Chapter 366 Volume 3 Red Forest Champions Cup Grouping (Part 2)

From 1955 when the Frenchman Gabriel Arnold advocated the establishment of a fixed event among European clubs - the European Club Cup, to the 2005-06 season, the UEFA Champions League has exactly 50 years of history. In the middle of the year, the Champions League has grown from scratch, from cups to leagues, name changes, repeated adjustments to the competition system, and has undergone many changes. But one thing remains unchanged-this is the highest honor among European football clubs.

There may be fans who often debate which country has the highest league level and which country's league is the first league in Europe. But when it comes to the club's highest honor, no one will question the authority of the Champions League.

In the past few years, even in football, there was even such a saying: the World Cup is not as enjoyable, standard, and authoritative as the UEFA Champions League. There is also an extreme statement, hoping to cancel the World Cup and watching the Champions League is enough.

Of course, this is too absurd, no one takes it seriously.

But this shows the status of the Champions League.

For current football clubs, participating in the Champions League is not just about honor, it is more related to a club's budget for the new season. A large amount of ticket revenue, TV broadcast dividends and bonuses for each game have made many clubs set their highest goal of breaking into the Champions League. Many small league teams can reap countless rewards as long as they can enter the Champions League once. Money, it can even be said that if a team in deep financial crisis breaks into the Champions League, it is likely to bring this team back to life. It's the power of money and it's the power of the Champions League.

Even this point is still quite attractive to the current Forest team.

Evan Dalgety is not Abramovich. He cannot invest unlimited funds in the club. He is not capable of making the club lose 100 million pounds a year and still win the championship. He lives a very nourishing life.

Participating in the Champions League is a very beneficial supplement to the Forest team's finances. The Forest team will have more funds to invest in the transfer market, the club's daily operations and facility construction.

In Allen’s financial budget report to Evan, he pointed out that as long as the team can enter the Champions League every season, the club’s financial situation will continue to improve, and there is no need to rely on Evan’s personal capital injection. The club will be self-sufficient and profitable.

There are two key points in the grouping of the Champions League. One is to establish the seed teams to ensure that the strong teams will not meet prematurely. The other is that many people know it well but it is inconvenient to make it public-artificial control of the lottery.

Is the lottery fair? Not necessarily, the lottery also has factors of human control in it. This approach was first proposed out of "political considerations" to avoid teams from some politically tense countries happening to be grouped together. Such as the Soviet Union and Albania, Greece and Türkiye at that time. Later, the political influence gradually faded, and human control became the main means to ensure box office and broadcast revenue.

Twain absolutely does not believe that it is a "coincidence" that Chelsea and Barcelona have met for three consecutive years. Everyone likes to see Barcelona, ​​the representative of artistic football, compete with the upstart Chelsea, and the result of the draw is also satisfied. Everyone's wish, of course, this draw is not a draw for the group stage, but a second draw after entering the knockout stage. For two consecutive sessions, Barcelona and Chelsea were drawn together, and for the third time, these two enemy teams were directly placed. the same group.

This was the situation in Tang En's memory. In the Champions League last season, Chelsea eliminated Barcelona in two rounds in the round of 16, and the two teams forged a feud. He can't remember the draw of the Champions League group stage this season, so he can only sit here and wait for the result.

The Champions League group stage is divided into eight groups, which are called by the English letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. Each group has a seeded team. UEFA will divide the thirty-two teams into four grades, first determine the seed team of each group, and then draw four teams from each group in grades.

The seeded team in Group A is Serie A "Old Lady" Juventus.

The seeded team in Group B is La Liga giants Barcelona.

The seeded team in Group C is England's "Gunners" Arsenal.

The seeded team in Group D is Real Madrid, the "Galaxy" who has won the most Champions League titles from La Liga.

Group E seeded Italian giants AC Milan.

The seeded team in Group F is England's "Red Devils" Manchester United.

The seeded team in Group G is Liverpool, England's traditional strong team.

Group H is seeded from Milan, Italy - Inter Milan.

After determining the seed teams of the eight groups, the other teams will be drawn.

As the small balls were taken out of the glass tank and opened, a piece of paper with the club's name was displayed in front of the TV camera, and then transmitted to the big screen at the scene. Voices of exclamation, joy, and complaints sounded constantly.

The hands of fate fiddled with the small balls in the box, and also fiddled with the moods of all the coaches present.

Because the Forest team broke into the Champions League again in 24 years, no matter how brilliant they were 24 years ago, they can only be counted as the fourth-tier team now, and they will be drawn out last.

Mourinho's Chelsea was ranked the second team. When the person in charge of drawing the group turned on G, the second person pulled out a note with "Chelsea" written on it, and the scene rang for the first time. Widespread commotion.

In the UEFA Champions League last season, it was Liverpool who eliminated Chelsea in the semi-finals before reaching the final and creating that classic reversal. Unexpectedly, the two enemies met again today. Some people whistled and gloated, while others watched the show with cold eyes. Mourinho was stern and expressionless, while Benitez frowned.

Who can believe that UEFA's draw is free of human manipulation?

At least Mourinho and Benitez don't believe it now.

Tang En thought of what Mourinho said to him before: "The chances of teams from the same country's league meeting in the same group are too small."

What a comedy. He also laughed along with the others.

But Tang En's laughter didn't last long, and soon he also frowned.

The draw for the fourth-tier teams began, and the first letter drawn was "D". Which unlucky guy will be in the same group as Real Madrid, Benfica, and Lille, and become the target of their grabbing points?

The second person took out a small ball from the box, opened it, took out the folded note, glanced at it, flipped it over and showed it to the audience, and at the same time announced the name of the team:

"Nottingham Forest."

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