Chapter 238: tickets sold out, Lin Feng's terrifying influence
"Is it true that this year's Super Cup will be played in the country?"
When Lin Feng heard the news, he was shocked.
This butterfly effect is too big. The Super Cup, which was originally scheduled to be held in China in 2009, was unexpectedly brought forward by three years.
To be honest, Lin Feng is not very optimistic about the cooperation between the two parties.
The reason why the 09 event was so successful was mainly because the Olympic Games had just been held, which ignited the people's enthusiasm for sports. In addition, years of economic development had improved people's living standards and they had some spare money to pursue sports and entertainment.
To be honest, in 2006, without the boost of the Olympics, it is hard to say how many fans there are for professional sports in China.
It can be predicted that this year's Super Bowl tickets will definitely not be cheap. The average ticket price may reach 800 or even 1000 RMB. This price is very expensive even in Europe, let alone in China.
"Haha, you seem to underestimate your influence. I bet that as long as you start in this Super Cup, there will be no problem selling tickets. Do you know how many fans you have in China?"
Big brother Lin Feng's opinion is completely opposite to Lin Feng's. He is very optimistic about the success of this Super Cup. When he heard the news, he almost broke his thigh: Why didn't I discover this business opportunity earlier?
“Do I have that many fans in the country?”
Lin Feng knows that he has many fans in China, but he feels that his influence in the domestic sports world is far less than that of real top stars such as Yao Ming and Liu Xiang.
The reason is simple. He has never played football in China, nor represented the national team in any international competitions, nor has he won any collective honors for the Chinese team.
The honors from low-level competitions such as the East Asian Cup and the East Asian Games naturally do not count. These are not international competitions at all. At best, they can only be regarded as regional-level competitions. Moreover, both the Japanese and South Korean teams like to send their second teams to participate in the competition and will not field all their main players.
Looking across Asia, the only truly valuable continental competitions are the Asian Cup and the Asian Games.
Both events have not started yet. The Asian Games will not start until December, and the Asian Cup will not start until next year.
In other words, Lin Feng currently has no honors in the national team.
They didn't even participate in the major competitions, let alone any honors, but they still have so many fans. Is this reasonable?
"Many, football originally had a great influence and audience in China, but in recent years, domestic football has experienced successive setbacks from the World Cup and Asian Cup, coupled with the prevalence of match-fixing, gambling and refereeing scandals in the league, which has led to a large number of fans leaving and switching to other sports events.
The unexpected popularity of basketball and track and field is due to the continued blood loss in the football circle and the driving effect of one or two talented athletes emerging, such as Yao Ming in basketball and Liu Xiang in track and field.
Now, football has its own talented players, so a large number of fans who were originally attracted by other sports have begun to pay attention to football again. These people came back because of you. Do you think they are your fans? "
Lin Feng was convinced because what his elder brother said made so much sense!
In his previous life, he watched NBA purely because of Yao Ming's influence. During that period, he would pay close attention to any Rockets game. He would either spend fifty cents to buy a sports newspaper and discuss the game with his classmates, or stop under the TV to watch the game while eating in the school cafeteria like many others.
But since Yao Ming retired, he seldom watched the NBA. After a few years, when most of the NBA players he knew retired, he never opened the NBA again. He even chose to swipe or even block the NBA news that he saw on a daily basis.
The same is true for track and field. Before Liu Xiang retired, he knew all the records of Liu Xiang's main opponent and the 110-meter hurdles.
After Liu Xiang retired, he immediately lost interest in athletics and never watched the 110-meter hurdles competition again.
The superstars in the sports world can really drive the development of a sport quickly within a short period of time.
When Lin Feng thought about himself becoming the Yao Ming of the football world, he couldn't help feeling a little proud.
Master Tao, I am done!
……
According to the regulations, the Italian Super Cup is between the league champion and the cup champion.
But last season Inter Milan was the double champion of Serie A, so the runner-up of the cup, Roma, replaced the cup champion and became Inter Milan's opponent in the Super Cup.
Roma is not an easy team to deal with. Inter Milan never got much advantage over them last season, and both games ended in a draw.
However, for Roma, Inter Milan ended their 11-game winning streak in the league, putting them just one step away from breaking the league record.
Secondly, Inter Milan defeated them in the Italian Cup final for two consecutive years, shattering their dream of winning the cup once again.
After suffering losses at the hands of Inter Milan repeatedly, the people of Roma are extremely resentful of Inter Milan and they are determined to avenge their defeat in this year's Super Cup.
This summer, Roma has not been idle. They first bought Cassetti from Lecce, loaned Vucinic, and then spent 1200 million euros to sign Pizarro from Inter Milan.
The biggest signing was Adriano, who was signed from Inter Milan for free. This signing was the biggest reinforcement for the Roma team.
Roma is not a wealthy team and has limited financial resources, but Spalletti, in line with the style of doing big things with little money, has made targeted reinforcements to address the problems that occurred in the team last season.
Of course he can't afford big-name stars, so he only looks at players with good ability and low price. If he follows the principle of inspecting the goods before paying, he will even give priority to renting these players when introducing them.
Consider buying it out after you have inspected the goods and are comfortable with them.
As for stars like Adriano who have proven themselves in Serie A and don't want money, they naturally have to sign them quickly, for fear that other teams will get there first if they act a second late.
In fact, Mancini was strongly opposed to Ader's transfer to Roma. The new season of Juventus has arrived and AC Milan started with a loss. In the entire league, the only team that poses a threat to Inter Milan is Roma.
Although Spalletti's Roma lineup is not as luxurious as some giants, its fighting power is quite good. Their 11 consecutive victories last season are proof of this.
The biggest problem that troubled Roma last season was their weak forward line. Now Inter Milan is sending their former main striker over for free. Isn't this a clear aid to the enemy?
Faced with Mancini's strong protest, Moratti did not stop the transfer.
Although he knew that Adriano's joining Roma would be detrimental to Inter Milan, he decided not to intervene because of Adriano's past contributions to Inter Milan.
Moratti's generosity has won praise from many people in Italian football.
Some of these compliments were sincere, but more of them were given out of a desire to just watch the fun and make trouble.
Everyone was worried that after the Calciopoli scandal, Serie A, which had suffered a huge blow, would lose its championship suspense and become a monopoly of Inter Milan. Especially with Inter Milan's massive recruitment this summer, such concerns have become more and more serious.
But now seeing Inter Milan actually doing such a foolish act of aiding the enemy, of course we applaud!
After all, every time the strength of Inter Milan's competitors increases, the suspense of the league will increase.
In consideration of the healthy and long-term development of Serie A, the league championship must still have suspense!
Although they know that this Super Cup is not a clash between top clubs like Inter Milan vs. Juventus or Inter Milan vs. AC Milan, Chinese fans' enthusiasm for buying tickets has not diminished in the slightest.
After the organizer opened the pre-sale, all the tickets were sold out in a very short time.
More than 7000 tickets were sold out in less than half a day, leaving many fans who had not received the news to regret it. They could only pay a higher price to buy tickets from scalpers, which made many ticket scalpers make a fortune. According to estimates based on the ticket prices, the box office revenue of this game may exceed million RMB!
This data shocked many people in the domestic sports circle.
They originally thought that the scale of the domestic sports market was not large, but this figure slapped them in the face and made them realize that it was not that the market was small, but that they had not developed it enough or were unable to provide it.
The reason why the ticket sales for this game are so hot is, firstly, because of the high quality of the game, and secondly, because of the high number of star players.
The match between two top Serie A teams for a championship is definitely more entertaining than a friendly match with a strong business atmosphere between European teams and weak local teams.
Moreover, both teams have a large number of big-name stars, including Lin Feng, Zanetti, Figo and Materazzi from Inter Milan.
Roma's Totti, De Rossi and others have many fans.
Being able to see their idols at their doorstep and enjoy their exciting games up close is almost the most attractive thing for fans.
So it’s understandable why the ball market is so hot!
This kind of high-quality competition cannot be provided in China.
Firstly, the level of the Chinese Super League is not that high, and fans who have experienced match-fixing and refereeing scandals are full of doubts about the fairness of their own league.
Secondly, there are very few stars in the Chinese Super League, most of whom are domestic stars. Due to the budget constraints of the clubs, there are almost no international big-name players. This is very different from the situation in the later era of gold-dollar football when international big-name stars gathered together.
But a living person cannot be suffocated to death by urine. If the conditions are not there, then create them.
If the environment is not good, then change it!
Starting from mid-August, with the influence of the Serie A phone-gate scandal, calls for punishing match-fixing and gambling have gradually become louder in the country.
And this time it was not just the fans who were the problem. Many news media in the media industry also got involved, exposing many shady dealings in match-fixing and gambling, which attracted even greater social attention.
As a result, the vigorous anti-corruption storm in the football world broke out three years ahead of schedule.
When Lin Feng learned the news, he was numb!
It's really like a butterfly in the Amazon flapping its wings, causing a strong wind to blow thousands of miles away.
The emergence of this butterfly has indeed brought about great changes in Chinese football, but I don’t know whether the final outcome will be good or bad!
……
After signing Barzagli, Inter Milan played several warm-up matches.
Mancini tried to pair Barzali with Materazzi, but the results were not very ideal.
Materazzi plays in an aggressive style and may be the defender who scores the most goals in Serie A. His excellent heading and set-piece abilities make him more willing to participate in offense than other defenders.
But as a defensive player, his first priority is defense.
If he rushes forward and cannot come back, and his opponent counterattacks, then his partner will have to clean up the mess for him.
Barzagli was very good at this in his prime and cleaned up Bonucci's mess many times, but Barzagli obviously doesn't have this ability now.
Moreover, Materazzi's performance in the defense line was very unstable.
When he is in good form, his fierce defense and aggressive kicking style make many forwards lose their threat in front of him.
But Materazzi's shortcomings are obvious. His rash movements and hot temper always create some accidents for both sides. Sometimes such accidents are beneficial to Inter Milan, but sometimes they also help the opponent score goals.
This made him the most unstable link in Inter Milan's defense, and he was even described by the Italian media as a time bomb in Inter Milan's defense.
Every time he makes a tackle in the penalty area, his teammates next to him are scared to death, but he dares to think and do it. The worst that can happen is that he will give the opponent a penalty kick!
After the World Cup, due to Zidane's shocking collision, Materazzi's reputation in the entire football world became very bad, and many fans even labeled him a villain.
Materazzi didn't care about this and continued to do his own thing with no intention of changing.
Mancini has a love-hate relationship with Materazzi. He understands that a defender like him must have someone behind him to clean up his mess.
So such a combination certainly doesn't work, Materazzi is not suitable to partner with Barzali.
Sure enough, the second game was much more normal with Samuel and Materazzi as partners, and the combination of Samuel and Barzagli was also good.
This made Mancini breathe a sigh of relief. It seemed that it was not a problem of ability, but purely a problem of people.
Central defenders need to have tacit understanding. Since Barzali and Materazzi's styles don't match, they can just be used separately in the future.
On August 8, Inter Milan faced their last opponent in the warm-up match - Portuguese Super League giants Sporting Lisbon at the Alvalade Stadium.
After this game, Inter Milan does not plan to return to Italy, but will fly directly from here to Shanghai to prepare for the Super Cup which will be held in Shanghai.
Since it was the last warm-up match, Mancini did not intend to conserve his strength in this game and he sent out the entire main lineup.
Sporting Lisbon obviously didn't want to lose at home, so they responded by sending out all their main players.
Both teams played very vigorously in this match. In the first half alone, they scored 5 goals, which made the fans who came to watch the game very excited.
Inter Milan continued to attack in the second half. In the 65th minute, in a counterattack, Torres received a pass from Lin Feng, ran 30 meters with the ball and shot into the goal, completing his first hat trick after joining Inter Milan.
In the 75th minute, Lin Feng assisted Materazzi with a header from a corner kick, completing his assist hat trick.
After scoring the goal, Materazzi was very excited. He took off his jersey, ran to the home team's stand, and showed his muscles to the fans who had mocked him throughout the game to express his disdain.
Go ahead and curse me, no matter how loudly you curse me, I still won the World Cup and scored a goal!
Just when Materazzi was feeling proud of himself, the referee thought he was provoking the fans and sent him off the field with a red card.
Now, the smiles shifted to the faces of the fans at the scene!
(End of this chapter)
