Chapter 1 Champions League Final

The Champions League final is nothing new to Liverpool fans; they experienced it just last season.

For them, it was truly a wonderful experience. They received the warmest welcome in faraway Russia.

Zenit St. Petersburg fans helped them turn the Gazprom Arena into Anfield.

But this time, they won't be so lucky.

This season's Champions League final will be held in Milan, Italy, at the San Siro, the home stadium of both Milan clubs.

Logically, Napoli fans should be able to easily travel to Milan to support Chen Yingxiong.

But that's not the case.

UEFA clearly learned from last season's Champions League final experience, and this time they have reserved very, very few tickets for neutral fans.

Generally, the Champions League final allocates a fixed number of tickets to the fans of the two participating teams, and the remaining tickets are sold publicly, except for those given to sponsors, to facilitate neutral fans.

But this time, UEFA slightly adjusted the ticket allocation rules, dashing the hopes of Napoli fans to cheer for Chen Yingxiong.

The San Siro can accommodate more than 85,000 people. UEFA allocated as many as 25,000 tickets to the fans of each participating team.

Each team will have 25,000 fans coming to Milan to cheer for their team.

That's 50,000 tickets gone.

The remaining 35,000 tickets were allocated to sponsors, 28,000 of them. UEFA explained that this was a rare peak showdown, and the sponsors reacted enthusiastically. In order to meet the sponsors' requirements as much as possible, they specially reserved a larger portion of tickets.

This explanation wasn't too problematic. Although UEFA was blatantly flattering the sponsors, in today's world, it is difficult to do anything without money, and football is highly commercialized. It is understandable to please the big spenders, even if it means losing some box office revenue. Pleasing the sponsors will eventually recoup the original investment from sponsorship fees.

Thus, less than 7,000 tickets were left for neutral fans—and some seats are not for sale, mainly for safety reasons. The stadium cannot be truly full, otherwise, in case of an emergency, evacuation would be difficult due to the lack of sufficient space in the stadium, leading to crowding.

These 7,000 tickets are for sale worldwide, meaning that not only local Italian fans can buy them, but fans from all over the world can order them online and by phone.

There is no way Napoli fans could buy up all these six thousand tickets.

As a result, the phenomenon of Liverpool fans far outnumbering Barcelona fans, as seen last season, will not occur in the stands.

Liverpool will not be able to turn the final venue into their home ground again.

This shows the extent to which UEFA has gone to suppress Liverpool.

But Liverpool is not the kind of team that cannot survive without home advantage.

So UEFA's actions are destined to be futile.

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Three days before the start of the match, Real Madrid arrived in Milan ahead of schedule, the final venue. Thanks to Mourinho's good relationship with Inter Milan, Real Madrid obtained permission to use various facilities at Inter Milan's training base.

Liverpool did not receive such treatment.

Originally, Liverpool also planned to contact a club in Milan to see if they could rent their training ground, even if they had to pay.

But they were rejected by both Milan clubs.

Inter Milan rejected them because Real Madrid had already made arrangements with Inter Milan. Given their relationship with Mourinho, they would naturally not help Mourinho's enemies.

AC Milan rejected their request for a simpler reason.

Because of Chen Yingxiong.

AC Milan dislikes Chen Yingxiong very much, or rather... in the entire Italian football scene, except for Napoli, all other teams dislike Chen Yingxiong very much.

Chen Yingxiong has no friends in Italian football.

So AC Milan rejected Liverpool.

As an Italian, Niang immediately understood why.

So he stopped considering finding a training ground in Italy to prepare for the Champions League.

One must have integrity. Since the other party hates them, why should they force themselves on them?

Besides, Italy is not far from England, unlike last season in faraway Russia, and there is no need to go a few days in advance for training.

We Liverpool, even if we rush over to adapt to the venue the day before the match, can still win the championship!

Niang believes that as a team aiming to dominate Europe, they must have such confidence.

So Liverpool stopped looking for other teams' training bases and instead made their final preparations at their own Melwood training base.

In fact, doing so is more effective than going to Milan to find other teams' training bases for training. Because everyone is familiar with everything at Melwood, they don't need to re-adapt to a completely new training base.

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Originally, Chen Yingxiong was unaware of the news that AC Milan had rejected them, because this matter was only at Niang's level, and only Niang and the other party's contact person knew about it.

But for some reason, perhaps because of AC Milan's hatred for Chen Yingxiong, or perhaps to see Chen Yingxiong and Liverpool make fools of themselves.

In short, the matter was leaked by the media.

Then Liverpool became a laughingstock throughout Europe!

Actively contacting the other club to obtain their permission to use their training base is a very normal thing. Generally, when asked, they would agree. After all, who knows if they will have to borrow someone else's training base one day? Helping others is helping yourself.

Therefore, being rejected is a rare and unimaginable thing.

Who would have thought that Liverpool would actually be rejected by AC Milan?

For Liverpool, this is a great humiliation, but for those who hate Liverpool, this is truly "joyful to see."

Liverpool has been so strong this season, everyone wants to see them suffer. But the chances of seeing them suffer on the field are very low, so seeing them embarrassed off the field is also a gratifying thing.

So this was originally a small matter, but with the media's ulterior motives, it suddenly became a very big deal.

Everyone ridiculed Liverpool's poor popularity.

"As a century-old English powerhouse, to encounter such a thing... I don't want to say this is AC Milan's rudeness, I just want to say that Liverpool should take a good look at themselves! What has led them to this point?"

"The matter of Liverpool being rejected by AC Milan has continued to ferment in the past two days, and people from all walks of life have stood up to express their opinions. Some support AC Milan, some sympathize with Liverpool. What I want to say is that AC Milan is one of the most gentlemanly teams I have ever seen. When they made this decision, there must be a reason... What is the reason? The reason is Chen Yingxiong. Yes, this Chinese is the poison of the century-old English powerhouse! He provokes everywhere, making countless enemies! Such a person is simply a disgrace to professional players! And Liverpool actually made such a scumbag the core of the team. When they made this decision, they should have known that today would come sooner or later!"

"AC Milan must hate Chen Yingxiong to the bone. Whether in Napoli or Liverpool, he has repeatedly ruined AC Milan's good deeds... So I think it is very normal for AC Milan to reject Liverpool's request. But did Liverpool's general manager Niang have a brain fart? How could he go to AC Milan?"

……

Although there were voices of injustice for Liverpool, in the huge wave of ridicule, these voices were insignificant.

Before the Champions League final, everyone thought there was nothing to hype. Who would have thought that such a thing would pop up just before the start of the match?

This is really a "big deal."

Everyone invested great enthusiasm in paying attention. Whether it's the media or the fans.

The same is true on the Internet, with Liverpool supporters and fans of other teams stirring up a storm, causing an uproar.

Similarly, a large number of reporters flocked to the outside of Liverpool's training base, wanting to interview Liverpool players to see what they thought of this matter.

What else can they think?

The entire Liverpool club was overwhelmed by this sudden incident.

In the beginning, when the media kept calling Niang's office, he was caught off guard—he didn't even know that the news was circulating outside.

Then, after he learned about the matter from the reporters, he directly slammed the phone down.

He was furious, and then immediately called AC Milan to question why they had leaked the matter.

The other party acted very innocent, claiming that they absolutely did not deliberately leak it, and that the omnipotent media must have used some despicable means to secretly dig it out...

In short, they completely shirked the responsibility.

But how could Niang not know the truth? He can only regret that he should not have gone to AC Milan in the first place.

Misfortune to meet such a person!

Obviously, everyone is now watching Liverpool make fools of themselves.

But what can he do? Deny it outright? No, that would only make others laugh even louder. Because Liverpool doesn't even have the courage to admit it, how weak is that.

But if he admits it, wouldn't that give more people an excuse to laugh at Liverpool?

He is even thinking now if Spain deliberately used this to interfere with Liverpool's preparations... Otherwise, how could the news have first come from the Spanish media?

This club manager, who always manages to keep everything under control, is feeling a headache for the first time...