Chapter 223: First Round of the New Season

Hugo jumped on the bandwagon and asked for a price increase. Other small clubs were no fools and quickly followed suit. They insisted on raising the broadcast fee, otherwise they would not sign and refuse to participate in professional league games.

There is strength in numbers, and these clubs are inconspicuous. Many of them even have close relationships with big clubs, but when it comes to money, who knows you? Every one of them is opposed to harming their own interests and feeding the big clubs.

Last year, the price paid by the national television pay channel to Serie B teams was basically 2 million euros per team per year. Now Hugo is asking them to increase it to 6 million euros. This is a big deal for the lion, but it can always be negotiated. .

Galliani called Hugo angrily and said: "You can get together with the mid-range teams, and I will convince the national TV station to give Trapani a contract higher than other teams!"

Hugo thought about it and refused. He couldn't do this. It seemed to be very beneficial to Trapani, but in fact, it was tantamount to offending a lot of allies, and it would be difficult to deal with them in the future. , When you first arrived in Trapani, it’s best to stand with the small team!

"Jia Gong, I am not doing this for my own benefit! Our Italian football needs to develop, our professional league needs to develop, how can you play without small and medium-sized teams like us?! The professional league must be healthy, and the professional league must also be healthy, without rising prices At this price, small teams like ours will not be able to develop, and it will not be beneficial to everyone! You should find a way to persuade the national TV pay channel to give everyone more money. The prosperity of Italian football cannot be separated from us!" Hugo said plausibly, and he was very generous! Of course.

Galliani sneered in his heart. He just wanted to say that this damn guy is just a little cunning guy. A little sweetness cannot seduce him. He knows the general trend very well.

The long tug-of-war began. Galliani was good at dancing and running in both directions. As the chairman of the professional league, he had to persuade the national TV station to increase the offer, and at the same time he had to persuade the clubs to negotiate with the national TV station at the negotiation table. Lower your expectations.

Hugo made another comment in an interview with the New Sports website in August, "Italy's current broadcast contract method is backward. We must learn from the Premier League. Serie A and Serie B should be packaged and sold! Attracting international capital should not be limited to Italy!"

This idea caused an uproar as soon as it came out, and small and medium-sized teams rejoiced. This is another way for small and medium-sized clubs to obtain great benefits. The Premier League's broadcast fees are distributed evenly, and with ranking rewards, small clubs can get a big profit even if they are at the bottom. This income is guaranteed.

Secondly, the Premier League’s broadcast bidding is open to the whole world. It cannot be done here in Italy. The Italian side is not packaged and sold. It requires negotiations between the teams and TV stations one by one. Who in the international capital is willing to talk to you individually one by one? It takes a long time, so Serie A The broadcast rights of Team B are basically in the hands of domestic TV stations, which gives them the capital to threaten small clubs.

These remarks are just talk. Hugo just wants to stand up and criticize the big bosses of the professional league, so that they have some scruples and don't make everyone anxious. The suspension of the league is not a big deal.

After these remarks, the three concerned parties quickly accelerated the progress of negotiations and finally reached an agreement. Small clubs like Hugo and others can also receive 5 million euros in broadcast fees every year in Serie B.

Therefore, the new season will kick off on September 15th.

The first opponent is Bari, which was relegated to Serie B last season. This is a southern team located in Puglia. Their behind-the-scenes owner is the Matarese family, and the chairman is Antonio Matarese. The relationship between him and Hugo has been good recently.

Hugo was the first to propose a price increase, and he was the second. He and Galliani had some stories. In the first half of this year, there was an election for the president of the professional league. He and Galliani were competitors, but he failed. Now, Galliani has won the seat of president of the Professional League. You tell me, if someone is against the Professional League, how can he not stand up and support it?

At least Hugo and him are on the same side now. Of course, no one knows how long the partnership will last.

Trapani arrived in Bari, and Matarese personally invited Hugo to have dinner. We all had a great time chatting, and everyone sat together to watch the football game the next day.

Old coach Zeman used all his main players in the first round.

The goalkeeper position is still Kameni. Kameni is exactly the type of goalkeeper Zeman needs. He has a wide range of control, because Trapani's defense is higher up, mainly to maintain the formation. A goalkeeper who is compact and has a wide range of control is in line with Trapani's characteristics. Kameni is just right under Zeman. He always likes to attack.

The right back of the defense is Bosingwa. Maggio is a player that Trapani spent a lot of money to introduce. However, he still failed to compete with Bosingwa in the main position. However, Maggio's level has also grown relatively quickly. , Bosingwa also faces a lot of pressure.

Center defender Barzagli sprained his ankle in training and was expected to be absent for more than a week. Zeman then used Pepe and Natali to partner, and there was also Peluso, who can play as a left back and at the same time. Playing as a centre-back.

The left back is Grosso. Grosso and Evra can't tell who is the main player. Zeman prefers to use Evra, but Evra is a bit far behind Grosso in defense, although both are on the wing. Born as a avant-garde, Grosso may be more influenced by the Italian defensive football culture. He can quickly get started defensively and needs to be more mature and reliable. The advantage of Evra is that he is fast, has strong impact, and has good style. Rosso is better defensively and his passing is more reliable than Evra. Zeman will choose the two according to different opponents.

In the midfield, Zeman gave Miku a forward look like a midfielder, and behind him were teenagers Mascherano and Meireles. These two are fast, and Mascherano has already shown In addition to his strength, he has a good sense of defensive position and a high steal success rate. Meireles has balanced characteristics, good passing and interception.

There is another young man on the team, Padoin, whose qualifications are relatively average, but the advantage is that he is hardworking and diligent. Zeman actually likes to use Padoin, but this season he plans to give Mascherano more opportunities. , his potential is higher than Padoin in Zeman's opinion.

There are also Stefano Mauri and Belluschi in the midfield. Like Padoin, they can only serve as substitutes.

The arrow on the front line is of course Toni, who is Trapani's most stable shooter in the past few seasons. At the winger position, Simone Pepe occupies the right position, and Cristiano Ronaldo occupies the left position. This season, Trapani's personnel are not sufficient, but they are barely adequate. However, for the construction of Guingamp, Trapani still rented out Franck Ribery, so there is little competition pressure for the winger position.

Zeman gradually abandoned Lurriga during the summer training. To be precise, he did not abandon him, but put Ronaldo first. Ronaldo's personal breakthrough ability was more outstanding than Luriga during the youth training camp. He also has a good scoring efficiency and good shooting ability. Zeman wants to train Ronaldo to become one of the team's scorers this season. Neither Luriga nor Pepe's shooting ability is good!

Bari lost a lot of blood this summer and was relegated. Of course, not everyone can share the difficulties with the team, and the income will drop a lot. Matarese has no choice but to let some people go! But even so, the outside world is not optimistic about Trapani's away trip. After all, Bari is a downgraded Serie A team, and most of Trapani's players are newcomers to Serie B. The handicap offered by the betting company, Bari's winning odds are very low, only 1.34, and he is obviously very unfavorable to Trapani.

But these media obviously forgot that Trapani has a veteran coach Zeman who has been in Serie A football for many years.

Less than 3 minutes into the game, visiting Trapani gave Bari a head-on blow. Faced with Trapani's frenzied opening rush, Bari's players were in a hurry and made a big-footed clearance in the backcourt. Pepe headed him near the midfield. Returning to Bari's half, the opponent's No. 8 ball was not yet firmly grasped. Mascherano's quick eyesight and quick feet successfully intercepted the ball from his feet and passed it to Miku. Miku hit the ball without stopping. Slanting to the right, Pepe sprinted and passed the ball in one go. Tony, a high center forward, can score so many goals every season for no reason.

He leaned on the opponent's central defender in the middle, stretched his neck and hit the ball. The ball was not powerful but the angle was very tricky, and he pushed it into the goal of the Barry team.

Trapani made a perfect start. This goal fully demonstrated Micu's organizational ability in the frontcourt attack. He can predict the position of his teammates very well, and his passing accuracy and strength are very good. Pei is fully capable of passing a good ball!

After the goal, the Trapani players frantically surrounded Tony. This was the team's first goal of the new season. No one expected the goal to come so quickly!

Toni opened his hands and ran to the visiting team's stands to pay tribute to the Trapani fans!

San Nicola Stadium is Bari's home stadium. It can accommodate 65,000 spectators. It was one of the venues for the 1990 World Cup. However, the number of spectators here for this game was very dismal, with less than 10,000 spectators. Bari The bad last season caused many fans to lose their enthusiasm for watching the game, and Trapani is a newly promoted team. Don't look at Miku, but many in the media are not very optimistic about Trapani's trip to Serie B. Because their net investment in the transfer market is not much at all.

On the contrary, the fans in Trapani became very enthusiastic after the team was promoted to Serie B. There were at least 500 fans of the visiting team at the San Nicola Stadium today. Trapani is a small city and a small club. There are already a lot of away fans!