Chapter 482: Chapter 481: Home Field Empty? No Way!
"The Lisbon Sporting Tragedy: Escaped Kaiserslautern but Not Leverkusen! Former Kaiserslautern Star Player Ballack Refuses to Discuss Bayern Issues!"
"Bayern Interested in Signing Ballack, Ballack Scores Over Twenty Goals and Provides More Than Ten Assists in All Competitions This Season!"
Leverkusen had taken over Lisbon Sporting, becoming the biggest winner of the Champions League this season.
As long as they had made it to the top four of the Champions League, the market value of their players would rise by at least two or three million euros.
The value of core players could even multiply several times—provided they weren’t poached by Bayern.
Perhaps many people are annoyed by Bayern’s reputation as the "Bundesliga Excavator", wondering why it’s only Bayern who ends up with such a bad name when everyone is bringing in great players.
For instance, Dortmund also poaches players, Werder Bremen does the same, and the big clubs from other leagues do too.
But it’s really not quite the same.
When other clubs bring in reinforcements, it’s called signing players, but only when Bayern does it, it’s called poaching.
That’s because Bayern’s signings have two characteristics: the first one is that the transfer fee is significantly below market value.
This isn’t just leveraging the team’s appeal—Real Madrid, Manchester United, and Juventus also have appeal, but why are their signings at market value or even at a premium?
Here, Bayern takes advantage of their regional influence and a series of peripheral tactics beyond that influence, such as the control over national team player spots.
To say that the Bundesliga is their youth training ground is not an exaggeration.
The second characteristic is that Bayern’s signings are often key players from Bundesliga teams that pose a threat to their dominance.
They maintain their Bundesliga dominance not through sport alone, although they could continue to dominate purely on sporting merits.
This isn’t about being stronger than a strong opponent but about being strong and still weakening your adversaries, which runs counter to the essence of sport: "Citius, Altius, Fortius."
The effect of such signings means that even if these core players are of no use to Bayern, they will have still dismantled your lineup and defused your threat to us.
Kaiserslautern, Leverkusen, Werder Bremen, Schalke 04, and Dortmund all fell apart this way.
Poaching one or two such key players does more damage than buying half of your team.
When Barcelona did this once to Arsenal, people nailed them to the shame pole of transfer history.
Bayern...well, let’s just say they’ve gotten a bargain and needn’t play the victim.
It’s actually pretty cool to be openly known as an excavator; many big clubs envy and cannot replicate this kind of environment.
...
On April 7th, the 30th round of the Primeira Liga.
Matthaus returned from injury, while Deng Kai was still out.
Lisbon Sporting defeated Maritimo two-nil, bringing their league points up to sixty-seven, six points ahead of Porto.
In theory, they could clinch the Primeira Liga title as early as their next match.
After the game, the media captured the scene outside Estádio Alvalade, sparking discussions.
Around the Estádio Alvalade, concert-level stages were set up in the north, south, east, and west.
There were big screens, sound systems, seating, and standing areas all in place.
In terms of size, they could accommodate tens of thousands of people combined.
"Dongqiudi" reported on the origins and developments of this project, "Estádio Alvalade faces Champions League sanctions, hosting games without fans."
"Considering the fans’ feelings and the team’s life-and-death situation, and already suffering a two million euro loss in ticket sales, the club spent a huge sum to build four concert-level temporary stages, offering them to fans for free."
"Priority seating is arranged for registered fans of Lisbon Sporting, residents of Lisbon who have provided social security payments for two years or more, and fans of Chinese nationality, among others."
"We hope everyone will actively attend, show support outside the stadium, and be the team’s twelfth player!"
This move...
How to even describe this chaos!?
Barcelona and Bayer Leverkusen immediately filed complaints against Lisbon Athletic.
The latter’s complaint was justified, after all, playing at your empty home ground versus playing at a ground surrounded by tens of thousands of people is not the same.
The atmosphere of the stadium absolutely has a significant impact on the outcome of the game and the performance on the field.
But Barcelona... they’re simply unhappy with Lisbon Athletic’s exploiting of a loophole.
After all, their match was also played in an empty stadium.
In the first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, Manchester United won 2-0 at home against the Spanish team, Deportivo La Coruña.
Van Nistelrooy scored a goal to overtake C. Ronaldo and Henry, leading the Champions League top scorers with nine goals.
Liverpool won 1-0 at home against Real Madrid, with the Golden Boy Owen shining once again, sealing the deal with a decisive strike.
Barcelona won 3-1 away against Bayern Munich, with Quaresma descending like a deity, scoring twice and assisting once to earn man of the match.
Logically speaking, Barcelona’s match was the most stable.
Because not only did they secure a two-goal advantage, but they also had three precious away goals, making it truly hard for them to lose.
However, the empty stadium in the second leg gave Bayern a glimmer of hope.
The deserted Nou Camp could be full of uncertainties.
Given the same punishment, Lisbon Athletic found a way to circumvent it. Why couldn’t Barcelona?
This clever maneuver, at the very least in terms of attitude, showed that Lisbon Athletic took the game much more seriously than Barcelona.
Barcelona fans, unable to watch the game, were naturally dissatisfied.
Even the Barcelona players felt the club had not fully utilized its initiative and performed its functions, resulting in considerable dissatisfaction with the club management.
The general public believed that Lisbon Athletic’s management and marketing departments were leagues ahead of Barcelona’s.
Following Lisbon Athletic’s tactic, their registered fandom surged, and the number of fans on various platforms also significantly increased.
Every fan watching the game hopes to be treated with such earnest respect.
The Barcelona executives were speechless.
Lisbon Athletic lost a million or two euros on ticket sales.
But we lost what, fifty or sixty million euros!
How much did they spend on their stage?
Building our stage cost at least three to four times more than theirs.
And there’s management of personnel, project reporting, and so on... If you say it’s for Barcelona’s Champions League victory parade, then it’s worth the team’s trouble.
But for just a quarter-final second leg match, making such an effort, others might think Barcelona has never reached the quarter-finals or semi-finals!
Different scales, can’t make direct comparisons.
Smaller clubs have a more personal touch and better detail in their service.
But bigger clubs have a more prestigious reputation to maintain, more fans, which means more girls, and it’s also more conducive to playing frisbee with them in the second half of the day!
It’s like the same cost of hundreds of thousands, the domestic car sells for around that amount which is a fair deal to consumers, whereas Mercedes sells for over forty thousand but every night the owner can save from five hundred to two thousand, it’s the same principle.
On April 8th, Bayer Leverkusen arrived in Lisbon a day early to prepare for tomorrow’s game.
On the morning of April 9th, "Understanding Football Emperor" posted a photo on their top story.
The website crashed within three minutes.
Guess what it was?
