Since 1955, the Frenchman Gabriel Jarno had advocated for the establishment of a fixed event between European clubs. Since the start of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup up to the 05-06 season, the UEFA Champions League had gone through fifty years of history. During those fifty years, the Champions League had started from scratch, from a cup competition to a league tournament, from the name change to the repeated adjustment of the competition format. It had undergone many changes. But what had remained the same was that the tournament symbolized the highest honor among the European football clubs.
There might be fans who often argued about which country had the highest league standard and which country’s league was the best European league. But when it came to the clubs’ highest honor, no one would doubt the prestige of the Champions League.
Up until a few years ago, there was still a saying in the football world: The World Cup’s watchability, standard, and prestige were not as good as the UEFA Champions League. There was also a more extreme saying, which was that even if the World Cup were to be canceled, it was enough to watch the Champions League.
Obviously, that was preposterous, and no one took it seriously.
However, it showed the Champions League’s status.
For current football clubs, participation in the Champions League was not just about honor. It had more to do with the club’s budget in the new season. A large number of ticket sales, television broadcast royalties, and bonuses for each match had made many clubs set breaking into the Champions League as their highest goal. Many small league teams could reap immeasurable amounts of money as long as they could enter the Champions League once. It could even be said that if a team in a state of financial distress broke into the Champions League, it was likely to revive the team. Such was the power of money and the power of the Champions League.
It was still a big attraction for the Forest team.
Evan Doughty was not Roman Abramovich. He could not invest unlimited money in the club. He could not afford to let the club lose one hundred million pounds a year to win the championship and still live well.
Participating in the Champions League was a very useful supplement to the Forest team’s finances. Forest would have more funds to invest in the transfer market, the club’s daily operations, and its facilities.
In Allan’s budget report to Evan, he pointed out that as long as the team could enter the Champions League tournament every season, the club’s finances would continue to improve without needing to rely on Evan’s personal capital injections. The club could then be self-sufficient and profitable.
The Champions League grouping had two key points. One was to establish the seeded teams to ensure that the strong teams would not meet prematurely. The other point was common knowledge but not openly disclosed: the artificial control of the draw.
Was it considered fair to draw lots? Not necessarily; the ballot also contained an element of human control. This approach was first proposed due to “political considerations” to avoid situations whereby some of the politically sensitive countries’ teams could happen to be in the same groups. For instance, the Soviet Union and Albania at that time, or Greece and Turkey. Later, the political impact slowly faded and artificial control became the main means of guaranteeing ticket sales and broadcasting revenue.
Twain absolutely did not believe it was a coincidence that Chelsea and Barcelona had been grouped together for three consecutive years. Everyone liked to watch the battle between Barcelona, the representative of the beautiful game, and Chelsea, the powerful upstart. And the draw results satisfied everyone’s wishes. Obviously, this draw did not happen at a group stage draw, but at the draw after the knockout stage. For two consecutive seasons, Barcelona and Chelsea were drawn together. The third time, the two arch-rivals were even directly put together into the same group.
That was the case in Tang En’s memory. In the Champions League last season, during round 16, Chelsea had ousted Barcelona in two rounds, which caused enmity between the two teams. He could not remember this season’s Champions League group draw circumstances. He could only sit there quietly and wait for the results.
The Champions League group stage was divided into eight groups, in alphabetical order of A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. Each group had a seeded team. The UEFA would divide thirty-two teams into four tiers. The seeded team of each group would be determined first and then the four teams in each group would be drawn.
Group A’s seeded team was from Serie A, “The Old Lady” Juventus.
Group B’s seeded team was the La Liga powerhouse, Barcelona.
Group C’s seeded team was England’s Arsenal, “The Gunners.”
Group D’s seeded team was from La Liga, the team which had won the most Champions League titles, “Galácticos” Real Madrid.
Group E’s seeded team was the Italian powerhouse club, AC Milan.
Group F’s seeded team was “The Red Devils,” Manchester United.
Group G’s seeded team was England’s traditional and strong team, Liverpool.
Group H’s seeded team came from Milan, Italy: Inter Milan.
After the seeded teams in the eight groups were determined, the draw began for the other teams.
As the small balls were removed from the glass bowl one after another, they were each opened and pieces of paper with the names of the clubs were displayed in front of the camera and then uploaded to the large screen onsite. There was a constant stream of voices of wonder, joy, and discontent.
The hands of destiny fiddled with the small balls in the box and played with the moods of all the managers.
Because the Forest team had broken into the Champions League again after twenty-four years, no matter how brilliant they had been twenty-four years ago, now they could only be counted as a fourth tier team. They would be drawn last.
Mourinho’s Chelsea was placed among the second-tier teams. When the person in charge of the draw opened Group G and the next person took out a written “Chelsea” note, there was a huge commotion for the first time.
In the Champions League last season, it was Liverpool which had eliminated Chelsea in the semi-finals before they had advanced into the finals to create that unforgettable reversal. Unexpectedly, those two arch rivals had come together today again. Some people whistled to gloat, and some people watched the show indifferently. Mourinho looked blank and expressionless while Benítez frowned.
Who could believe that there was no artificial manipulation in the UEFA draw?
At the very least, Mourinho and Benítez did not believe it.
Twain thought of what Mourinho had said to him before: “The odds of the teams from the same country league being in the same group are too narrow.”
That was really a farce. He also sniggered along with the others.
However, Twain’s laughter did not last long. Soon after, he frowned as well.
The draw of the fourth-tier teams began. The first letter to be taken out was “D.” Which unlucky team would be in the same group as Real Madrid, Benfica and Lille, and become the target to snatch points from?
The second person took a small ball out of the box, opened it and pulled out the folded note. He glanced at it, flipped it to show the audience, and reported the team’s name at the same time:
“Nottingham Forest.”