Chapter 595: The King's Cup
In 1924, there were two major sports events in the world, one was the Summer Olympics held in Paris, France, and the other was the King's Cup held every four years in Sydney, Australia.
Although the history of the Olympics is much longer than that of the King's Cup, it has been held by powerful countries such as Britain, France and Australia. Each event attracts dozens of countries to participate, and more than 2,000 athletes compete in the Games.
However, from the perspective of popularity and the richness of the prize money, the current King's Cup is not inferior to the Olympics, and even slightly exceeds it in terms of attention.
This is no joke. The first King's Cup in 1920 cost more than 3.78 million Australian dollars, and the prize money was about 500,000 Australian dollars.
Excluding the cost of hosting and the prize money, at least 2.5 million Australian dollars was spent on publicity, which is why the King's Cup has quickly become a world-renowned sports event.
Especially in Australasia, the champion of the King's Cup can be received by Arthur, which is a fatal temptation for the Australasia Football Association and an irresistible reward for those Australasia football players.
In order to ensure the attractiveness of the King's Cup to various countries, the first King's Cup was held without any favoritism and basically achieved fairness and justice.
However, European countries and powers still have advantages in sports events. After all, only the people of these countries have enough money to engage in sports.
Most sports events are not something that people can do just because they are interested. Basketball needs a basketball court, football needs a football field, and even running requires corresponding professional training facilities, even if it is just a pair of ordinary sports shoes.
In particular, participating in the King's Cup requires a formal national football association. The political situation in some small and medium-sized countries is not very stable, so it is naturally impossible to form an official football association.
This also led to only 22 countries signing up for the first King's Cup, and the final winner was the Australasia football team without any favoritism.
After all, Australasia is fighting on its own, saving the time spent on the road. In addition, since Sydney hosted the Olympic Games, the country has attached great importance to sports. Every year, a part of the funds will be invested to subsidize various athletes, and corresponding sports facilities and venues will be built to improve the training level of football players in Australia.
Because of the experience of later generations, Arthur knows a truth, that is, before asking people to make achievements in a certain aspect, a corresponding stable development environment must be created for them.
If Australia wants to make achievements in football, the establishment of football fields and corresponding training facilities has given people enough time to watch sports events and cultivate sports interests, which is the most important.
Fortunately, the people of Australia still have a certain amount of spare time, which has also laid a certain foundation for the vigorous development of the Australian sports industry.
In addition, various sports associations and sports departments currently rate and register athletes. Athletes who are recognized by the country after registration can obtain high subsidies from the country, turning athletes into a substantial job in exchange for more people's attention to sports events.
Even amateur athletes who are not officially registered can receive subsidies from the government as long as they have achieved certain results in a certain event or made certain contributions to sports events.
This year's second King's Cup is not much different from the previous one in terms of competition system. After all, there are only so many countries that can participate in sports events during this period.
It's still the old rules. The registration deadline is May this year, and the collective training phase is from June to July.
The qualifiers will start from the end of August to the beginning of September, followed by the group stage and the knockout stage, and the real champion will be determined in October.
This time conflicts with the Olympics, but fortunately the Olympics will open in May, and when the King's Cup is officially held, the Summer Olympics will be nearing its end.
This year's Olympics will be held in Paris, France, and it is also the first time that the Olympic motto of faster, higher, stronger has been introduced.
As an Olympic Games held by one of the great powers, the Paris Olympics attracted more attention than Antwerp, and was called the two major sports events that changed the world together with the King's Cup in Australasia.
Of course, a large factor in this is Australasia's publicity expenses. If it had not been for the huge investment in publicity, the King's Cup would not have been able to compare with the Olympics in a short time, even though the Olympics had only been held eight times so far.
As time came to May 1924, in addition to the Paris Olympics in France, Europe was about to usher in the coronation ceremony of three new monarchs.
Arthur still attached great importance to his only brother-in-law Dmitri and decided to attend his coronation ceremony in person.
Finland was the most powerful of the three newly established monarchies, and Australasia's ability to control Finland was also an advantage over the struggle between Britain and France.
But Arthur did not feel embarrassed at all. He not only decided to attend Dmitri's coronation ceremony in person, but also brought Queen Mary and several little ones.
Dmitri's coronation was scheduled for June 19, which meant that Arthur needed to arrive in Finland to prepare at least before mid-June.
Fortunately, it only takes about a month for Australasia's fastest warship to go to Finland, and even just over 20 days to go to France and Spain.
It just so happened that Arthur also planned to take the opportunity of attending Dmitry's coronation ceremony to pay another diplomatic visit to some European countries after many years.
I remember that the last time I went to Europe was during the funeral of Edward VII. At that time, Germany was still the second largest power in the world, but now things have changed.
Australasia used to be a pseudo-power that needed the help of other countries to maintain its status as a great power. Now it is one of the most powerful countries in the world.
Although it is not yet strong enough to compete for world hegemony, it is still no problem to compete for the third place in the world after Britain and the United States.
Australasia's competitors are France and island countries. France's industrial strength has been damaged, and its industry is no longer as good as Australasia's.
The land area of the island country is naturally limited. This country may be able to secure the throne of the great powers, but it is still too difficult to become a top power.
On June 14, 1924, the Arthur family successfully arrived in Helsinki, Finland, and received a warm welcome from the Finnish government and Archduke Dmitry.
The welcoming team waited at the port of Helsinki for more than two hours. After Arthur and his party arrived at the port, Dmitri immediately rushed forward and looked at his sister and brother-in-law very respectfully.
"Dmitri, how do you feel in Finland?" Arthur asked with a smile.
"It's as cold as Russia, but the Finns are much more enthusiastic than I thought." Dmitri said very gratefully: "Thanks to the weapons and equipment you gave me, the training progress of the Grand Duke's Guard is already over halfway. The situation in Finland It’s settled down.”
"Dmitri, you've lost weight because of hunger!" Queen Mary held the two little guys by the hand and looked at her brother with some distress.
"Finland's financial situation is not good. As the Grand Duke of Finland, I should naturally take the initiative to reduce living expenses." Dmitri explained with a smile: "But it's okay. I like life here and I also like this kind and lovely group of people." Finn."
After a few people exchanged pleasantries, Nicholas John Fitzgerald, the interim prime minister of the Finnish government, came up very respectfully and said to Arthur and Queen Mary: "Your Majesty Arthur, Your Royal Highness Queen Mary, Welcome to Finland! ”
Arthur nodded calmly in response to Nicholas' greetings.
Arthur didn't have much favorable impressions of such a profit-minded politician. Moreover, Nicholas is the first politician from a small country to dare to propose conditions to Australasia, so Arthur will naturally not have any good impressions of him.
If it weren't for Dmitri's status and reputation in Finland, and as a test for Dmitri, Arthur would have asked the Australasian government to purge Finland.
Under the control of a powerful country, a small country cannot guarantee independence in the fundamental sense.
Especially when the three countries of Britain, France and Australia have agreed, the political situation in Finland is nothing more than Arthur's words.
But now that we have entered the 1920s, the stability and spread of the monarchy are more important than the rights of the monarch.
Although with Arthur's help, Dmitri might be able to gain absolute power in Finland. But this right may not last, let alone be inherited by the next Grand Duke of Finland.
Rather than looking forward to the consolidation of the power of the Finnish monarchy, it is better to look forward to the continuation of the Finnish monarchy in Finland.
At least during the reign of Dmitry and his children, that is, in the next few decades, the relationship between Finland and Australasia can still be guaranteed.
Arthur rejected the invitation of Prime Minister Nicholas and came to the Palace of the Grand Duke of Finland with Dmitri.
The history of the Grand Duchy of Finland can be traced back hundreds of years. Although it is equivalent to a subordinate state of Tsarist Russia, it still has its own independent government and Grand Duke's Palace, although the Grand Duke's Palace will not be occupied by a ruler all year round.
Dmitri did not fight for power when he came to Finland, nor did he propose any plans to improve and expand the palace. This made the Finnish people at least not disgusted with Dmitri.
In addition, the arrival of Dmitri brought further cooperation between Finland and Australasia, and Finland received assistance from Australasia, including a certain industrial base and power equipment.
Although these changes have not made much difference to the lives of the Finnish people, part of the infrastructure assisted by Australasia has begun to recruit workers. Finns have more job opportunities, and this gratitude has naturally been transferred to Dmitry.
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