Volume 1: Heroes Come and Go, People Pay Attention Chapter 36 Europa League (First Update, Please Vote for Me)
After the two national team match days, the players returned to their respective clubs one after another.
Liverpool also restarted training preparations. The purpose of their preparation this time is to face Sporting Lisbon, their first opponent in the group stage, at home. []
Liverpool's first Europa League group match in the new season is also Liverpool's first game back in Europe after a year's absence, so everyone in the club attaches great importance to it.
Playing at home, we must win!
If they can't beat Sporting Lisbon at home, Liverpool should just go to sleep and stop dreaming about a revival.
In fact, the Europa League is the UEFA Cup, but the format and name have been changed, but the trophy has not been changed. So this is definitely not the first time Chen Yingxiong has participated. But strictly speaking, the Europa League and the UEFA Cup are still two competitions. After all, the name has been changed, so it can no longer be called the "UEFA Cup".
The Europa League is a policy adopted by Platini's UEFA to strongly support second- and third-rate league teams in order to fulfill its original promise to attract votes to the football associations of small football countries. The original UEFA Cup and Toto Cup were merged together to form a new cup called the Europa League.
The group stage alone has expanded to 48 clubs. Just like the Champions League, each team will participate in six games in the group stage, which means they will compete home and away against the other three opponents in the same group. Like the previous UEFA Cup, there is no home and away group stage, and each two teams only meet once in the group stage.
The scale of the qualifying rounds has also been expanded, expanding to three qualifying rounds. This does not include the play-offs, which are calculated separately. The scale of the qualifying competition has expanded, and naturally there are more teams participating in the qualifying competition, from the original one hundred and one teams to one hundred and thirty-three, a full thirty-two more teams.
In this way, many teams from small and low-level national leagues can also participate in this event and show their faces in the European competition. In fact, the main reason is not to show their faces, but to get money after showing their faces. For the 2010-2011 season, as long as the top 48 enter the Europa League, they will be the first to receive a participation bonus of 640,000 euros. In the same season, the teams participating in the Champions League main competition received 3.9 million euros, which is not a level of bonus at all.
But for those small teams, this 640,000 euros is enough to attract them. After that, for every game, regardless of winning or losing, the club will receive an appearance fee of 60,000 euros. For every win, the team will receive 140,000 euros. If it is a draw, it will only receive half of the 10,000 euros. There will be no bonus for losing. According to this statistics, if a team can win all six games in the group stage, the team can receive a maximum bonus of 1.84 million euros. Teams that reach the top 32 will receive an automatic promotion bonus of 200,000 euros, and each team that reaches the top 16 will receive a promotion bonus of 300,000 euros. Reaching the quarterfinals is 400,000. After reaching the semi-finals, the salary rose to 700,000 euros. As for the two teams that enter the final, if they win the championship, they will receive a championship bonus of 3 million euros, while the runner-up will only receive 2 million euros.
Calculating this, if a team can win the championship with a complete victory record, they can receive up to 7.08 million euros. This small amount of money is simply not worth it in the eyes of those wealthy families.
But for teams in Eastern European, Nordic and other leagues, this bonus is even more than their annual financial budget.
Therefore, the Europa League is still very attractive for small teams.
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Many teams participate in the Europa League for bonuses. Perhaps participating in the Europa League for one season can save the club's financial crisis.
But that championship honor is not something that all teams value or are interested in.
However, the reason why Liverpool attaches so much importance to this event is really because of the championship honor.
The Liverpool club does not attach too much importance to the championship bonus of more than 7 million euros and cannot turn a blind eye. If there is any, it can reduce financial pressure. If not, it will not fall into a quagmire.
But if the team can win the Europa League, it will be able to announce Liverpool's strong return. It will be a shot in the arm to boost Liverpool's morale.
This is a championship that is more symbolic than practical.
What Liverpool ultimately pursues is the Champions League, but the Europa League can be a step to take Liverpool to the top.
So Liverpool must pursue results in this Europa League.
Martin O'Neal didn't do any special pep rallies. He felt that everyone was a professional player. Among these players were some who had won the Champions League. They were playing at home, so there was no reason why they couldn't win.
The only thing he is worried about is Chen Yingxiong. After all, Chen Yingxiong's - Piao Tianwen - is too high. He is afraid that Chen Yingxiong will not be interested in this Europa League.
To be honest, Chen Yingxiong's current ability is already at the Champions League level, and he should participate in the Champions League.
And a tasteless competition like the Europa League, no matter how important it is to Liverpool, is tasteless to Chen Yingxiong.
Not to mention that the Europa League is actually the UEFA Cup, and Chen Yingxiong has not only won the UEFA Cup championship, but also won the top scorer in the UEFA Cup since its reform.
What he can pursue is really limited...
You can't blame O'Neal for having such thoughts, because this phenomenon is very common in football. After many players become famous, they lose motivation and are no longer interested in championships and victories. Such examples are common.
The most recent example is Mourinho's Inter Milan. That team won the Triple Crown in the 2009-2010 season, fulfilling a dream of club president Moratti. Countless players have become famous, but what happens after that? Mourinho left Inter Milan and went to Real Madrid to meet his new challenge, while Inter Milan's players fell into the slack and emptiness after becoming famous.
The team's performance plummeted, and everyone's energy was obviously not focused on the pursuit of victory, but on intrigues and seeking interests. For their own benefit, they can get rid of the coach they don't like. In order to get rid of the head coach, they can do nothing in the game and let the team lose again and again. Even if some young Inter Milan fans put up slogans like "Can you still win? Otherwise I will be laughed at in school!" to motivate them, it did not change their attitude. Inter Milan won in the next game. First, they lost 0:1 to Marseille in the Champions League away game, and then lost 0:1 to Napoli in the league without Chen Yingxiong. Not only did the Nerazzurri fail to comfort the fans with victory, but they fell into a deeper trough.
Everything stems from the fact that after these players got all the honors they could get, they fell into a huge emptiness and lost their goal for a while.
Martin O'Neill is worried about the team's top scorer, and the offensive core also has this mentality-he performs well in the Premier League because the Premier League is still a league for him that he has not yet conquered.
He won the Europa League title and the top scorer. He was also the record-breaking top scorer.
He planned to have a good talk with Chen Yingxiong.
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After Chen Yingxiong understood O'Neill's intention, he smiled.
Now is the time when he is going crazy to win honors and championships. How could he look down on the Europa League? Let alone the Europa League, if Liverpool is qualified to participate in the Community Shield, he will not even let the Community Shield go! The Europa League is also the second-largest cup competition in Europe, second only to the UEFA Champions League. Such an honor is naturally worth striving for. Moreover, he was able to kill two birds with one stone, winning the Europa League championship and being the top scorer. These are two honors.
Of course, he wouldn't say it so directly. You have to pay attention to the way you speak. This is the art of speaking. The same sentence, said in a different way, will make people think that his image suddenly becomes taller.
What's more, Chen Yingxiong couldn't tell others the inside story. He had to find some reason.
"No, boss. I will always have an insatiable hunger for victory and championships!" Chen Yingxiong raised his head, wishing that his face could radiate with his words.
Seeing O'Neal's surprised look, Chen Yingxiong added: "Actually... I have an idea, that is, I want to win the Europa League championship. But I'm afraid the boss doesn't have this intention. After all, the league is... um..."
It makes O'Neal happy that Chen Yingxiong has such fighting spirit, but the Europa League champion...
The club's top management vaguely revealed to him that they hope to win a championship if possible. However, he has his own considerations. Qualification for the Champions League is the most important. If there is a conflict between the qualifications for the Europa League and the Champions League, he will definitely give up the Europa League without hesitation.
But what he wants now is that Chen Yingxiong has such motivation. Chen Yingxiong finally showed strong fighting spirit as he wished. How could he dampen Chen Yingxiong's enthusiasm at this time?
He smiled and nodded, looking very pleased.
"Okay, I just have the same idea. Liverpool really needs a champion of sufficient importance!"
Compared with the Europa League, the English League Cup really has no weight...
Chen Yingxiong didn't know what the head coach had in mind. He only thought that Martin O'Neal supported his idea. He was relieved at once - he was worried that Martin O'Neill would not pay attention to the Europa League. In that case, he would not be able to win the championship.
After all, his arm cannot twist his thigh. He is a player and cannot determine the team's strategic goals.
If the head coach doesn't pay attention to the Europa League, can he still fall out with the head coach over this, and finally move out Chen Xingxing and drive O'Neal away?
Willfulness is not such a willful method.