In the room on the 20th floor of the hotel, Twain and Allan were looking at each other. There was no one else in this standard room except the two of them, and they could talk about some very private topics. In fact, Allan Adams was definitely not looking for Tony Twain to reminisce about the past, but to talk about business — there was almost no possibility of talking about private matters between them.
"Is what you said true?" Twain's tone was full of doubts.
"You know I never joke, Tony." Allan shook his head, his expression serious, and it did not seem like he was joking.
Hearing him say so, Twain frowned.
He had never heard of such a thing, but it was really placed in front of him.
Allan told Twain that due to the recent domestic football environment in China, the China Football Association hoped to use this game to re-establish its image. When Twain heard this, he almost wrote out loud, "They still have an image?" So, he listened to Allan's words as a joke. In fact, things about the China Football Association were basically jokes. There were nonsense styles, deep black humor, and, of course, corny jokes.
But what Allan said next made Twain unable to laugh, "… They want us to tie with the China Olympic team in this game."
The words made Twain frown all of a sudden.
Determine the outcome of the game?
But it was not difficult from a technical point of view. "Just make a big rotation. If I go to the Second Team, the China Olympic team will be able to force a tie, right? I can also train the players at the same time … "
"No, Tony. If you go to the Second Team, our commercial game plan will be hit hard. Aide wants us to try our best to send all the main force. "
"Huh?" Twain stood up from the sofa. "Send all the main force to tie with the China Olympic team? Are you insulting the strength of our team? "
Allan waved for him to sit down, "That's why I have to discuss it with you. I understand your temper, but I hope you can cooperate once. This is important for us to open up the China market. You know, in China, no matter who you cooperate with, you can't bypass the authorities … "
Twain sat down again, tilted his head and looked at Allan Adams opposite him, "Your understanding of China has really improved a lot. I understand you."
Seeing that Tang En did not get angry, Allan continued, "You can do it a little more skillfully and make the game exciting. You can score a lot of goals. Then … In the second half, you can start substituting players. You can replace the main players, try out the new line-up, and observe the new players. Didn't you bring a few youth team players? You can take this opportunity to observe their abilities … You are the manager, you are more professional than me, you should know what to do. Then … it actually didn't have any negative impact on our image. After all, the team that was forced into a draw was actually the second-string team … "
Twain interrupted him. "Does the China Olympic team know about this?"
Allan shook his head. "They won't know. The China Football Association's requirement for them is to work hard and develop …"
"Develop your style, play with style, study hard, sum up your experience …" Twain said it for him. He could recite this set of rhetoric.
At this point, he suddenly thought of a memory that had been sealed away for ten years.
In the early days of the professionalization of China's football, in addition to the emerging professional league that awakened the enthusiasm of Chinese fans for football, there was another thing that was an important witness of that era … It could even be said to be a landmark of that era.
That was the commercial football competition that was popular all over China.
From Sampdoria's visit to China in 1994 until Maradona led Boca Juniors to China's "Great Wall Tour" in 1997. China's football went through a dream-like era. "Invincible Workers' Stadium" was the famous slogan of that era. Sampdoria, AC Milan, Arsenal, Penarol, and Grêmio all lost to China's teams at the Workers' Stadium. The victories against foreign strong teams during this period greatly boosted the confidence and enthusiasm of China's fans, which directly ignited the fiery 1994 and 1995 Serie A.
Many people were immersed in the joy of defeating the world's strong teams and even believed that the level of China's football had reached such a height. But after Grêmio lost to China's Guoan in 1996, the competitive Scolari angrily lashed out at the press conference because of the many controversial decisions that were favorable to the Guoan team in the game. It also completely shattered the China fans' beautiful vision of the commercial game. "I finally understand why so many strong teams lose here. If you can only watch the referee win, then I believe you will never have a chance to enter the World Cup finals, never! "
Immediately afterward, in order to prove that Scolari was definitely not venting because of the loss, the England national team, with its full main lineup, defeated the China national team with three goals at the Workers' Stadium, thoroughly showing the China fans the nature of the commercial game.
In the end, the world's strong teams visited China for money. Who would really compete with a team from a country that was backward in football? What's more, the players who played on the field had to worry that they might be injured because of the opponent's intense actions, so their strength was naturally greatly reduced.
As for whether the Chinese Football Association had made any deals with the teams that came to China in private, Tang En, a commoner, did not know. But now, he had become the first.
Tang En was not surprised that such a thing happened under the banner of the Olympics. After all, some time ago, the China Olympic team and the national team had scandals one after another, and the image of China's football had plummeted. If they could draw with the world's strong teams when the Olympics were about to begin, it would be a good stimulus for the fans and could also accumulate some confidence for the China Olympic team, which was about to fight for the country.
From this point of view, it was completely understandable that the Chinese Football Association wanted the game to be a draw. After all, these people had never seen football as football, and the rules of the football world were naturally just farts in their eyes. In their minds, the football game should be able to listen to their arrangements, whether it was the result or the process, whether it was the environment or the players, coaches, referees, these individuals … all had to listen to them.
Seeing Tang En suddenly fall silent, Allan did not continue. He was waiting for Tang En's answer.
Tang En withdrew from his memories and looked up to see Allan sitting opposite him.
"Okay, Allan. I'll definitely give them this face. "Tang En winked at Allan and smiled.
Allan put down his shoulder and finally had a smile on his face.
※ ※ ※
Nottingham Forest would only stay in China for five days, but there would be a lot of things waiting for them, and time was very tight. Aide Company and Allan arranged a very dense schedule for the Forest team, which would make an ordinary person unconsciously think that these people could split themselves.
The team attended the welcome dinner hosted by the municipal government on the night of their arrival in Ningbo, and then returned to the hotel to rest.
The next morning, the team went to Ningbo Fubang Stadium for training to adapt to the venue. This training session was open to the public, but tickets were required to enter the stadium to watch. The ticket price ranged from 50 to 300 yuan, and the scalpers could inflate the ticket prices even higher. Because there was Beckham, van Nistelrooy, van der Vaart, George Wood, Franck Ribéry … and many other star players, their appeal to the fans was a tool for the businessmen to make money.
After the morning training ended, the team would attend a luncheon hosted by a certain China sponsor for this event after changing their clothes at noon. At the luncheon, Tang En and Allan would represent the entire Nottingham Forest team to sign a three-year endorsement contract with the other party. For the next three years, the image of the entire Nottingham Forest team would be used by this company for commercial publicity in China.
After a simple afternoon training session, some of the people could return to the hotel to rest, while others still had to busy themselves. Beckham had to attend a promotional event for a certain brand he was endorsing. Dunn, on the other hand, was invited by China's national television to record a program about his work and life at the English Premier League champion, Nottingham Forest. George Wood and Tony Twain would attend the signing ceremony for the completion of the Armani store at the commercial street of Yihe Avenue in Haishu District, Ningbo. Because both of them were Armani's image endorsers, today was just the signing of the agreement. The store would have to wait until April next year to be completed and meet with the consumers.
The players did not have to attend any activities that night. They had the entire night to do whatever they wanted. It was believed that most of them would choose to go shopping together. But even so, they could not relax much. Also, there would be many media outlets following along the way, reporting on how they spent and shopped. The news would appear on television, newspapers, the internet, and other media platforms the next day.
Tang En, on the other hand, had to follow Evan and Allan, the two club's top executives to attend a celebrity gathering. This kind of activity was the least Tang En's forte, but he could not refuse.
There was no training on the third morning. All the players had to change their clothes and visit the University of Nottingham Ningbo branch campus in Ningbo Higher Education Park. In the school's stadium, the players would play a small game with the local university students. For example, Beckham would teach free kicks and select five players to have a simple 50-50 match with the university students.
After a simple lunch at noon, the team returned to Fubon Stadium in the afternoon to continue their open training. Fans who bought tickets for the previous day's training could directly enter the stadium with their tickets. Those who lost or did not buy tickets had to buy new tickets.
After the training, the players had to immediately rush to Ningbo's Enmei Welfare Home to interact with the orphans there, give them gifts, and show their love.
In the evening, after a simple dinner in the car, the team had to rush to the television station to record a program with the selected lucky fans. The duration was about three and a half to four hours. By the time these people returned to the hotel, exhausted, it was already late at night.
On the fourth morning, they continued their training at Fubon Stadium, but this time, the training was not open to the public. This was because Tang En would arrange the detailed tactics for the night's game during this training session. According to the usual practice, such trainers would never be made public. That was why Aide Company didn't sell the training course to them.
After lunch in the afternoon, the players rested in the hotel to prepare for the night's game. As for Tony Twain, he had to attend a press conference. This was the press conference to announce the partnership between Nottingham Forest and Zhejiang's local professional football club, Greentown.
In fact, to put it bluntly, Greentown became the Forest team's satellite club in China.
This was a major event involving football in Zhejiang Province, and Tang En had to attend.
After a simple dinner in the evening, the team would drive to Fubon Stadium. The highlight of the China trip finally came — a friendly match against the China Olympic team, which had been training for several months, at Fubon Stadium in Ningbo City.
As Nottingham Forest had won the Champions League title for two years in a row and the league title this year, they achieved the Double. For a time, they were in the limelight, and their popularity in China soared rapidly. Coupled with the fact that the other side of the game was the highly anticipated China Olympic team, the football market was hot. Originally, Fubon Stadium could accommodate 30,000 people, and the organizers had specially added a ring of grandstands on the track. Of the 40,000 tickets, 35,000 were sold. In today's days when commercial football was becoming less and less popular, this result should be considered excellent.
Aide Company suffered a double loss when they operated Real Madrid's second visit to China a few years ago. This time, they finally made it back with Nottingham Forest.
Early in the morning of the fifth day, Nottingham Forest would pack up and fly directly from Ningbo Yeshe International Airport to Tokyo, Japan. It began their four-day and four-night frenzy to make money in Japan.
※ ※ ※
As you can see on the schedule above, these few days were a tough test for the players — wrong, Beckham had such an experience, so he was able to cope with it — but the others were much worse. They were all as tired as dogs.
In front of people, under the spotlight, under the camera lens, under the full attention of the media, they smiled at various occasions, tirelessly signed autographs for the fans, and satisfied their requests for photos. They were careful to maintain their image in the eyes of the public.
When they showed their love in the orphanage, everyone was very serious, and no one did it perfunctorily because they were too tired. This was what Tang En was most proud of. Beckham, in particular, was simply the best example for his other teammates. No matter how many people surrounded him and pestered him, no matter what requests the fans made, he would always smile and try his best to satisfy them. He had never been seen to show the slightest impatience when he was the center of attention because of his fatigue.
In the orphanage, he was the most famous, and also the most popular among the children. In front of the children with abnormal intelligence and physical disabilities, he treated them like his own children.
George Wood was a little clumsy, but he worked hard.
These players only had time to eat on the way to the television station. But many of them did not have the appetite to eat at all. After they got on the car, they waved to the children, fans, and reporters who were seeing them off. When the car finally drove out of people's sight, these dedicated "actors" leaned back in their seats and fell asleep.
A few years later, when these star players were asked to recall their trip to China in the summer of 2008, what would the only thing that would remain in their minds?
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