Chapter 109 Big Prize

The betting companies finally took a fancy to the Chinese team. This time, the major European betting companies offered a handicap of half for the Chinese team and half for Portugal. They believe that the Chinese team has a greater chance of winning the World Cup.

The Chinese team will face the Portuguese team in the final of the World Cup in Russia. It is widely optimistic before the game. The odds offered by bookmakers for the Chinese team to win the championship are 1.44 to 1, while the odds offered for the Portuguese team are only 2.75 to 1. If everything goes well, Dong Fangzhuo and his teammates will create new history and win two consecutive World Cup titles? There are currently only two countries that can do this.

The first team was Italy, in 1934 and 1938.

The host country of the 1934 World Cup was Italy. At that time, 16 teams participated. In the end, the host Italy defeated Czechoslovakia 2-1 at the National Stadium in Rome and won the second World Cup.

The 1938 World Cup was hosted by France, with 15 participating teams. Italy reached the final for the second consecutive time. In the end, Italy defeated Hungary 4-2 at the Olympic Stadium in Cote d'Or in Paris, becoming the first team in the history of the World Cup to successfully defend the title.

The second team was Brazil, in 1958 and 1962.

There were 16 participating teams in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. In this tournament, the 17-year-old Brazilian genius Pele turned out to be a hero. In the end, Brazil defeated the host Sweden 5-2 in the final and won the first place in the history of the national team. A World Cup champion.

The 1962 World Cup was held in Chile. Brazil and Czechoslovakia stood out among the 16 participating teams and reached the finals. This was Brazil's third World Cup final, and Czechoslovakia's second. In the end, Brazil overturned Czechoslovakia 3-1 at the National Stadium in Santiago, becoming the second team in World Cup history to successfully defend the title.

Then there is Brazil. After failing to defend the title in 1998, they made a comeback in 2002. They defeated Germany 2-0. In 2006, they defeated Italy 1:0 in Germany and successfully defended the title again.

Therefore, before 2018, only two countries had defended their title. Now, it is the Chinese team's turn to have such an opportunity. Once they defeat the Portuguese team, they will successfully defend their title. This is of course an amazing achievement.

This is also the second time in a row that Dong Fangzhuo has brought the Chinese team to the finals of the competition.

In this World Cup, the Chinese team can be said to have defeated all the favorites, defeating Spain in the group stage, Uruguay in the round of 16, Belgium in the quarter-finals, France in the semi-finals, and Portugal in the final.

Although the Chinese team lost to Portugal in the group stage, it was a strategic abandonment and did not have a real fight with Portugal.

But this final is different, the winner is the winner and the loser is the loser.

On the other hand, Portugal's opponents are actually not strong. They are all Sweden and Croatia. It can only be said that Portugal has quite good luck, as well as Ronaldo's god-level performance. If Portugal and China switch half of the zone, maybe the Chinese team's opponent will not be Portugal, and they may not be able to get through so many teams. That's why Portugal tried to beat China in the group stage, because they wanted that half, and they managed to do that.

There are two major factors for the Chinese team to advance to the finals. The first factor is naturally solid defense and team spirit, and the second factor is the god-level Dong Fangzhuo.

In fact, the characteristics of these two teams are very similar, both are solid defense and the performance of superstars.

Before the final, Dong Fangzhuo accepted a rare interview with Italy's "Gazzetta dello Sport".

"If we get that star (an extra star will be embroidered on the jersey after winning the championship), I don't care how we play."

"I think Portugal thinks the same way. They are more desperate than we are."

"Defense wins championships, right?"

Dong Fangzhuo even chatted in a joking tone.

"This is the final. No one dares to take it lightly. The final is an unknown game. I think the game on that day will be boring and boring."

From what he means, we know that the Chinese team will continue to focus on defensive counterattacks.

Coincidentally, in Portugal, head coach Santos also responded to Dong Fangzhuo.

"Dong is right,"

"Defense wins championships, but someone has to step up and score goals..."

"At that time, you may see two teams each leaving ten people to defend in the backcourt, and then one player will look for opportunities to counterattack..."

"Well, I can't imagine that either."

"But I don't think regular time will end with a score of 0:0."

"I heard that in order to stimulate Chinese players, they will reward the player who scores a goal in the final with 10 million euros? This is terrible..."

"Win one goal is 10 million, win two goals is 20 million... God!"

When Santos talked about this, he could only shake his head helplessly. There was really nothing he could do against the wealthy Chinese team. Than bonus? Portugal won't even look at the prize money for winning the championship.

In fact, the World Cup bonuses for this tournament are quite large. The winning team can directly receive a bonus of 38 million euros, which is a huge income for any country, but the Chinese team scored a goal in the final. The bonus is almost catching up...

How rich is the World Cup? One number can prove everything. The total prize money of the World Cup is as high as 791 million U.S. dollars, and the 32 teams participating in the World Cup can share 400 million U.S. dollars in this more than one month of competition.

How are the World Cup prizes divided? There is a lot of mystery here, the distribution method is dazzling, and it is not a simple "big pot meal". The bonuses received by players who work hard on the court may be completely different from what many people imagine. Among them, the champion team will finally receive a bonus of US$38 million, accounting for 9.5% of the total bonus, while the runner-up team will also receive a bonus of US$28 million, accounting for 7% of the total bonus.

At this World Cup, FIFA invested a total of US$791 million in the prize pool. Compared with the 2014 World Cup in Brazil (US$576 million), FIFA has spent a lot of money. The amount of prize money is astonishing. Compared with the last World Cup in Brazil, which was US$150 million higher than the World Cup in South Africa, the increase has also increased significantly, increasing by nearly 40% in one go.

The reason why FIFA issues large bonus orders is to a large extent with the intention of "buying people's hearts". In the past year, FIFA has been plagued by corruption rumors for a long time. Many senior officials have been jailed, and current leaders, including Infantino, have been raided by law enforcement agencies more than once. The host country, Russia, has also been repeatedly targeted by Western countries due to various political disputes. The United Kingdom, Iceland, etc. have officially announced boycotts of the World Cup before the start of the World Cup. In order to save the reputation of FIFA and the World Cup, FIFA behaved quite generously in this World Cup.

But FIFA has its own confidence in boasting about Haikou. Troubled by corruption scandals, many traditional sponsors such as Sony terminated cooperation with FIFA. But emerging sponsors from China and Russia have succeeded in filling their void, and are offering terms no less favorable than those of their predecessors. Chinese companies such as Mengniu Group and Wanda Group have spent a lot of money to enter the international football stage, and Gazprom, which is inextricably linked to the Russian government, has also generously contributed to the World Cup.

Of the nearly US$800 million, US$209 million was used for the "Club Income Plan". The beneficiaries of this bonus are not the national football associations, but the clubs where the participating players are located, and are distributed based on the number of appearances and the number of games. In the past, national football associations and major clubs often ran into conflicts. Many clubs did not want their star players to be recruited by the national team because the high-intensity games would affect their status. But this time, FIFA used money to settle this problem. Players participating in the World Cup can also benefit clubs.

Anyway, in this World Cup, everyone can share the money...

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