group d: Arsenal, Inter Milan, Olympiacos, Copenhagen.

Among the sixteen teams, there are at least two strong teams from the top five leagues. Although the other teams are not very famous in the leagues in their countries, their strength cannot be underestimated.

Such a game method is really...perverted!

Almost every team has to use all their strength in the Champions League game. Although the excitement has been raised, it is not a good thing for each club.

Coupled with factors such as TV broadcasting rights dividends, the conflict between UEFA and major clubs has become increasingly greater, and the forces united by many wealthy families have made UEFA a big fight, and even major wealthy families threaten to hold independent club leagues themselves.

There is no way, after this Champions League draw, UEFA announced a shocking news.

The Winners Cup, which is participated by the FA Cup champions of various countries this season, will be the last one, and next year, the Winners Cup will be merged into the League Cup, and the quota of the European Champions League will be expanded to 32 teams, and the competition will be divided into eight groups. After the top two in the group qualifies, the round-robin competition will continue to be divided into four groups, the top two will advance to the quarterfinals, and then the knockout round will be launched.

The qualification for the Champions League is that the last champion and 15 teams in the first group of the first team automatically qualify for the Champions League - the "First Group" consists of league champions from the nine countries with the highest ranking coefficient and league runner-ups from the top six countries.

The remaining sixteen teams are selected from the qualifying matches, and the qualified teams are as follows:

There are six teams in the third place in the National League, ranking first to sixth;

There are three teams in the fourth place in the league in the country ranking first to third;

There are three teams in the runner-up of the National League, which are ranked seventh to ninth;

There are six teams in the league champions of countries ranked ten to fifteen;

There are also 14 teams selected after two rounds of qualifying matches among the champions in countries 16 to 47 and the runner-up in leagues ranked 10 to 15.

It can be seen that the higher the National League ranks in UEFA, the greater the chance of participating in the Champions League.

At the same time, such an arrangement has also given many teams from weak countries opportunities. After all, according to the previous rules, it is impossible for them to participate in the Champions League competition.

This not only attracts more clubs to participate to weaken the joint forces of several major clubs, but also makes more money. The schedule can also make each participating club breathe a sigh of relief and win three goals in one fell swoop.

With this arrangement, it will inevitably increase the number of games in the club in a season, which will be a big blow to Ling Feng's World Club Cup.

However, Ling Feng doesn't care about this now, because FIFA's handle is in his hands, Ling Feng of UEFA will gradually strengthen control, and it will not be too difficult to modify the rules in an emergency.

What he was depressed was that why was my mother's grouping so disgusting this time as last year?!

When Ling Feng went to Fiorentina last year, the group match of the Champions League had the Hamburg team who had just played well. Now, Ronaldinho, who was sent to Paris Saint-Germain by Ling Feng, has grown up. Although he was not selected for the Brazilian team that just ended the World Cup, he helped Saint-Germain win the second place in the league last season and obtained a ticket to the European Champions League.

Damn, I was assigned to Paris Saint-Germain in the same group. Isn’t this forcing Ling Feng to raise the butcher knife to his old boss again?

Looking at Ling Feng who was so angry that he was jumping around, Fergson turned to the team doctor next to him and ordered: "Be sure to prepare cold medicine before the game with Saint-Germain..."
Chapter completed!