Chapter 2 United Milan

“Recently, there is shocking news that Ciano, the president of the United Group and the most spending man in Italy, has reached an agreement with the Milan Football and Cricket Club. He will acquire the club... The even more shocking news is that the Italian Olympic team Commission president Lando Feredi (a Fascist official), who is about to be appointed as the new Italian Football Federation president, has proposed a proposal for the Viareggio Agreement, which for the first time proposes that football players will no longer be considered amateurs. Players, they will sign a work contract with the club and perform their professional responsibilities. At the same time, the policy on foreign players will be relaxed in a very incredible situation! Of course, whether each team can have 2 or 3 foreign players is still under discussion... …We may have a new pro league soon!”

On January 28, Gazzetta dello Sport published the news from a special reporter, which shocked the Italian football circle.

Although the Italian Football League has begun to take shape at this time, it is still essentially an amateur game. Each player actually has his own serious job. Just because they play football, the company will give them more relaxed and convenient conditions; In terms of management, the current league system is laughably crude compared to the Contini era. Teams with foreign players form separate leagues, and local players are in another league. The league does not spread across the country and compete in cycles. Instead, it adopts a division system. The country is divided into 4-6 divisions, and the first place in the division is concentrated last. Rise up and compete for the national championship.

The issue of purely relying on local players or using foreign players is also an important reason for the split of the Milan team. The other team that split off is called Inter, also in Milan.

ps: Fans who don’t understand history can easily be confused. The city of Milan does have two teams, one is Milan and the other is Inter, but there is only one team called Milan, not One is AC Milan and the other is Inter Milan. If the international team can be called Inter Milan, then the two teams in the city of Rome should be called AS Roma and Lazio Roma.

Observers generally don’t understand this operation. In terms of political influence, he should buy Lazio. The leader is said to like Lazio better; in terms of performance, he should buy Genoa or Internacional. These two teams are currently performing very well. Why did you choose the Milan team? In terms of sentiment, he should buy Livorno, his hometown team. How did you choose the Milan team? The Milan team is not doing well right now, and the economy is also in dire straits. It is in a state of turmoil...

This reason can only be found in Contini's own interests and hobbies: before time travel, he was a fan of Milan, so he chose Milan to invest. As for Lazio, which the leader likes, there is nothing he can do to help. It's not that he can't support two people. If there are two teams instead of one team, the fairness of the competition will be questioned.

But Mussolini didn't mind this. What he really paid attention to was the Italian national team. If someone was willing to invest money to play, he would naturally be the happiest. If Contini has to interfere when investing in Lazio or Milan, then he has too much control. This is not a friendly attitude.

Regarding the professional league, Contini gave Freddy a lot of good advice. The most important point is to make the Italian League the best and most enjoyable competition in Europe, so it is necessary to introduce foreign players. Contini is very open-minded about this. And he is much more generous. He believes that each club can introduce 3 foreign players, but only 2 can play at the same time. They can be replaced once during the season due to injuries or special reasons, but they need to be approved by the league organizing committee. In the final analysis, the goal is to raise the level of the league, and thereby drive the level of Italian players. How can it be possible to improve if you always play behind closed doors?

In addition, he also promised that ibc would provide sponsorship to the new league. In the first year, it would be no less than 2 million lire, and it would increase annually thereafter. It would be distributed after the season as a bonus to each club, on the condition that ibc exclusively obtains the radio station. Live broadcast and reporting rights. With this money, Freddy's motivation to promote professionalism is even stronger, and he is also looking forward to making a career. After all, there is a leader who loves to watch football, and it is easier to "progress" if the football level is better. , so he respects Contini's suggestion very much, and almost accepts all Contini's qualifications are lower than his, but his status in the party is now higher than his...

The negotiations for the United Group to take over the Milan team went smoothly. Contini settled everything by paying only 200,000 US dollars. In this era, the club was not valuable at all. In order to solve the problem of lack of funds, the Milan club adopted the method of charging membership dues from members. Every year The membership fee is 20 lire, and students can enjoy a 40% discount and only need to pay 12 lire. All members of the club must pay their dues, and no one is exempt. Once, Moda, the core player of the team (he was not only the absolute main player at the time, but also the captain on the field) forgot to pay his dues, and he was punished as a result. No training allowed. Even if you care about a mere 20 lire, the equivalent of 4 million lire is an out-and-out huge sum of money.

On February 1, Milan Football and Cricket Club changed its name to United Milan Football Club. Cricket was divested, and Contini became the club president without hesitation. However, his interest in cricket was always somewhat lacking, so he simply let him Business players can enjoy themselves, as long as they invest $10,000 a year.

Club employees, coaches and players unanimously welcomed the arrival of the president: In addition to US$300,000, Contini not only paid all the salary arrears of all personnel, but also stated that starting from February 1, each person's salary would increase by 50% and there would be no increase in salary. In addition, he is also preparing to rebuild a training base for the club near the Milan base of the United Group. It will have 16 football fields from large to small. In addition, he will also open a youth training base and increase professional staff such as sports, physiotherapy, and medical care. Club fans We very much welcome a wealthy CEO. Money is not everything, but without money it is absolutely impossible.

Now the membership fee of 20 lire has suddenly become 2 lire. The reason why it is not waived is to maintain a formality. The badges, commemorative brochures, and numbered certificates you get from the club after becoming a member greatly exceed the membership fee. They are all the result of joint printing. . Originally, the club staff wanted to please the president and proposed to take advantage of the new club's reorganization opportunity to leave the No. 1 membership certificate to the president, but Contini refused.

"The new appearance of United Milan does not mean that the history and glory of Milan in the past 20 years will cease to exist. This heritage always needs to be remembered. 1899, not 1925, is the day when the club was founded...Whenever I come, I will be given the number." , no need to specialize!”

Now there are two things to watch in the football league: Agnelli Jr. who is in charge of Juventus, and Ciano Jr. who is in charge of United Milan. The media and fans can't help but compare these two people.

In the hearts of the fans, Ciano Jr. surpassed Agnelli Jr. just two days after his debut: Agnelli Jr. only wears a suit and watches games in the box, and even some of the rules are not very clear, while Agnelli Jr. Ciano was able to put on the red and black uniforms and play football in the cold winter. In the team training matches, although his movement awareness and ball handling skills were not as good as those of club members, they were no better than those of ordinary fans. Especially after he scored a goal with a beautiful diving dive before the end of the last half, all the fans warmly applauded the new boss for his understanding of football!

Before Contini traveled through time, he had always loved sports and was the main striker of the Paradox football team. In terms of level, Hoffman could only play live football with a PS2. The latter was not even included in the company's substitute list...

Contini, who could not keep up with his physical strength in the second half, did not continue to play, but at the final press conference, he made a point that fans talked about: "Of course results are important, but United Milan must first win. Looks good, plays with momentum, and I definitely don’t want the ugly 1:0 doctrine! In the short term, I will focus on the steady improvement of the club’s strength, and will not get angry because of lack of results or losing a few games. I am only 22 years old. The vast majority of the team members are young, in your words, teenagers, and they have plenty of time.”

These humorous words immediately amused everyone. They thought this was a very good start. The chairman acquired Milan because of his love for football, which gave them more expectations for the future of the club.

"As for foreign players, I will immediately start to introduce them. Next season, I will be able to debut players who are at least the main level of the national team." Contini paused, "Considering that there are many Germans in Milan, especially in the Milan base of the United Group, Employees, they will also become fans of United Milan in the future, so our initial direction of looking for players is German. The German national team, Austrian national team, and Swiss national team will be the key areas to consider, which may be a little different from the club’s original philosophy. Conflict, but times are changing day by day, and we must keep pace with the times. Who would have thought that football can also become a career?”

Everyone thought: The rumors from the outside world are quite good. The boss likes Germans very much. Not only do the workers choose Germans, but now even the foreign players like Germans. Only such people would stand up for Adolf Hitler, right?

"Finally, I have good news to tell you. I will continue to build the San Siro Stadium project that the club previously considered. However, there will be some adjustments to the design plan. The size of the stadium will be expanded, and the number of seats will be expanded from the original 35,000 to 50,000. , and retains the possibility of expanding to 70,000 in the future. The aesthetics and perfection will be further improved. The overall investment is approximately between 25 million and 30 million lire. More importantly, this stadium will be owned by Milan Club in the future. "Exclusive stadium!" Contini said with a smile, "Because the plan needs to be modified and improved, it may take two years to complete. Once completed, this will be the largest and most modern stadium in Italy, and I believe that United Milan will be worthy of its results." Going to this stadium will be worthy of the United Group!”

Everyone applauded enthusiastically!